Tran Cantine Vietnamienne

Tran, Cantine Vietnamienne is one of the many new little Asian babies in town. I'm just happy this one happens to be on my side of town. Yay, South-West wins again! Or something. Anyhoot, I headed to Tran with my bud Margo on one of MTL's first VERY cold day.

There was no question as to where the resto was: it was lit up like the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Like lightning. Like fireworks. You get it, it was damn bright. You could've seen it from space. Aaaand I'm totes exaggerating again. Very simple décor: white walls, black tables, open kitchen. It was quite cold, and every time someone would open the door, it would be freezing. There are ways to fix this problem. Buy an Abris Tempo :p

We shared everything, because that's how we dso. We started with the spring roll: vermicelli, shrimp, mint. Everything was very fresh and the noodles were perfectly cooked. Obviously, this was awkward to eat, split in two. We should've just taken two. You live and you learn. The peanut sauce was just thick enough and very tasty.

The pho. Margo was worried about msg (I'm more of an msg? No worries! kinda gurl). When Margo asked, the girl who seemed to be the manager/owner, kind of lowered her head and said 'there's a little bit'. Hey, at least she was honest. The noodles were perf (not too soft, not too hard) and the beef was perf too (just bloody enough). Basically, everything was perf. The broth was awesome too. A really good pho. I've read that it's one of the best in town, and although I find this a bit exaggerated, I don't think it's far from it.

Banh mi. I looooves me a good banh mi. Like, LOVE. The bread was soft and ubs  (short for uber of course!) fresh and the grilled chicken was nice and juicy. The veggies were, seriously, some of the best pickled veggies I've had in a banh mi. Dikon and carrot, HELLO! The level of sauce was also right on. Damn it, I want to get another one right NOW!

The beef salad had some great flavours goin. The beef was great and the coriander was, well, duh, it was coriander! They could've added somewhat of a sauce to make things a bit less dry. Also, even though y'all know I'm a huge fan of onions, there were way too many on there. Like a whole onion. A big one. It was a good dish, but it could've been better.

We were totes in to try a good Vietnamese dessert, but they didn't have any. Boo. It's a new resto, so there's always room for improvement :)

Service was just OK. The girl we spoke to at first was great and gave us info on the resto and how she came to open it, etc. The waiter forgot to bring us extra plates about 3 times. Hahaha. But seriously. We did get our food very quickly though, which was much appreciated since we were starving!

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 7

Well, as previously mentioned, I'll be going back for one of those banh mi. For SURE.

Miss Banh Mi

I loves me a good banh mi. I made a list of banh mi places in Montreal and Miss Banh Mi was next on ma list! Plus, it's on my way to and from work. What did you say? Yes, you're right, it's in the perfect location.

Miss Banh Mi is actually in quite a large space on St-Mathieu, downtown. It came as a surprise because I'm use to restos that serve banh mi to be tiny! Well, except for Vua, but that dson't count, iz a chain! Some techno music was playing? OK, that's not a question, that's a fact. You know when you say that music just dson't fit? This was a big example of that. I really dug the brick walls and the pictures printed in sepia. There were wooden tables and silver chairs, but not enough. I'm the first one to say it when there's no room to move around in a resto, but it equally sucks (for them) when there are not enough tables. You are LOSING money, people.

The Tom Yum soup, although very, wait for it, yum-my (ya, I'm THAT good), was a bit  too sour. Guys, I know it's a hot n' sour soup but this was hot n' sour n' sour. I think the culprit was the piece of lemongrass that was stewing in there. There was some chicken that was very tasty and oozing with flavor, some green onions that, hello, and lime that gave it a nice kick. It was just spicy enough.

