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Pho Dau Bo Restaurant
Category: Restaurants Vietnamese Vietnamese [Edit]
2437 Finch Ave WNorth York, ON M9M 2E7
(416) 749-9943
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Has TV:
- No
- Caters:
- No
11 reviews for Pho Dau Bo Restaurant
11 reviews in English
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Review from Ziyi C.
Toronto, ON
9/3/2011
Reasons why I return to Pho Dau Bo (this location only):
My favourite place for pho in North York
This place has everything I look for when eating pho. Flavourful broth, check. Noodles (I prefer the dried style, not a fan of fresh), check. Beef quality, check. Meat/noodle/broth ratio, check. Fresh thai basil, lime, bean sprouts, sawtooth herb and thai chili, check. Fully stocked condiments on table (including pickled chili peppers), check. Sauce dish on table, check.
Another great place for a nice bowl of pho. They do their well done beef flank the best here. It's ultra tender and not tough like how some other places serve it. Whatever part of the cow that is. Damn -
Review from David D.
Markham, ON
7/25/2011
Average to A-OK on the pho scale. Out of the number of Vietnamese restaurants in the plaza, this one usually attracts the most customers.
Quick to order; quick to serve.
Ordered:
Vermicelli with grilled pork and pork sausage - A personal fave dish I like to order at Vietnamese restaurants. Pork sausage was cooked nicely, full of flavour and spice. Overall, standard vermicelli dish. I was glad they didn't load up on veggies like most restaurants.
Pho with rare beef and beef balls - Noodles was decent, but standard. Broth was clear and tasted nice. Beef portion was decent. Overall, nothing spectacular, but also not bad either.
Good for a quick fix if you're in one of the 11 locations they have around Toronto.Listed in: The Pho Scale
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Review from Maheen M.
8/19/2011
One of my favourite lunch spots. My colleagues and I visit here regularly.
Service is quick and food is always piping hot.
I usually order the vermicelli with grilled chicken which is very filling. The chicken is moist and exterior crisp. Vermicelli is perfectly done.
The pho is great. Small bowl usually does the trick for lunch. If I am super hungry, I order the medium bowl. The broth is not overtly saltly.
Spring rolls and the rice sticky buns with shrimps are great appetizers.
Flan is quite good too - eggy custard like with the caramel sauce. Their coffee shake was yummy, beware of strong coffee taste.
Pricing - you can get lunch under $10, you can not beat that.Listed in: Lunch Spots in…
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Review from Lynn C.
8/29/2011
I was driving around looking for gas and went way further than i had wanted to before I finally found the gas station. While adding the fuel to my car, i looked up and realized where I was.
Even though I was alone, I decided I had to eat at Pho Dau Bo anyway. It's not everyday I get to come out North-West and eat one of the most popular Pho places among the Vietnamese people i know in the GTA.
Even the flies in the restaurant didn't deter me from enjoying my pho.
$5 for a small Pho: CHEAP
Giant portion for a small pho: I forced myself to finish it anyway!
Was I uncomfortably pholl afterward? Yes
Did I regret it? No
Then I went grocery shopping at the supermarket next door to work off the discomfort. -
Review from Jennifer K.
Markham, ON
2/25/2011 2 photos
Pho Dau Bo's Pho is Not the best Pho I ever ate... but it is A-OK.
Pho Dau Bo's is like a chain Vietnamese Restaurant which have over 11 locations.. I been to the Scarborough's location which I found it is not too good compare to this North York's location.
It was quite quiet during evening dinner time. My Special Pho ($6) arrived in recorded time... 15 counting breaths and my bowl of goodness arrived!! Nice smelling aroma of beef...soup is quite clear but has good flavour.
The noodle is the dried type, but well cooked and tasted decent. I like how the rare beef came out RARE!!! Thank You!
Service is fast and indifferent... good place to a fast pho fix!Listed in: Vietnamese Food in the GTA!
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Review from Joanne W.
7/18/2011
The best pho place I've been to was in KW with the same name. My friend and I have been searchign for a Pho Dau Bo in our area for some good pho. We've been to three different ones in Kitchener and they have never failed us. It was great here too!
Too far out in terms of location from the suburbs -- but I guess it was worth the drive! I was quite a happy camper. -
Review from K V.
Thornhill, ON
3/15/2011
Certainly not the best pho in the city, in fact it is pretty average, you have about 60% of finding the same quality at a random restaurant that has "pho" in its name.
