I've known the term "a hole in the wall" to mean a few things. First - quite literally, a hole in the wall... which, unless you're doing home-renos is not necessarily a nice thing. Second, it's the name of a game show that has aired in a number of countries around the world including Japan, Australia and the U.S.... (It's actually kind of funny to watch - check out a clip here). Finally, I know a hole in the wall to be a small, often hard to find place. That's kind of what comes to mind when I think of Golden Viet Thai.
Golden Viet Thai is located on Wellington Street - right in the hub of it all across from The Iron Duke and within steps of Princess Street and all of the foot and car-traffic that comes with it. The thing is, though - that even as someone who lived downtown and walked down Wellington Street A LOT, I never noticed Golden Viet Thai. In fact, I had to be reminded three times where it was while we were planning our weekly adventure because I just couldn't picture it. I'm not sure if this is a direct result of me being completely oblivious to my surroundings unless they directly concern me, or a direct result of this place just not being that well known. Either way, standing in front of the entry to the restaurant, I was surprised that I had never noticed it. The sign is plain and relatively simple, but it is a deep red colour with white font (not very hard to see!) and there is a nice window that is surrounded by lovely dark stone work. I should have noticed it before.
The inside... well, that's not quite as lovely. To be very honest, it is quite "blah"... simple chairs and simple tables that have been "spruced up" with plastic table cloths that, to be quite frank, are bordering tacky rather than attractive (certainly my personal taste). The other kicker - there isn't as much of a sense of pride in the restaurant as you look around at the decor and walls. Things are run-down... There was tape holding some sort of cupboard in the wall by our table shut, walls didn't look clean, and to top it all off, there were a number of cobwebs in the corner by the window where we sat - but even those weren't catching the small fly-like bugs that were flying around. Don't get me completely wrong - I think that picture painted is more disgusting than it truly was... but it certainly wasn't a place I sat looking around thinking "wow!" for any good reasons. I think ultimately, as I said before, it is about pride for me. And Golden Viet Thai's decor doesn't show much of it.
On to the food... The restaurant has been open for 16 years and is family-run. They specialize in food from Vietnam and Thailand and on their website, they state that their mission is to pay tribute to south east asian cuisine using fresh ingredients and creating the best tasting food. If you'd like to have a look at their menu - it's all online, which is great - and it is organized well into appetizers, salads, soup and soup noodles, noodle dishes, rice dishes, vegetarian and specialty dishes. There is a good variety, but I will say that unlike other Thai places in town, "picky-me" didn't feel as though there were lots of things that I would want to try - dishes were either missing things or had things in them that turned me off. Again, though, that is me being picky.
So here's what we chose:
Carrie: #2 BO CUON -Beef Rolls – Fresh Wrapped - Marinated stir-fried beef with vermicelli noodles and lettuce wrapped in rice paper; and #28 KHOA PREOW WAN (Thai Sweet & Sour Chicken) Sweet & sour sauce with crispy chicken, pineapple, cucumber, onion, red and green peppers
Tonia: #1 CHA QIO (Vietnamese Spring Rolls – Deep Fried) Ground pork, shrimp, glass noodles, onion, and carrots wrapped in rice paper; and #22 KAI PHAD PUK RUAM MIT (Thai Red Curry Chicken) Thai red curry sauce with chicken breast, cauliflower, and red and green pepper served on a bed of rice
Todd: #4 CHAI CUON (Vegetarian Rolls – Fresh Wrapped) Tofu, mushroom, bean sprouts, cabbage wrapped in rice paper; and #42 CAI XAU TOFU (Tofu with Mixed Vegetables) Stir-fried tofu, snow peas, carrots, red peppers, onion, celery, and mushrooms served on a bed of rice
Our server was lovely. While she struggled to carry more than a couple of things at once, she seemed absolutely thrilled to be our server, which was nice! Beyond that, food came in good time, and the presentation was simple, but nice. Colours were bright and appealing. Generally speaking, our reviews were mixed with respect to taste, though. Here's the run-down:
Carrie: 1.5 forks. The fresh rolls were good - and pretty hearty - but that's the only thing that kept this rating where it was. I pretty much only ate my main course because I was so hungry. The dish wasn't sweet and sour so much as it was crazy tart. There were very few vegetables (which is disappointing because that is typically what draws me to a dish, and the menu claimed cucumber, red and green peppers, of which there seemed to be too few)... to top it all off, the chicken was deep fried to the extreme. It was dark, chewy and hard. I wouldn't order this dish again.
Samer: 1.5 forks. Like me, Samer liked his rolls (commenting specifically that the shape of the rolls was enjoyable :), but the soup was absolutely awful. Samer said that it was a struggle to eat just the chicken and the soup was very greasy - to the point that not only did Samer leave the majority of his bowl full, but the taste of grease lingered long enough to prompt him to eat a package of Sweet and Low in an effort to have the greasy taste leave his mouth. As you can imagine, that didn't go all that well.
Tonia: 4 forks. Tonia's spring rolls were a touch greasy, but all in all, pretty good. Her meal had a nice flavour, but she was left wishing that there were more veggies. Tonia also found that her dish was a little mono-chromatic, which made it less appealing. Ultimately, had she had more than 2 small bits of green peppers, the dish would have been better on the whole.