Le banh mi. I've eaten banh mi before. Lots and lots of them. I'd like to say I've been to Vietnam to eat them but sadly, that wouldn't be true. I will do it in the future though, I swear to Heysus. I had the traditional banh mi: lots o' meat, pickled carrots and daikon, cucumber, coriander and some sauce. The whole thing was very fresh and the baguette was just A+ and not stale at all (which would be D-).  The veggies could have been marinated a little while longer to let more liquid seep in for some extra goodness. There wasn't nearly enough cucumber OR daikon. And I LOVES me some daikon in ma banh mi! The sauce was somewhat of a BBQ sauce, which was different than the usual mayo type sauce. A good different. The pâté was BANG on and the cold cuts also. Not too salty, just fatty enough to have lots-o-tastiness. Everything, as I've said, was very fresh.

 

Service was, well, counter service. At first, I didn't get much of a smile from the woman working there. But she did give me water quickly and le food was ready in a flash as well.

And now, the scores!

 

Food: 7.5

Service: 7.5

Well, I have a bunch of other banh mi restos to try. But I have a feeling I'll be back. Oh, imma be back, yo.

Baguette Cali

I would eat banh mi every freaking day if it weren't for the massive (yes, I'm going there) amount of carbs in that bread. DAMN that bread! Baguette Cali is strangely located: in a Thai Express. Except for the fact that both are Asian (I should write 'ish' for Thai Express), they have absolutely nada in common. NADA! I would NEVER eat at Thai Express (Disclosure 1: I've eaten there once, never again. Disclosure 2: also why I didn't want a pic of the resto!).

I spotted this place when walking to and fro the gym. Located on Wellington, it's about 2 blocks from my gym. Ever notice how I always describe restos in Verdun with how many blocks from the Énergie Cardio they are located? Yes, I'm that obsessed. So, you enter the restaurant and you look to the back, far far away. And then you see a little Asian woman and she has the cutest, most welcoming smile. Go to her. Oh, you go to her.

They have other stuff but I was there for dem banh mi. They do have quite the selection so I asked the woman what I should have. She said they are all good. I refused. She then suggested the Spécial Cali.

Pâté, ham and pork. Double pig; I love it. Obviously, there was the usual coriander, daikon, carrots and some mayo type sauce. Let's just say that for a girl that watches her carb intake, I did NOT watch my banh mi intake. I pretty much inhaled it. As in 'breathe in, breathe out'. Apart from the fact that there was a tad too much sauce in there, it was amazeballs. That's correct. She had asked if I wanted it spicy. How is that a real question? But seriously. She put some hot peppers in there and as I was eating my way through the sandwich, I found that the couple peppers were few and far between. And then, I hit the motherload. Tears came a-flowin'. But apart from the tears, all the other ingredients were perfect. The slightly marinated carrots and daikon were pretty much out of this world (yes, I'll go that far) and the meat was awesome. I can't say for sure which meat was what but I do know it tasted good. The meat that was most likely pork (I need a meat class) was a tad too fatty for me but added a sh*t load of flavor in there. Oh and there was cucumber that added a nice crunch and some freshness to it all. We DO like it fresh!

Service was fast AND happy! Not much more to say... I had it as take-out.

And now, le score!

Food: 8.5

Knowing myself, I'll try other banh mi places but this place was too good for me not to go back!

Sparrow

A couple weeks back, my friend Isa and I were looking for a new brunch place. You know the rest: we wanted somethin' hip, somethin' new, somethin' good. We chose Sparrow because it had all those qualities AND it wasn't far from my friend's place on Le Plateau. I also would like to mention that although I am fully bilingual, I'm more on the Loi 101's side when it comes to restaurants and shops' names. But you know what, let's face it, 'Le Moineau' would be a shitty name for a restaurant. 'Sparrow' is much prettier and magical (yes, I'm going for 'magical' here).

We headed there at around 10:15 am and lemme tell you that the brunch crowd apparently woke up way earlier than usual because it was full. Full, full, FULL. I remember a time when going out for brunch at 11 was still considered early. I mean I'm all for the early wake up time but I thought that was MY thing, not half of Montreal's population's thang.

