Under new management, still great but not as homey. No more big round tables, no more little dishes of fresh chilies with your soup, no more fish sauce. No more green papaya salad; instead there’s a broader range of wraps and rolls, and some Thai choices as well. But the soups are delicious and come with generous portions of condiments, and it’s one of the few Pho places here that includes cilantro leaves.
The trick with this restaurant is to look past their older, less aesthetically-pleasing appearance. Pho Bac may not be well-decorated, but it's a great place to try some of Vietnam's more traditional foods, the ones that go beyond your simple pho or rice & grilled meat plates.
The two special dishes that Pho Bac does best in Ottawa is their "banh cuon" (rice rolls with meat and chinese black mushrooms) and their "bun cha ca" (spicy fish noodle soup). Any Vietnamese person attest to the authenticity that Pho Bac has mastered with these two dishes. Their spring rolls are also particularly unique, as they follow a more Northern recipe using rice paper, leaving them chewier yet very crispy.
Great traditional vietnamese food. My 3 favourite dishes from this restaurant are Bun cha ca(rice noodle soup with chop tomato and fried fish cake) a little spicy but very yummy; Cha gio (crispy spring rolls deep in prepared fish sauce) very tasty appetizer; and the Rice rolls with stuffy so deliciously smooth on every bite. I come to Pho Bac every time I have a chance to come down town.
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