PHO DAU BO

When it comes to Pho in the GTA, Pho Dau Bo is the best. When The Fiance worked in Mississauga, his team visited this location every Friday and when my mom told me about a great new pho place she found, it was the Pho Dau Bo on Dundas. Their broth outshines any competition.

The Fiance and I stopped by the Bristol location on the Thanksgiving weekend for a pre-turkey pho lunch (mainly because my fridge was bare and with the prospect of leftovers to come, I didn’t see a need for groceries). At 1pm, we thought the lunch time rush would be done, which was surprisingly not the case. In fact there was a steady stream of customers filing in.

We both opted for the house special pho, mine a small while his was a medium, that comes with a piece of every meat topping. As a side dish, we also added two minced shrimp on sugar canes and hot coffee with condensed milk. The coffee was strong and had a generous serving of condensed milk that easily lasted 2 refills of the coffee press. I liked the flavour of the minced shrimp but they were oily and the sugar cane wasn’t sweet. Their fresh rolls are better.

Service that day was painfully slow. There was a group of 8 who placed their food and drink order before us and the kitchen was backed up. We waited 20 minutes for the pho and there was only one girl making every drink. This meant our coffees didn’t arrive until we were near the bottom of our bowls. Since it was a long weekend, and off peak hours, it’s understandable if the restaurant was understaffed. I was just hungry.

Our bowls of pho arrived full of noodles and topping, there was almost no room to add in more bean sprouts but I tucked them in. The broth was rich and savoury, the best in town and the only pho where I don’t add sriracha or hoisin sauce. Each of the meats were also tender with a good number of pieces. It’s just a perfect bowl, full of flavour and filled to the brim.

I’ve now been to three of Pho Dau Bo’s location (just missing the Scarborough outlet) and each meal has been consistently exceptional. When I crave pho, I’m craving Pho Dau Bo.