Anyhoot, Sparrow is a bar. Prettier than most bars, it's a nice setting for brunch. A very popular brunch setting! It has high brass-covered ceilings, sparrows on the wooden walls, marble tabletops and a big arse bar you can eat at. Filled with 100 MILLION bottles. Well, it's a bar... duh. Nice catchy indie music was playing and although the place seemed loud, with the 800 people talking, we could still hear each other.

They have what I like to call an international menu (like at Le Bon Vivant): smoked meat, steak, eggs, Turkish plate, Moroccan dish, breakfast banh mi WHAT! I love it. I love eating where they don't only have eggs for breakfast/brunch. This menu was 1000 times more interesting to me than a lot of places. Which is pretty much mainly why I was attracted to it.

 

I had the breakfast banh mi. Duh. I mean, even if you know me a little bit, you just KNOW imma gonna have this. I was so damn excited it! As soon as I read the menu on my computer, at home, I knew. It was pretty much callin' out my name: Maaaaaariiiiiiie. OK, no, not like a ghost. I'm getting off track here! So this is what I got: a huge chunk of leafiness with three slices of radish and sesame seeds they called a salad. I'm sorry, this was NOT a salad. NO! Oh and I got a huge mofo of a bread with tiny bits of things inside. Seriously, this was nothing compared to the 'regular', 'normal' banh mi I usually buy. The only thing that was different was the egg and at least that was well done: runny but not too much, it acted kind of like a spread on the bread. The coriander was nice but I would have liked more and the pickled veggies were few and far between.The pork was quite tasty but sadly a tad dry. All in all, quite the early morning Vietnamese deception ( I AM aware that it was not technically Vietnamese).

Isa had the Turkish plate. Turned out to be about 15 times better than mine. Sigh. She gave it an 8 and said it was a fresh, delicious variety of thangs. I agree. I tasted most of it and it was just on par. The egg actually tasted like a farm egg, olives were nice but a tad too salty (I agreed but informed her that hey, olives are pretty much supposed to be salty) and a tad mushy (mmmya, you do NOT really want that in olives), feta was good but too salty yet again (there's a theme here) and the bread was perfect and moist. a great mix, if you will.

Mimosa. Perfect. One of the best I've had. Eva.

We HAD to have ourselves some donuts. What? Giving in to a guilty pleasure now and then is fine. Right? RIGHT? These were nutella donuts. Yes AND yes. The time we waited for them: NO! I seriously think we waited a good 25 minutes. TWENTY-FIVE. For three tiny bits of donuts. Come on! I'm sure our waitress forgot to punch it in. Grrr. Well, they were effin delicious. Oh GOD. It was very close to orgasmic. They absolutely saved the day for me. Hot, doughy, smushy, yummy, lemony, nutella-y goodness. Right. In. My. Mouth.

Service was.... meh. Basically, we were told we had to wait 20 minutes but got seated at the bar 5 minutes later (yay!) and then relocated to an actual table because the bar was too high for tiny me (I say it was an all-together way too high bar!). That part was good. And then our waitress came to see us and as soon as she did, I knew I was not going to love her. Or like her. Throughout our meal, it just seemed like she didn't give two shits about us. She was just downright unfriendly. She didn't ask us how our food was, and she was plain rude half the time. The bus girl was way nicer, at least flashing a couple smiles here and there.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5 Donuts clearly saved the day
Service: 6 And we are being nice here

I have many friends that love this bar and go there in the evening to have drinks. I would like to go back and try more on their menu but I'm certainly not going to order the banh me again and imma gonna steer clear of that waitress.

Hoang Oanh

I don't know why but I had been craving a banh mi (uber vietnamese treat) for about a month. Well, that craving was satisfied at Hoang Oanh last Sunday! Called up Lea, told her about my banh mi dreams and set to meet up in Chinatown (I just want to mention how much I appreciate the fact that when I go to Chinatown, I can eat chinese food, korean food, vietnamese food, japanese food etc! Now if it could only be a tad bigger!). Half an hour later, we were there baby!

