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Golden Elephant
Categories: Restaurants Vietnamese Restaurants Thai Vietnamese, Thai [Edit]
4733 Steeles Ave ESte 1
Toronto, ON M1V 5N3
Neighbourhood: Scarborough
(416) 293-3880
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11 pm - 12 am
Fri-Sat 11 pm - 1 am
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
7 reviews for Golden Elephant
7 reviews in English
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Review from Cheryl C.
Scarborough, ON
8/30/2011
Full disclosure: I eat here about once a week because it is close to my house, is relatively cheap, and is one of the few restaurants in the area that are both on grandma's approved list and not on my uncleanliness blacklist.
I'm not a big fan of beef, so this is a review for the non-beef stuff on the menu (i.e. no pho review here. Sidenote: I like to visit steakhouses and order chicken.) Anyway, 90% of the time I come here, I only order one of two things: the seafood glass noodles in soup, or the lemongrass chicken with noodles (substituting glass noodles for the other kind of noodles) in soup. The glass noodles are slightly chewy, which I enjoy. The lemongrass chicken actually has lemongrass flavor in it. The remaining 10% I go, it's usually fried rice in a half pineapple or fried noodles or curry. If ordering the curry, I usually skip the rice and opt for the roti or the garlic bread. For appetizers, they have a chargrilled calamari that I am a fan of (ask about which one is chargrilled, they have two calamari/squid items on the menu). The Vietnamese-style drip coffee is kind of cool, they bring it to your table to drip. The iced version is best, since it takes a while to drip and the hot version becomes the lukewarm version by the time it finishes dripping.
Like another reviewer noted, this is not a strictly Vietnamese restaurant. But it's still good to satisfy that hot, cheap bowl o' noodles craving. -
Review from David D.
Markham, ON
11/8/2011
Owned by the same owner of Vietnam Noodle Star, this restaurant is located near Starwalk Buffet and Kenny's Noodles. I have frequented this place many times on a late night for a quick bite. It is a convenient location and offers a variety of dishes from Viet/Thai/Malay/Singapore, though most of the dishes are standard. Not great, but not bad either.
I decided to stick with comforting bowl of noodles on a cold night.
Ordered the House Special Pho - When comparing to VNS, Golden Elephant lacks the complexity and depth of the overall broth/noodle/beef tendons. The noodles were overcooked and the beef tendon was tough to chew through. The broth came hot, but it wasn't as savoury as VNS. Aren't they under the same management? Something feels missing.
Waitresses aren't exactly the friendliest. My friend wasn't even finished his bowl of pho when the waitress took the bowl away without asking. When noted on her mistake, she apologized and walked away. When persisted, she suggested she'll offer another bowl of pho, but with the exact same amount of noodles and soup left originally.
If you're up for pho in the Scarborough area, stick with VNS and you won't be disappointed.Listed in: 30-Day Yelp Challenge:…
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Review from Lisa K.
Toronto, ON
9/6/2010
Not bad. Not the best, but not bad either.
Firstly, this is not strictly a Vietnamese restaurant. I would describe it as "Pan-Asian" (ugh, I hate that term) at best. On the menu, I saw popular Thai, Malaysian and Singaporean dishes. None of the servers were Vietnamese and in fact they all spoke Mandarin and Cantonese. But since we were immediately in the area (Pacific Mall) and my mom had a craving for pho, we decided to give it a shot.
We each had a large bowl of pho, with raw beef, beef tendon and beef balls. Firstly, I noticed that the noodles were really overcooked - they're fresh noodles (not from dried noodles), so they needn't be cooked so much. The broth was super hot and pretty decent in taste, so the raw beef cooked fairly quickly. The meat was also pretty decent.
I also had an order of the Pork Steamed rolls (I think that's what they're called on the menu), #903. Those were pretty good! The skin tasted freshly made and there was just enough pork and seaweed filling.
With an order of iced Vietnamese coffee, everything came to about $23.
My mom checked out the bathroom and she said it was okay, but maybe not the cleanest.
This place lost stars mostly because of the rude servers. -
Review from Neil T.
Toronto, ON
2/1/2010
Same owners as Vietnam Noodle Star (VNS), same bowls, plates, cups, menus, everything. It has all of the necessary tools to be a five star pho joint...but why does it fall short?
1) Broth served luke warm
2) Broth lacks the depth, sweetness, and overall tastiness of the one at VNS
3) Tendon wasn't cooked properly -- big chunks that were chewy and gross
The pho wasn't terrible. The noodles were fresh and the meat (other than the tendon) was decent. However, this is a classic case of expectation. You claim to be of VNS quality, but it fails horribly to deliver the consistency and general awesomeness than it's parent location does. A monumental disappointment for me. 3.5 stars since it is still better than most pho places.
Note: I cheated and got a jump on Pho-bruary a couple days ago and am posting this to my Pho-bruary list, though I technically had this on January 29. Full disclosure! -
Review from Paula R.
Scarborough, ON
1/25/2011
I am not the biggest fan of Pho so I can't really rate it. However their Bún Ch Giò (Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Vermicelli Noodles) is pretty good. First they actually use Vermicelli noodles unlike many other places that use spaghetti sized noodles. Also the noodles are hot, which is my personal preference. And the fish sauce mixture is just as good as anywhere else.
The staff, like so many in the area, don't speak English very well so be warned.
The food is okay and cheap. -
Review from Karen S.
2/25/2010
It's A-OK. Really it is - the thing I found interesting about this pho location is that all bowls are built to order. Rather than endless lists of beef-part combinations, one simply lists out the parts desired. This is the way to go!
While the pho here is decent, there are no particular standouts. There was something lacking in the broth - not sure what it was as it simply wasn't as tasty as I'd expect. Otherwise, it was hot, the beef parts were yummy and the noodles slurpy. -
Review from Jennifer K.
Markham, ON
Updated - 2/7/2010 5 photos
A revisit to Golden Elephant because of Pho-bruary!
I was there on a Saturday evening around 6:30 pm, the place was not busy at all. I order the usual small Pho with raw beef ($4.99). My order arrived in less than 1 minute. The order is sizable like before, a small equal to a medium in other restaurant.
The broth was nice and hot. I was a little disappointed with the noodle this time, though it is the fresh varieties however, it was really overcooked! It tasted so soft without any texture.sigh.........
The waitresses in this location all speaks Mandarian between themselves where as the Vietnam Noodl Star location all speak Cantonese
This place has so many washroom signs, 3 of the right next to each other... wondering if so many customers ask where the washroom is ;p
I still go Golden Elephant for a quick Pho fix especially in the evening as where can you get a decent bowel of Pho in a nice clean environment for $4.99?Listed in: Vietnamese Food in the GTA!, Pho-Bruary My Version!
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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1/12/2010 First to Review
Golden Elephant is owned and runned by the same people from Vietnam Noodle Star.
The menu and the… Read more »
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