Broth: Not super clear, as if they have forgotten to take the scum of boiling beef, while finishing the bowl we saw bits and bits of impurities. The taste is Ok, I prefer to go heavier on star anise then you can really tell it is pho and not just the beef bouillon.
Meat: Is plentiful, which is great and they cook it as per your instructions.
Noodles: Fine and pretty standard, well cooked, but they put less of them per bowl than other places I have been to.
Condiments and veggies: Fresh and plentiful. Their hoisin is very good.
MSG: Yes they do add it, I would say average amount. My MSG meter was closer to medium than to light.
We went to check the space because a few yelpers and reviewers from other sites claimed there wasn't any MSG in this pho (the quest of my life), turns out they were wrong. Once my MSG meter went up the cook confirmed my fears that they indeed do use MSG. So really there is no point for me to come to this sketchy district and I would not recommend it to anyone, unless you are on the go and in very desperate need of pho. -
Review from August L.
3/6/2010 1 photo
One thing you want to see at a restaurant is that it is super busy during lunch time. And yes, this restaurant was packed when we got there at 12:30...good sign.
FOOD
I had my same pho with rare beef, beef intestine (they say it more eloquently on the menu). The broth was good, the noodles seemed fresh, meat portion was decent. good sign
What lacked was the portion sizes were smaller than the typical Pho restaurant and side dishes. The mint leaves were so few and they only gave us 1 of the other green leaf (I don't know what it's called) when it was two of us at the table. There were no red hot chili peppers. Bad sign.
I had an avocado shake and it did not have that wonderful avocado and condensed milk taste. It was basically just a cold drink with ice bits in it b/c it wasn't blended very well. My friend had the durian shake and he said that it tasted like powdered durian, not fresh durian. bad sign.
SERVERS
The servers were quick as usual. The only problem I had was that they left the menus on our table and it took up room when we were eating. They should have taken the menu from us.
COSTS
The prices are fairly typical. $4.50 (S), $5.50 (M), $6.50 (L), $7.50 (XL). I could be off by $0.50 but it was about that price. So nice and cheap.
CROWD
When I looked around, I noticed the place was full of caucasian and indian people. There were asian people but I was just so surprised to see about half the room with blond/brown hair. lol
KICKER
So the reason why this place got a 2 was that I became sick after my meal. Not horribly sick but I had the runs. I had stomach pains as soon as we left and went to the bathroom about 3 times that afternoon.
SICK RATING : 2
1 (just a little sick) to 5 (Emergency, I think i have a parasite) -
Review from Ken X.
Scarborough, ON
8/17/2011
Pros:
-Best Pho in GTA
-Great prices, huge portions (I dare you skinny people to finish an XL pho without feeling sick aftewards)
-One of the very few places that serve Banh Cuon
-Little to no MSG in the pho soup yet still one of the best
Cons:
-Franchised locations do not live up to the quality of this location which I think is the original.
-I live more than 5minutes away from this place.... but this could be a Pro because if I lived closer I'll die from stuffing myself everyday.
I've been to over 20 pho places in the GTA and this is still my favourite. I'm a regular visitor since I first discovered it about 3 years ago and I'm willing to drive all the way from Scarborough for a proper pho fix from this place.
The Scarborough location of pho dau bo is a joke, the soup doesn't taste half as good and is full of MSG. I think this is the original location of the franchise because it's run by Vietnamese ppl, always busy and the soup has little to NO MSG.
Also, it's one of the very few places that serve Banh Cuon which are Vietnamese steamed rice rolls with ground pork inside, dipped in fish sauce.
Oh ya, if you order take away they'll pack the soup in a separate container so the noodles don't get soggy. They also wrap the rare beef in saran wrap so it doesn't bleed over your other meat/noodles, very nice touch! -
Review from Randy C.
Brampton, ON
8/4/2010
My fave. place for Pho in the city.
Close friends of mine and my wife have been going to this place since we graduated from Guelph - Humber. The costs are great, the broth for the Pho (beef with beef balls my fave) is off the charts.
I have since moved to Brampton, bought a house and then noticed there was a Pho Dau Bo by my house!!!! -
Review from Giselle g.
Toronto, ON
4/23/2010
This has become my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in the area. The pho and vermicelli dishes are consistently good. The pho has a lot more flavour than at some places I've been to. The service is lightning fast and polite. Lots of whities eating there ;-) and it can be very busy, but good!
