The Viet Noodle Guy

Food Quality
Atmosphere / Services
Reasonable Priced
Summary

The viet noodle guy is a Vietnamese restaurant focused on pho and banh mi. They serve pho on the ground floor and banh mi on the second. I was driving by the other day and noticed this restaurant by the long lineup outside. So I decide to come a little earlier today and give it a try. The viet noodle guy is located on Rosser Avenue near Lougheed Highway, Burnaby

Strength: Near many residential towers.

Weakness: Mediocre food, expensive, dirty.

Other Vietnamese Restaurants

• Pho D’Lite (3.5 Stars)
• Hanoi Old Quarter Restaurant (4.5 Stars)
• Ba Le Deli and Bakery (4.5 Stars)
• Au Petit Cafe (3 Stars)

Trendy looking Vietnamese Restaurant

The exterior has concrete structure, white column and black storefront window frame. It looks very subtle and trendy. I was excited and ready to let my palate experience something new.

Banh mi area with a convenient entrance

As soon as I enter, I immediately noticed the spacious double height space. The cashier aligns the front entrance. There are some seats to the right, with a column in the middle of the space. On the left side, I see approximately 40 seats and a staircase leading up to the second floor where it says “Viet Sub, Banh Mi”. There’s a separate entrance in closer proximity to the stair. There is about 60 seats on the ground floor.

Tables and chairs looks clean but actually dirty

Interior This restaurant has concrete exterior structure. The interior was finished in white paint with black accent. The table are white artificial marble, and the chairs are black plastic. All table wares are also black.

We arrived at 11:40 when the store was not very busy. One of the waitress lead us to our table and we saw a lot of grease mark on the plastic chair. She swapped the chair for us, but did not clean the dirty chair. I don’t know which customer end up sitting on it after. I leaned my forearm on the table while reading the menu, and found the table to be very sticky. The Viet Noodle Guy looks trendy and clean, but is actually quite dirty.

1.5″ away from the next table

Our table was 1.5” away from the next table. This is something you would see in lower end Vietnamese restaurants. Later, when we received our bill, it was combined with the table next to us. This makes this restaurant looks unprofessional, and very sloppy.

Not the best service

The staff was not very friendly. One waitress came to take our order twice, and eventually give up to ask her colleague to take our order. All these happened within 5 minutes of me sitting down. I tried to ask for their popular dish without answer. All they responded was “What you want to order?” , twice. There was no smile, and it feels like they just want to get me to order so they can be done with me.

Old sticky bottles for a new place

I’m not sure if this is a retro style they try to showcase only on the hoisin sauce bottle. For a new restaurant opened less than 3 months, everything in the store looks new except for these sauce bottles. The colors on the labels are peeling and is very sticky on the outside. I didn’t bother picking it up the second time.

Vietnamese iced coffee

My Vietnamese iced coffee was served the traditional way, with a tall glass of ice and a highball glass with coffee dripping onto the condensed milk.

Vietnamese coffee is not that good. The coffee is a little bright. The coffee feels watered down.

Fried Ham

The fried ham has a larger portion than I expected. It is deep fried on the outside before it’s cut. The deep frying formed a crispy outer shell. Other than that, this is just your normal Vietnamese ham.

Deep Fried Chicken Wings

I like how the chicken wings have options for half order. However the chicken wing’s quality is not very high. The fried chicken wings’ batter is a the stale-crunch type. It is also very floury. The interior is on a bit of the dry side but still have some juice.

Dipping sauce is not authentic lemon with seasoning. They use vinegar instead. I was disappointed.

Lemongrass Chicken Rice

The lemongrass chicken was pretty good. The grilled chicken was charred and has a good smell. The meat has a good chewy texture. The chicken is a little too sweet.

P1 Viet Noodle Special

As mentioned in the Pho D’Lite review, I like to order pho special to get a taste of everything. This generally give me a good idea of how good everything is in a pho restaurant. For The Viet Noodle Guy, their soup is too sweet and not hot enough. I was very thirsty after dining here. The rare meat was tough to chew after cooked. There is a thick piece of the tendon which is well cooked with good chewiness. The beef brisket was the best part of the special. It has a decent thickness and was very tender

604 Food Critic Assessment

I was wrong about The Viet Noodle Guy. They are not a trendy Vietnamese restaurant. It’s just a typical pho restaurant in a new building to charge us a higher price. The poor service is definitely a downside that hit this restaurant hard. After all, why would I pay to be treated like I did if the food did not even attract me that much? For $20 per person, The Viet Noodle Guy is way too costly for what they have to offer. Not recommended.

Menu

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How to get in touch

• Phone: (604) 336-4888
• Address: 1902 Rosser Ave, Burnaby
• Hours: 10:30 am – 9:00 pm, Tuesday 10:30 am – 3:00 pm