Pho Vy Vietnamese Restaurant

Used Unilocal to find a decent phở place in Victoria and decided to try this place after reading the reviews. Not sure about this place because $ 11 for a large bowl is pretty expensive. The large bowl wasn’t even huge it was probably a regular in other restaurants in Vancouver. The taste was pretty decent and the soup broth was flavorful. But I felt that there should have been a lot more meat inside it. Also ordered the shrimp salad rolls for take out and to be honest, it was expensive at $ 7.25. The peanut sauce that came with it was bland.

My boyfriend and I adore the broth used here. For me, its the most important part of phở. We found that the broth in #25 (steak & flank) tastes much beefier than the standard beef phở (might be because of the fattier meat in the flank?). At any rate, we’ve had our fair share of phở in Toronto and a few places in Victoria since recently moving here and Phở Vy has come out a winner so far.

The restaurant has been moved to 1012 Blanshard.
We ordered three special phở and a papaya salad and it took an hour before the food was served! Unbelievable.

i placed a to-​go order here recently, on my order i asked for double beef on an 11 dollar meal. I forgot to ask how much it was for the addition and upon arrival i see that my bill has an additional fee of 7.50 for the beef. I asked why so much, and the older man working there gave me some BS response that it was «Special» beef from vancouver. When i looked at my food I saw a sad looking tray of burnt bones with next to no meat on them. So much for «special» beef.

After 5 nights and 6 days of trekking and eating nothing but salty, sugary condensed processed food, I knew I had to eat something I couldn’t get in the great outdoors. But in our long drive back to Victoria my parched mouth and grumbling stomach began to yearn for a big bowl of hot soup.
When I crawled back to my temporary home, my Air BnB hosts instantly sent me to their favourite Phở Vy to replenish myself. This place wasn’t difficult to find and when I walked in on an 8:30pm, this place was packed! A good sign of good business.
I ordered their hot beef soup. I’ve never had vietnamese soup outside of Calgary and it seemed their special was different. Just a little bit. The noodles seemed different and the broth was seasoned with something I couldn’t put my finger on… i think it was lemon grass. Well done!
THe spring roll did the job… of finishing me off. I was ready to nap for the long winter. Or rainfall in Victoria.

I love eating here. Some people said they disliked the atmosphere but I actually really like it! Lots of weird decorations and plants. Service is pretty fast and everything I’ve had has been tasty.

Good papaya salad. The Lemongrass Chicken w/​spring roll w/​vermicelli noodles was delicious! Their soups are one of the top bases in town!

The service was quick and it looked like your typical Vietnamese restaurant. My wife liked the food here while I didn’t. She really liked the broth for the phở ga, which was different from normal phở ga broth. I didn’t like the broth, and I thought the fried rolls were not as good as at other Vietnamese places.

In rainy Victoria, a warm bowl of phở with beefy broth and aromatic herbs would be an excellent quick chow. Dim-​lit Phở Vy with old-​fashioned pastel green on the walls seemed promising – the place oozed a hole-​in-​the-​wall feel and is packed with locals. The taste, however, fell short of our expectation. The broth lacked the deep flavours of beef and MSG was prominent throughout. Fortunately, they did not skim on the meat. For over $ 9.45 for a large bowl of phở, this is seriously OVERPRICED – even phở in the Lower Mainland is cheaper. Not inedible by any means but for that price, I expected wayyyy better.

Walked passed two Vietnamese restaurants (Saigon Harbour Restaurant and Phở Hoa) to get here based on the Unilocal reviews. Was quite disappointed, service was slow, portions were small (ordered a regular for 9 dollars, it was borderline medium) and the sprouts\basil were old. The phở broth was meh.
I also had a order of fried spring rolls, they were pretty bland. I really don’t know how this place has a high rating to begin with. As much as I dispise Phở Hoa, I was thinking at the time that might of been a better choice.
Two days later, I went to Saigon Harbour Restaurant and they were a lot better. I would recommend them over this place dispite their review rating.

Was recommended this restaurant by a friendly chap and his puppy Chulo!
Glad we went! Papaya salad was sweet and spicy! Lovely salad rolls
And Bun Bo Yummy! Iced coffee to finish!
Ahhhh…

I should have known lol. This place had a bit of a wait outside and positive reviews from customers waiting in addition to the reviews posted on the window from editors etc. I was expecting some really good phở, but since there was no aroma of phở… it wasn’t that great. It’s funny seeing people who aren’t familiar with this dish eat it without dipping the spoon in the broth to get the combination of noodles and broth in every bite. I want to say something, but I can’t lol. The broth was actually pretty good, but the noodles were kind of hard and different from the ones I’m used to. They also forgot to give me bo vien. :(It was expensive too! $ 9 for a bowl, but everything is expensive here so I guess that’s a reasonable price.

