Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant

Restaurant: Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Last visited: February 22, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC
Address: 2292 East Hastings (Commercial Drive/Grandview)
Price range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5
Service: 3.5
Ambiance: 1.5
Overall: 4.5
Additional comments:

• Popular for pho – famous for soup base
• Popular for spring rolls, chicken and beef pho
• Fresh, made upon order
• Family owned/operated
• Vietnamese owners
• Hole in the wall
• Seats about 30
• Authentic
• Fast/Cheap/Good
• Not much MSG
• Some pictures on menu
• Cash only
• Closed Wednesday
• Open daily 10am – 9pm (except Wed.)

Recommendation: Spring Rolls, Chicken Pho, Beef Pho, Bún Bò Hue, Chicken Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sandwich)

This all started with Twitter. People were asking me about the best places for pho in Vancouver and to be honest I was a little stuck. I’ve had home made pho before from an excellent Vietnamese mom who worked in a kitchen for years and ever since then I can’t go back to anything else. Home made pho is NOTHING like what they serve you at most Vietnamese restaurants in Metro Vancouver.

Anyway people recommended Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant so I decided to give it a try. My expectations were set high because I’ve heard good things about it, and I did my research ahead of time and so far everything was positive. Overall the food is good, but I didn’t think it was amazing. One clear fact I noticed was that they did not use that much MSG! Surprising! It was still flavourful too and the noodles are noticeably fresh and the soup is super hot in terms of temperature.

On the table:

Deep Fried Spring Roll – 5/6 (Excellent)

• As a side order $1.75 each or 3 for $5.25 (which is the same as ordering individually… )
• These are actually really good. The only thing is that they’re a bit small.
• It was about 3 inches so they are a bit pricey, yet I would still order them again because they were good.

• They’re hot, fresh, crispy and well stuffed with vermicelli noodles, carrots, jacama root, mushroom, ground pork and cabbage.
• They don’t use the vermicelli as filler either, there’s actually not much noodle in them.
• It was salty and slightly tangy and I really liked them.

Variety of Beef Noodle in Soup (Pho Duc Biet #1) – 4/6 (Very good)

• Rare beef flank, tripe, tendon, beef balls and noodles in soup M – $5.95 L – $6.50
• The best part for me was the hot soup and the noodles.
• The noodles are noticeably fresh and really soft and chewy.

• It came with 3 slices of beef flank that were really tender, but they cook super fast because the soup is served super hot.
• The broth was good, but still a bit watered down.
• It was savoury and not too sweet and it was actually pretty clear tasting.
• It is made in house but the beef flavour was not as strong as I would have liked.
• It didn’t seem like they used much MSG too.

• There’s also 2 pieces of tripe, 2 pieces of tendon and one beef ball cut in half – and this is for the medium size.
• They served it with freshly cracked black pepper on top and I really liked that.

They give you lots of green onion, cilantro and onions which I really like.

Spicy Beef Noodle Soup (Bún Bò Hue #26) – 5/6 (Excellent)

• Special spicy beef rice noodle soup M – $6.75 L – $7.25
• It came with 3 thin slices of Vietnamese ham and a couple pieces of beef shank with cartilage.
• It’s supposed to come with pig’s feet (pork hock), but I don’t recall any being in there.
• This is one of their specialty dishes and it’s available at many other Vietnamese restaurants too.
• It’s not as spicy as it looks. It actually wasn’t that spicy at all. It was quite mild with a strong lemongrass flavour which made it a bit sweeter.
• The spiciness was more aromatic than it was spicy.
• I actually liked this broth better than the standard beef broth although the broth is the same base.
• This one also has some shrimp paste in it so it’s very aromatic and savoury.
• This broth was just more flavourful overall especially with the chili oil.

• The noodles for Bún Bò Hue are not the standard vermicelli noodles.
• The noodles are fresh vermicelli noodles and most Vietnamese restaurants serve dried.

Chicken Bahn Mi – 4.5/6

• Chicken (Vietnamese) sandwich $3.00
• This is the sandwich the waitress/owner suggested.
• She suggested the chicken sandwich with little hesitation.
• This was really good, except I wish they gave more chicken.
• There wasn’t much in there but they gave lots of vegetables like cucumber, carrots, radish, and cilantro.
• The sandwich was really buttery, but that’s part of what makes is so good.
• It’s actually lard and not butter so it makes it extra good, but extra bad for you too.
• I doubt the bread is made in house, but it was better than in looks.
• It was served warm and it was really crusty and really soft in the middle.
• I was surprised the bread didn’t get soggy with the chicken filling.

• The chicken bahn mi is different here because the chicken is almost like a chicken stew.
• They cook and serve the chicken in this tomato stew that’s sweet and sour like – it’s savoury, slightly tangy and sweet.
• It was very light and it had a ketchup flavour, but it was really good and made the sandwich so juicy and flavourful.
• The chicken is pieces of skinless dark meat instead of the usual shredded chicken they use in bahn mi.
• I could have used a stronger marinade for the vegetables though.
• It was a bit pickled tasting but I could have used more pickling and flavour from the fish sauce and sugar.

Vietnamese Egg Soda (Soda sữa hột gà) – 3/6 (Good)

• Club Soda, egg, and condensed milk $3.50
• It’s almost like an ice cream float, but richer in flavour, but not in texture and not as sweet.
• I know it sounds a bit different, but it’s actually pretty good.

• It tastes like a carbonated custard drink. The flavour is definitely custardy.
• It’s not really creamy, and it’s not too sweet although you expect it to be.
• The whipped egg just makes it frothier and adds a creamier texture to it although it’s not really creamy. An ice cream float or milkshake is much creamier.

Dessert ended up being at Polonia Sausage House on the same street – see my post here.

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