The place is tiny and has no room to sit, which kind of sucks for people like us who had not planned on eating this loveliness at home. Iz ok, don't cry for me Argentina, we hopped over to the Palais des Congrès and found a comfy sofa to drop our crumbs on :)

Anyhoot, we practically were in and out in 3 minutes! These banh mi girls are fast I tells ya! We didn't want to eat the same sandwich so Lea got the veggie one and I got the beef one. Oh and a big ass ps here, it only cost 4$. Yes I say.

This is the veggie one (and the only good picture---the other ones, they just look like 'well I see some ingredients but it doesn't look like anythin'). Lea had the choice between tofu marinated in curry or marinated in soya sauce. Great choice with the curry; I hardly ever tasted tofu that tasted this good. Ok, rarely. Alright, never. My beef was really tasty too; they apparently really got their proteins right :) Seriously, it was kick-you-in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck fantastic (thanks Rachel) but in a good way. The bread in both sandwiches was a tad stale though which was not that super. Plus, you know, all the crumbs. When we got up, we actually saw a reverse body-shaped crumb infested area on the couch. The veggies were so darn good: just a tad pickled and oh-so-fresh! Carrots, daikon, coriander and a hint of hot peppers; so basically all the right stuff. Oh and there was a little bit of yummy yummy sauce that just made everything better. I's gotta say that the veggies were cut a bit too big but in the end, who gives a crap when it tastes this good? Precisely no one! Oh and the hint of really hot peppers was a good choice on our part; it just gave it a nice little kick.

Although I won't be grading the service because of the super duper short time we were in there, it was great! Fast, efficient, nice. 

And now, the score!

Food: 8

I'll be back every day I can. Now THAT is a promise!

 

Banh Mi Boys

I've been meaning to try Banh Mi Boys for a long time and heard so many good things about it! I totally had to take advantage of the fact that I am finally in Toronto!!

The line!

The kitchen

A short bikeride from my friend S's house, the restaurant is located on Queen corner of Spadina. It's a tiny place, with about 14 seats that are obviously full come lunch time, so get ready to take it to go. We ended up eating it in the shade in a ghetto park we used to go to when we were in high school (ah, the memories!). 

They sell tacos and banh mi with lots of nice sides like kimchi fries, tofu fries, jicama papaya salad and sweet potato fries. OH, they also sell duck confit salad! Yum!

Beef cheek banh mi with onion churtney

Anyhoot, we both had the braised beef cheek banh mi. A-MA-ZING! It came with onion chutney and the usual banh mi trimmings such as cucumber, pickled carrot and cilantro. Mmmm, I started eating banh mi recently (I know, I know...) and this is the best one yet. First of all, they toast the bread right when you order it so it's still nice and warm when you get it. Also, the addition of the cilantro is just mmm, a burst of flavor! The beef was very tender and melted in your mouth but lacked maybe a tad in the seasoning department. The onion chutney was very good and added a little sweet side to the sandwich! If, or should I say when I go back, I totally want to order the kimchi fries! YUM!

As for the service (obviously we're talking counter service here), it is very efficient. You get there, you wait in line, when it's your turn to talk to the very happy looking/smiling girl, you tell her what you want. Then, she asks your name and you wait again--we waited about 10 to 15 minutes in the first line and about 10 minutes in the other. Then someone at the counter asks you if you want hot sauce in there and to what degree. You tell them if it's to eat there (fat chance) or to go and BAM, you leave with a beautiful banh mi.

I must warn you though: beware when you eat the sandwich because mine ended up leaking hot sauce onto my pants and then it was sticky and, well, uncomfortable and narsty. Also, be ready to pay a bit more then you do at other places (mine cost 5,99$). It's totally worth it and I think the fact that they serve original banh mi (five spice pork belly, duck confit, kalbi beef, etc) makes up for it.

