Red Pagoda

Very uncoordinated, distracted and neglectful service. Eventually gave up and ordered at the counter. Menu limited and boring, and the food I ordered (phở ga) not very much or very good for the price. Overall underwhelming and disappointing. Several (Vietnamese) places on commercial drive are better than this.

Quite possibly the worst service I’ve ever experienced. I could care less about the food, which was just okay, but the service was awful. I was going to complain directly to the staff when I went up to pay but they wouldn’t stop talking to each other long enough for me to interrupt. It’s rare that I leave without tipping but these guys did nothing at all to warrant such an act of kindness. Never going back and you should stay away as well

I was contacted by the owner, in regards to my above post. He apologized and agreed that «items not on the menu should be charged accordingly and within reason». He told me to come back for a refund.
Thank you Jonathan, and Red Pagoda.

I used to live near by and have to say their phở is pretty good. Get the appetizer platter. It comes with springrolls, calamari and fried flat samosa look a like thing. Not to mentions the décor is quite nice.
I found out about this place because when they first opened they had a groupon promo. Yup good groupon introduced this place to me.
Service is good to too but not great great. When they are really busy its hard to get a hold of someone for water. Probably because they are short staffed.

Came by for some phở goodness.
Parking is available on the side streets.
The place is a bit on the dirty side (sticky tables and dirty looking floor), but it’s Vietnamese food after all. With that said, the décor is classy, with nice padded chairs and dark wood for the furniture.
Staff were friendly. The waiter was very helpful with the food selection.
Spring roll — great presentation. 6 half-​rolls arranged in a star, with some garnish. Nice and crunchy. Delicious.
Hot and sour soup — this is definitely different, and something special. As weird as it sounds, there are no noodles at all in the soup. The bowl is instead filled with prawns (for $ 2 or so more), green onions, tomatoes, onions, and a ton of celery. Doesn’t sound too filling, but this was great. Ingredients were tasty, and everything came together surprisingly well. The soup was definitely on the tomatoey side (I was expecting something more light and tangy), but this dish works very well. Definitely worth a try.
***update***
Yikes, I wish I had read Steven L’s review before eating here. If true, that is absolutely disgusting. Someone should report that to the health inspectors. Drop from 4 stars to 3.

So amazingly delicious and great prices. I love this place.
I had the pagoda chicken noodle with quail eggs and a few apps and it was absolutely delicious.
I will definitely go back many times.

Team Tastic came here for a dinner and I got a taste of the following:
Phở Tai + added Gan ($ 8.50 + $ 2.00)
Spring Rolls ($ 6)
I didn’t see my usual Phở with beef and tendon toppings so I had to add the option in here to compare them properly. The looks decent here with the usual fare of cilantro, onions, and scallions in the beef broth. There was a good amount of both tendon and beef but at a collective price of $ 10.50 it’s a little on the steep side considering most places let you have both the toppings for around $ 8. Noodles were chewy and the broth tasted very beefy. I’d put this around the level of Petit Saigon but with the pricing of Lotus. I’m a little torn that they don’t have a Phở Tai Gan option and that I have to pay 25% extra for this luxury if I don’t want the house special broth with everything in it.
To my horror, the Spring Rolls came without any fish sauce. With a bead of sweat going down my cheek, I signalled to our server that something had gone wrong. Thankfully, he knew exactly what had happened and arrived with another plate of fish sauce. Crisis avoided. In any case, these were made with some pretty good spring roll paper but they were a little smaller than my favourites at Song Huong. The angled cuts made them look prettier than the average spring roll so they got points for presentation.

I have two words… satay phở. It’s so delicious! The staff is lovely. It can get very busy, so you have to be patient with the servers. But, the food is always quick and delicious. It’s my go to phở spot!

Seeing some of the reviews above I’d like to say that they’ve cleaned up the joint a bit since these last reviews. I eat here often. The food is good. The staff always helps me pick food for my mood which is silly but they’re very helpful anyways. Its filling and yummy food.

Quality! Cosy, friendly atmosphere at this Vietnamese restaurant on Commercial Drive. This was my first taste of Vietnamese in Vancouver. I had the phở tai (because what else would you order?) and it was pretty much flawless: broth was well developed with a generous serving of meat (cooked rare as it should be) and noodles. The food came immediately (just after the complimentary tea) and finished with a quarter slice of orange — a nice touch! Spot on. Will be back.

Delicious veggie phở here. Pick up is quick, only like 10 minute wait to grab a tasty phở, which there’s actually not a lot of options for on the drive. Prefer this to phobolace down the street. Broth is veggie as well, which is sometimes hard to find in East side. Great plac for your phở fix! Peanut Broth is tasty as well.

The food is great. Service is good but the restaurant needs a cleaning and new paint job, the walls are nasty. Don’t look at the walls while u eat! Peanut stay soup is the best!

Hands down the Worst beef brisket phở I have ever had!
not to mention a super unfriendly waitress at our service. As you can see in the picture that meat is no brisket. Soup tasted like full of msg with sweet taste.