I approach a worn door with paint flaking off of it. I enter and the door squeaks to a near close but refuses to shut correctly behind me. After a few minutes, an unhappy worn out looking guy tells me to sit and wait. I’ve seen him dozens of times before, but there’s not the slightest glint in his eyes to indicate he recognizes me. I sit and he finally asks what I want, he disappears to the back and comes back with my product. I consume it as fast as possible because I keep being given the «hurry up and make room for someone else» — look. What I’m consuming gives good bang for the buck and is really addictive and they don’t have any concern how bad some of the contents may be for me. There’s a certain level of grime on many of the things around me while I sit and I do my best not to touch anything but my product. They have a list of everything they sell, but every person that walks in is buying the same thing. The entire experience feels slightly tense and uncomfortable, so I try to focus on my product and then GTFO (Get The F Out). Nobody says thank you for my business as I leave, they don’t act like they care at all if I ever come back. Despite all this I still go back, over and over and over. I think I have a problem that may require professional help.
To anyone who has seen just about any cop show ever, this may sound like the perfect description of a visit to a crack house, this is not the case! This is a fairly accurate description of almost every visit I’ve ever had to Phở Vy, the restaurant with a product you can’t stop wanting, and the service you can barely tolerate (and which barely tolerates you).

Quick summary here:
Phở: broth tasted fine but the noodles were the WRONG kind. Real phở uses the thinner rice noodles and not the thick, wide ones. The ones used by Phở Vy were a cross between Pad Thai noodles and Phở noodles. A let down to me though it seems I am in the minority here.
Rice combo dish: Much better choice and portion size is just enough. The charbroiled pork chop is marinated well and the dish itself is satisfying.
Egg rolls. Crispy but small and pricey at $ 6 for just three.
If I return, rice combo dish for sure. Phở Hoa maybe better for Phở across the street I would imagine.

The reason I’m giving this place 2 stars instead of 3 or 4 stars is because of cleanliness and customer service.
When I walked in, I was greeted by a sign that said, «Please wait to be seated.» So I waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, a girl in the back waived me over to a table in the back of the restaurant.
I ordered the Phở. My soup arrived very quickly. It was tasty. Half way through eating my soup I noticed a black hair that was not my own. Gross. Then, I started looking around. The flower on my table was covered in dust and brown sauce (likely from container sitting next to it). Underneath the glass table cover was dirt, the window sills were dirty, the more I looked around, the dirtier I felt. At this point, I couldn’t finish my food. I pushed my plate away, put my napkin on the table, and tried to make eye contact with one of the wait staff. I waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, I got up and went to the cash register and asked for my bill.
Their food was good, but the surroundings just ruined it for me.

The thought of offering any genuine Vietnamese phở joint 5 stars or less blows my mind, but unfortunately Phở Vy has earned a «Meh. I’ve experience better» 2 stars on Unilocal.
PHO:
— Bland soup broth. I agree with the other reviewer who commented on it as being «Chinese» in flavor
— Not your typical chewy thin strands of rice noodle, the noodles used here are wide and come in a hot mess in your bowl
+/​-​Meat parts are so-​so. The steak slices are fine although not rare enough, but the parts like the tripe and flank are good
OTHERS:
+ Iced drip coffee with condensed milk will leave you with a «wow» on your face
+ Egg rolls were fine
— Restaurant space is dark and ridiculously hot; don’t believe me? Try walking in with anything less than t-​shirts and a pair of shorts and then ordering a blazing hot bowl of phở
If the name of your shop has the word «Phở» in it, I expect the focus to be on the phở. And in this case, their main star is completely lackluster.

Holy hot inside. It was about 25 outside, but 35 inside! AC wasn’t doing any good either.
The Phở was pretty good. Not amazing, and as a beginner to Vietnamese, I’ll be exploring much more before returning here.

Had the veggie Phở. Was good but the place was so warm inside and no air flow. it made it difficult to enjoy a meal when you are sweating during the whole thing.
If the temperature was better I would give it ⁴⁄₅ stars.

I’ll give it a ⁴⁄₅ b/​c the broth is damn good and finding good broth with phở is really, really hard. I had trouble stopping my slurping of the broth.
The rest of the experience is ok — the serving size is a bit small especially for the money. My large 22 was supposed to be brisket and meatballs and the brisket was not fatty and very crumbly while the meatball count was 3 quarters — I’m accustomed to a bit of fat in my brisket and a meatball count closer to 10 than to 1.
Worth a stop in my opinion.

Phở Vy is not for the posh dining room snobs, but where they fail in décor, they more than make up for in the food. You shouldn’t judge a café by it’s yellow and green sunshine colour scheme. I have traveled to many South East Asia countries and Phở’s décor is perfectly in line with some of the best food adventures I’ve ever had. But enough about the paint.
The service may not be the most talkative, but from the time it took us to walk from the car, stand in line, order and receive our food it was less than fifteen minutes. Service hint, order by number. My favorite is number 23, or brisket. Devinely tender brisket slices, vermicelli and a smooth broth. Throw in the sprouts and basil and it is the best bowl of Phở ever. I liken Phở’s food to be like something someone’s grandmother would make.
And the bill is worth mentioning as well. Dinner for two for under $ 20. Can’t beat that.