And now, the scores!

Food: an average of 8,25
Service: well, I'd say a 9 but let's face it, it's very limited service!

Go there. That's all I have to say. They have original banh mi and I'll just keep going back until I've had all of them. And I live in MTL so that's saying a LOT!

Marché Hung Phat

Last year, I was in Corsica for three months to do my internship. You know what I craved the most while I was there? Going to Hung Phat and buying that lovely mix of beef, cucumber, carrots, bean sprouts, vermicelli, mint and peanuts. Bun Thit Nuong its called and damn is it ever good!

This vietnamese place is more of a restaurant with a tiny grocery section than the opposite. And there are about 8 seats. But people know about this place. OH they KNOW!!!

I used to work at the Sushi Shop in the Marché Jean Talon and so pretty much any chance I got, I was there. Mmmmm... just the smell of it! The beef is marinated in this heavenly sauce and it just melts in your mouth (I swear!) So what you do is you put the whole thing in a huge bowl. Then, you sprinkle the peanuts like so and rip up the mint leaves. Then, of course the sauce. Reminiscent of a spring roll sauce, it's just a tad sweeter. Mmmmm!!!! The whole thing is just great. It's a good thing I don't live near there because I'd always be buying (AND eating!) it!

As for the score, I give it a 10. I have to! 

If you haven't been there, go! Yes, you can get banh mi and the girls are really quick but go for the bun thit nuong and you will NOT be disappointed!

Vua

I was talking to my friend Losalie about going to eat somewhere REALLY cheap and she suggested Vua on St-Denis. This is a relatively new resto since, you know, I haven't noticed it before. Hehe! It's right smack in the middle of quartier latin and all the action. It's a tiny place but packed with good flavours! There are about 10 seats inside and 14 outside. There's also a second floor I did not go and see.

You go in and it's full of people. FULL. But them vietnamese girls are quick! OK, I'm not saying us north americans are slow but come ooooon!!! It's like BAM here's a sandwich, BAM here's another one (yes, I'm aware I say 'Bam' a lot). You choose what kind of Banh Mi or sandwich and you can add extras like bacon or avocado for example. And it's so cheap. 7 inches=3,25$ and for 50 cents more, you get a 10 inch sandwich. Nice. That's my kind of lunch! Good and cheap ;) You don't like Banh Mi type sandwiches? That's ok! There's sushi, eggrolls, spring rolls and a bunch of other lovely asian dishes to choose from. I looooves me some asian food :)

I had the pulled chicken mix on a 7 inch Banh Mi. Th3 3,25$ includes onions, coriander, carrots, radishes, mayo and soya sauce. I thought the bread was a tad on the dry side but the whole thing was just so good and fresh tasting. It was like eating a salad in a sandwich :) As mentioned before, there are a lot of customers so everything is very fresh. They have a very high turnover so they don't really have a choice, which makes it all the more fresh!

I also had something that looked like a pogo. I hate pogos but this one seemed to be screaming out at me. Well, for one thing, it mentioned something about having shrimp in there. It was shrimp and chicken on a sugar cane. Meh. It was more dry than anything else and not super tasty. I tried taking a bite every 5 minutes or so to see if it'd get better, but sadly, no. I think once I started sucking on the sugar cane, I realized I should have just bought that; a sugar cane! 

We had a seat outside so it was really pleasant with the nice weather and the people passing by :) And it was also kind of weird that there's a Subway right beside it. It's like 'Asian Subway' and American Subway' :p

And now, the scores!

Food: 6,5 Damn, it's because of that darn asian pogo stick!

Service: 9 Quick and efficient, but we all know it's not a 'real' restaurant setting.

Go there for a quick bite and/or if you're poor ! Hahaha!

ps: I've decided that if I can't take pictures, I'm not posting any. I'm sick of taking someone else's pics or having to go on the restos' websites and 'stealing' theirs.