–The food is not bad
–This place is so dirty!!! They need to do a deep clean of this joint, even consider a coat of paint. 1. A stack of news papers on middle table as i came in.
2. Grim on the walls, check the light switches! and service door access for electrical
3. Menus are gross
4. Tables disgusting
If this is front of house I don’t even want to know what it is like in the kitchen.
If the owners see this, deep clean your place!
From what i have seen here, I could truly believe the guys story in previous post about the hand washing.

My girlfriend and I used a coupon from the entertainment book for this place and it turned out to be very worth it (buy one entrée get the second free). The prices are already pretty decent but a little on the higher side for Vietnamese dishes around the area.
Price aside, they have my favorite combination plate in the entire city. I had the lemon grass pork, spring rolls and salad rolls for $ 11.25, which is a bit pricey but well worth it with the coupon we brought it: P Everything was perfect, especially the spring rolls which were crispy and delicious.
Not sure if we would rush back here to pay full price but if you have an entertainment book or find a coupon of some sort, try it out! why not?

[Restaurant Walkout]
When I say walkout, I don’t mean a dine and dash. I was so upset about the quality and service that we actually cancelled our orders and left. Yes, we actually left. I’ve never done that before and heres why:
Came here after a few hours of drinking on Commercial. I was actually wanting pizza at Famoso or Marcello’s next door but the wait times were unreasonably long. Popped in at Red Pagoda on a whim seeing as there was no wait.
This place is seriously understaffed on a Friday evening. We were kept waiting for almost 10 minutes at the small entryway despite an available table with leftover dishes that sat there for a while. The food other people were getting looked decent so I had hope. Once seated, it was another 10 minutes before we got anyone’s attention much less tea, menus, or utensils. We were seated right in the middle of the restaurant along an aisle where the servers pass! Finally, the one guy working the tables comes by and asks if we’ve been waiting long. Uh yeah? You seated us 10 minutes ago! At this point I was getting hangry (hungry + angry) and I just wanted food. I made my decision quickly and ordered.
Here’s where it goes from bad to worse. I head to the washroom and while waiting for the little boys room to become free, I notice some guy urinating in the women’s toilet, seat down, door wide open. Once he was done splashing bodily fluids all over the seat, he exited without washing his hands and headed directly into the kitchen! He was the cook! I was in total shock and absolutely disgusted at the same time.
I came back to our table and had a serious discussion with my S.O. about what I had just seen. After our little summit meeting, we decided to cancel our orders and high-​tail it out of there. I can think of better ways of spending my weekend than puking my guts out from an avoidable stomach flu. I can’t believe that people still don’t wash their hands after using the washroom — especially if you work with food. I also feel bad for the lady that has to use the washroom next.
I can’t attest to the food but the service and cleanliness were atrocious. If I had seen what I saw after I had eaten, I’d be headed to the nearest pub for some hard liquor asap.

The bowl of tomato beef stew had tasty broth. Lots of good quality beef for the big eaters. Bowl of lemongrass, spring roll with vermicelli was pretty solid too.
The service was very disappointing though there was a lot of confusion with
coupon I felt they held me hostage just repeatedly needing to call the boss to verify if 20% off is valid. The coupon was very straightforward 20% off the bill. I was ok not using the coupon at all as they gave so much trouble for it and degraded my experience.
If there was a couponing issue that the boss promoted I suggest fix it next time.

Everything about my initial review is accurate. After being here a handful more times, I noticed something that would leave me feeling guilty if I didn’t update my review.
Cleaniness/​Food safe procedures — it’s important. I don’t want to give specifics but in the last few visits, I’ve enjoy the flavors as much as I did before but I’m now keenly concerned if I’m going to get food poisoning in the next 24hours.
The taste is so good, I’m willing to risk it. Are you?

The satay peanut phở is beyond spectacular. It comes in meaty and veggie, but the veggie is the one to order — it comes with copious bits of vegetables and tofu all floating with chewy rice noodles in a satay peanut broth. (You can also order the meaty broth with vegetables instead of meat chunks if you are so inclined. It’s pretty good as well, but then you don’t get broccoli.)
They make tofu salad rolls, vegetarian spring rolls, and will serve you all sorts of alcohol. If you’re into meat — there is plenty of it on the menu as well.

I’m a bit shocked at the 1 star review as both the food and service were above average for a Vietnamese place.
I typically do enjoy Vietnamese also bought a Groupon knowing nothing about this place. I seem to recall the prices being slightly higher than average, but the deliverable was that much better. I’d say the experience is a bit more worthy of a night out than places categorized with this one (it has a slight vibe of a cozy Italian restaurant, but with asian décor)
They were swamped the day we were there and the owner was slinging food but they managed to provide good service, if not a bit more of a personal touch.
I think this place suffers a bit from being in the midst of so many other good dining options, and being almost unnoticable due to the narrow store-​front.
It is worthy of a try,. seek it out.