On a cold rainy afternoon, Grayson and I decided that we wanted something warm and soup-y for lunch. Originally we were wanting to go to Thai, but Chad Thai was closed, so we headed of to the next best option, Broken Rice for Vietnamese. Broken Rice is a Vietnamese restaurant that tries to put modernized twists on the traditional cuisine.
Upon being seated, the waitress provided us with our menus and told us the daily specials right away. This was new for us because this generally doesn’t happen at Vietnamese restaurants, at least not at the ones we go to. After her little intro, she quickly left to bring us our tea. Grayson loved the tea here, and asked if I knew what was in it. Although I do love my tea, I’m no connoisseur so I couldn’t provide him with any answers.
Duck confit sliders
To start we decided to try the duck confit sliders ($5.75) which was shredded duck meat in a steamed bao with pickled carrots and cilantro. I thought they tasted familiar but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was until Grayson pointed out that they tasted like Peking duck. Grayson wasn’t a fan of them but I thought they were alright.
Spring rolls
It was crispy, crunchy and packed full of pork, carrot, taro and woodear mushrooms. It came with fish sauce on the side to dip them in. These were among one of the crispiest spring rolls I had ever seen. They reminded me of the ones found at Le petite saigon.
Lemongrass chicken with rice
Even though we were looking for something soupy, Grayson ended up ordering lemongrass chicken on broken rice ($8,75). He said that the chicken was not as oily as one at he had at Saigon Bistro a couple weeks ago. While he enjoyed this seemingly lighter and healthier aspect of the chicken. He said if a less health conscious person was eating it, they might feel as though it was dry because of this. He enjoyed his meal, but thought that the portion size could have been a little larger.
Hot and sour seafood pho
I ordered the hot and sour seafood pho ($8.75). It was listed on the menu along with the other pho options with two sizes, so I ordered it small. When the bill arrived, I was charged for a larger size so I asked why and the server told me that my specific noodle soup only had one size. It was not a big deal but it was a little confusing to me as to why this was not specified on the menu.
Anyway, I enjoyed this dish a lot. I was surprised when I found five large mussels and three large shrimps in my broth. Most of my mussels weren’t open so they took a bit of effort to eat and since they weren’t fully opened, they were a little on the undercooked side. In the soup, I also found tomatoes, cilantro and a few fresh pineapple slices (so glad they weren’t canned!). I thought the broth was really flavorful and had a good amount of spice. I would definitely have this one again! Look at all this marvelous seafood!
On another visit..,
Vegetarian vermicelli
The vegetarian spring rolls it came with were filled with 100% veggies. They were crispy and crunchy just like the non-veggie version. The vegetarian vermicelli came with more rice noodles than I could stomach and lots of crispy tofu. I expected this tofu to be similar to fried tofu puffs but they weren’t. They actually resembled Taiwanese styled deep fried tofu where they were practically crunchy in texture. The bowl came with a side of pickled veggies and soy sauce to stir into the noodles. I swapped it for fish sauce though because I love the stuff.
I think this will become my new neighbourhood go to for a nice hot bowl of pho. The prices are a little on the higher end in comparison to other Vietnamese restaurants, but after having my noodle soup, I think that it’s worth the money.