It's probably worth a read of the reviews of Golden Viet Thai on urbanspoon.com as well - here, there is a 91% satisfaction rate.
The inside... well, that's not quite as lovely. To be very honest, it is quite "blah"... simple chairs and simple tables that have been "spruced up" with plastic table cloths that, to be quite frank, are bordering tacky rather than attractive (certainly my personal taste). The other kicker - there isn't as much of a sense of pride in the restaurant as you look around at the decor and walls. Things are run-down... There was tape holding some sort of cupboard in the wall by our table shut, walls didn't look clean, and to top it all off, there were a number of cobwebs in the corner by the window where we sat - but even those weren't catching the small fly-like bugs that were flying around. Don't get me completely wrong - I think that picture painted is more disgusting than it truly was... but it certainly wasn't a place I sat looking around thinking "wow!" for any good reasons. I think ultimately, as I said before, it is about pride for me. And Golden Viet Thai's decor doesn't show much of it.On to the food... The restaurant has been open for 16 years and is family-run. They specialize in food from Vietnam and Thailand and on their website, they state that their mission is to pay tribute to south east asian cuisine using fresh ingredients and creating the best tasting food. If you'd like to have a look at their menu - it's all online, which is great - and it is organized well into appetizers, salads, soup and soup noodles, noodle dishes, rice dishes, vegetarian and specialty dishes. There is a good variety, but I will say that unlike other Thai places in town, "picky-me" didn't feel as though there were lots of things that I would want to try - dishes were either missing things or had things in them that turned me off. Again, though, that is me being picky.
So here's what we chose:
Carrie: #2 BO CUON -Beef Rolls – Fresh Wrapped - Marinated stir-fried beef with vermicelli noodles and lettuce wrapped in rice paper; and #28 KHOA PREOW WAN (Thai Sweet & Sour Chicken) Sweet & sour sauce with crispy chicken, pineapple, cucumber, onion, red and green peppers
Samer: #3 GOI CUON (Shrimp Rolls – Fresh Wrapped) Shrimp, vermicelli noodles, and lettuce wrapped in rice paper; and #13 HU TIEU (Chicken Rice Noodle Soup) Chicken stock with rice noodles, shrimp, chicken breast, fish balls, bean sprouts, and fresh herbs
Tonia: #1 CHA QIO (Vietnamese Spring Rolls – Deep Fried) Ground pork, shrimp, glass noodles, onion, and carrots wrapped in rice paper; and #22 KAI PHAD PUK RUAM MIT (Thai Red Curry Chicken) Thai red curry sauce with chicken breast, cauliflower, and red and green pepper served on a bed of rice
Todd: #4 CHAI CUON (Vegetarian Rolls – Fresh Wrapped) Tofu, mushroom, bean sprouts, cabbage wrapped in rice paper; and #42 CAI XAU TOFU (Tofu with Mixed Vegetables) Stir-fried tofu, snow peas, carrots, red peppers, onion, celery, and mushrooms served on a bed of rice
Our server was lovely. While she struggled to carry more than a couple of things at once, she seemed absolutely thrilled to be our server, which was nice! Beyond that, food came in good time, and the presentation was simple, but nice. Colours were bright and appealing. Generally speaking, our reviews were mixed with respect to taste, though. Here's the run-down:
Carrie: 1.5 forks. The fresh rolls were good - and pretty hearty - but that's the only thing that kept this rating where it was. I pretty much only ate my main course because I was so hungry. The dish wasn't sweet and sour so much as it was crazy tart. There were very few vegetables (which is disappointing because that is typically what draws me to a dish, and the menu claimed cucumber, red and green peppers, of which there seemed to be too few)... to top it all off, the chicken was deep fried to the extreme. It was dark, chewy and hard. I wouldn't order this dish again.
Samer: 1.5 forks. Like me, Samer liked his rolls (commenting specifically that the shape of the rolls was enjoyable :), but the soup was absolutely awful. Samer said that it was a struggle to eat just the chicken and the soup was very greasy - to the point that not only did Samer leave the majority of his bowl full, but the taste of grease lingered long enough to prompt him to eat a package of Sweet and Low in an effort to have the greasy taste leave his mouth. As you can imagine, that didn't go all that well.
Tonia: 4 forks. Tonia's spring rolls were a touch greasy, but all in all, pretty good. Her meal had a nice flavour, but she was left wishing that there were more veggies. Tonia also found that her dish was a little mono-chromatic, which made it less appealing. Ultimately, had she had more than 2 small bits of green peppers, the dish would have been better on the whole.
Todd: 3.5 forks. Todd said that the rolls were what he expected, and the dipping sauce was delightful. He was surprised that all of the veggies described in the menu were actually in the meal (looks like we were all in the mood for veggies!), but there wasn't much flavour on the whole.
Overall score: 2.63 forks. Sadly, our last night of the adventure saw one of the lowest scores of the adventure. Would I go back? Probably - I'd be interested to try something different mostly because Tonia and Todd had much greater success. I'm not too sure that Samer would say the same, though...
It's probably worth a read of the reviews of Golden Viet Thai on urbanspoon.com as well - here, there is a 91% satisfaction rate.
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