Ngoc Nguyen Cafe

It was like walking into a place in the past in another country was the feeling I had coming in here a few days ago. Bunch of middle aged old Vietnamese guys, huddled around a table probably chatting about life, this was the scene while my partner and I walked in. It was a very familiar smell for me when walking in, that of Chinese incense in the air mixed with another familiar scent, cigarette smoke, talk about bringing it back to the 90’s, or when smoking was allowed to be in restaurants (how long ago was this???), I thought I was in a ‘hole-​in-​the-​wall’ restaurant in Asia. Well I continued in and sat down as far as I could from the group of people, which really wasn’t that far as they were sitting in the centre.
When we sat down, my dear was wondering if they were opened for business as you could tell she was skeptical about being in here, in broken English, one of the men who was coming over said they were open and we asked for a menu, and the only thing that came out of the menu was ‘chicken or beef’ well this is going to make it extremely easy now! We went ahead with one order of the chicken, and I took in the sights of the place, and the chatter of the older men in the centre of the joint. It was like an old boy’s club reunion, who knows what they were talking about while we had put in our order, and the one man went to the kitchen to whip up what we ordered. I don’t know if he went upstairs, or hopped into his car into another restaurant but what came out was one of the more vibrant colored bowls of phở I have ever seen. Usually I would see a dish of bean sprouts coming to me at the same time, but there was none, only a lime wedge and some diced up chili peppers.
Something really odd happened, and it was either the interesting combination of incense, smoke, and (sniff, sniff, do I smell that???) skunky smell must have made everything look a lot better, the bowl was pretty big coming toward us, piping hot with steam coming out, clear to the bottom, as seeing right through the broth to the phở noodles, and the generous pieces of chicken with many finely diced green onions, with some bigger green onion pieces (some of the greenest of green onions I have ever seen!) it was amazing on the eyes, like someone used an HD filter, cause this bolw looked vivid in color (in some ways too good to the point of fake). The noodles had a great chew to them, not overcooked, not undercooked, the chicken was tender and soft, the broth gave no nasty sense of headache afterwards (no MSG… whoa…). For the one bowl of phở we had, it was tasty, it was a fair size, it tasted good, all happening at this place where we were the only patrons, yet a gathering of familiars was going on right in front of us.
I love walking into shady establishments, cause you really don’t know what your going to get, like this review, sitting down I was like WTF, and even after I left I thought WTF. The bowl of noodles cost me $ 8, I gave a dollar tip, this place is cash only, and he didn’t have any change in the till and had to ask one of his buddies at the table to spot me my change. I took a good look behind the till, into the kitchen, and the place was clean, saw some big pots, probably with the suprisingly good broth. It’s an odd place, but if you can get past the broken English, you may find something here, as long as you can get past the smoke and the intimidation of the males who sit around here. Shady yes, but they have to eat good too…

This by far is the sketchy-​est «restaurant» I’ve ever step my foot in. Why? When you walk into any eatery, you expect to smell food. Not this one. My partner and I walked in and all I smelled was a combination of cigarettes, Chinese incense, and POT. Yes, POT! Not only that we were intensely stared by a group of Vietnamese gangster looking «uncles» checking us out from head to toe. We said a table for two, which we politely parked as far away from the uncles as possible.
We weren’t given a menu because there was none. Beef or chicken? The owner-​looking uncle (with a big yellow jade dangling in front of his chest bone) asked us with a poker face. Chicken I said. Just one. Thank you. I said are you guys open for business? Because I really don’t want to be interrupting. He said no, then he left and went off preparing our food.
At this point I was prepared for the worst — food poisoning, serious diarrhea, kidnap perhaps. Not long later a big bowl of vibrant looking chicken breast phở arrived on our table. The broth was very clear, clean (free of MSG). the noodles were cooked to perfection (great chew), the chicken breast bits were evenly cut and not dry. This is a one solid phở. We weren’t given any bean sprouts, Thai basil. However, we were given some chopped chili peppers and a wedge of lime.
The food here is legit but I am not sure about the business. After our meal we went up to the cashier to pay. $ 8 in total. My partner gave a $ 10 bill. The owner was frantically trying to go through a drawer full of small change. He had to ask his buddy sitting at the «gangster table’ for spare change to give back to us.
I don’t know where they are taking out their food but it’s delicious. Will I go back? Probably not. The gangster looking uncles scared the shit out of me enough.
And no food poisoning! Thank god.

Yes, another glorious hole in the wall phở place in, where else, Kingsway ;)
though it can be a bit grimey, still is kinda comfortable. not pretentious.
Ordered their special phở, have to say it’s a bit on the smaller side, even their 1-​size only. decent taste…
what was better was their sandwich, esp. the bun, nice and warm, and soft.
But the best was the iced coffee, now in my top 5. Good coffee burnt flavour, not too sweet.
Will return, pretty casual here.

Came here on a whim. It’s located in a corner along Kingsway, where half the Vietnamese places in Vancouver are located.
Parking isn’t too bad on the street, but I think I took the last spot.
The inside smells like incense, and the customers were most definitely speaking Vietnamese and Cantonese with a Vietnamese accent, so you know this is the real deal. Oh, and there are neon signs, so you know it’s authentic.
There are only 6 dishes available, and 6 beverages available, so you can literally come here and pick what you’ll have with a roll of the dice.
I had the beef ball /​flank /​steak phở. It was served with fresh bean sprouts + chili + basil, and was actually quite good. The soup didn’t taste as MSG-​laced as other places, but wasn’t bad. However, I did remember that places in Vietnam had more MSG.
For a drink, I had their iced coffee. Unlike every other Vietnamese place, they served this one pre-​made. It was a glass of ice coffee (black) halfway, but filled to the brim with ice. It was different, but this was the shocker. The coffee was STRONG. This is probably one of the better ones. Now you know why the Americans lost the Vietnamese war. Ho Chi Minh himself would be proud.
I will definitely be back. The food was surprisingly good, so I can’t wait to see what else this place has to offer!