The Green Papaya Vietnamese Restaurant

[CanadianFC]

- The Green Papaya Vietnamese Restaurant
- Creekside Shopping Centre in Evanston N.W.
- Food rating 5/5
- Ambience 4/5
- Service 4.5/5

I believe it's a brand new restaurant that just opened in the N.W.
Went there on a weeknight with 2 friends. It has the standard Vietnamese menu with Pho, Vermicelli, and Rice dishes. There were a few unique items on the menu that I didn't see at the regular Vietnamese restaurants as well like a couple of crispy noodle dishes and the papaya salad appetizer.

Food: Me and one buddy ordered the Special rice with pork chop, grilled shrimp, shredded pork, and fried egg. You can't really go wrong with this dish anywhere I guess but the grilled meat and shrimp were pretty tasty. The fishsauce they gave wasn't hot enough for me so I had to add more chili sauce into it.

My other buddy had the Pho Sate and said that it was pretty good as well, but he eats Pho Sate everywhere...

We also had the papaya salad appetizer on recommendation of the waitress and that was pretty spetacular. It was thinly sliced green papaya with herbs, peanuts, beef jerky and a pretty unique dressing. A little on the spicy side if you don't like hot food though, although she did ask if we are ok with hot because if we're not she would tell the kitchen to not make it hot.

Atmosphere: The interior's very modern. Very open and deffinately works with the theme of the restaurant. They have some booths for privacy but I felt the middle of the restaurant was a little too open and sort looks like your typical pho place with the 4 seat tables. Very quiet inside the restaurant even though we chose to sit at the booth closest to the kitchen (not really sure why). There were only 3 other occupied tables so we got our food and drinks fairly quickly. The staff were also all in uniform, incl. the kitchen staff which i thought was pretty uncommon and refreshing for a Viet place.

Cost: $10-15/person

I think the bill for the 3 of us was around $45 which included the tip. This was for 3 main dishes, one appetizer, and one blended drink so not too bad.

I promised the waitress I'd help spread the word. They also have a website at which has a good map of where they're located since it's a pretty new area up there.

http://www.green-papaya.ca/

[dj_rice]

I'm just looking at their prices and wow OVERPRICED....$9.00 for a large Pho Dac Biet...even the regular bowl is $8.00, they must be using Kobe beef

:thumbsdow

[eb0i]

$10-15l per person for Viet food sounds like a freaking rip off. For that price I would hope that I would have a pretty Viet girl sitting on my lap and feeding me it. :thumbsdow


Originally posted by dj_rice
I'm just looking at their prices and wow OVERPRICED....$9.00 for a large Pho Dac Biet...even the regular bowl is $8.00, they must be using Kobe beef

:thumbsdow

Wow...$9 for a pho dac biet....suckers.

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by eb0i
$10-15l per person for Viet food sounds like a freaking rip off. For that price I would hope that I would have a pretty Viet girl sitting on my lap and feeding me it. :thumbsdow



Wow...$9 for a pho dac biet....suckers.


My guess is their catering to the rich White people in the NW neighborhoods, cuz no damn Viets gonna pay $9 for that...and $10.50 for the Special Rice...holy fug...can I say super expensive?

[l/l/rX]

hah ya i work right by it...i go eat there occasionally just cuz ive been getting sick of subway.

it is pricey. its REALLY nice inside though. the utensils they use are VERY nice to.

food is O.K. i've had better, the price doesnt help with the taste. haha

canadianFC you've probably havent been to 17th ave SE yet huh?

[Lucky97]

the dirtyer the Restaurant, the better it tastes

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by Lucky97
the dirtyer the Restaurant, the better it tastes


Fuk yeah...especially with Asian restaurants....



Originally posted by l/l/rX
hah ya i work right by it...i go eat there occasionally just cuz ive been getting sick of subway.

it is pricey. its REALLY nice inside though. the utensils they use are VERY nice to.

food is O.K. i've had better, the price doesnt help with the taste. haha

canadianFC you've probably havent been to 17th ave SE yet huh?


You must be Chinese balla, cause no Nammer would pay that much even if the atmosphere was good, its damn Pho...

[max_boost]

There is always a correlation between prices, decor and location.

I imagine they spent some $$$ to make it look that nice, + expensive rent, it's expected they charge a premium for their pho.

I go to Sunny's with my gf every week and it's $30 including tip. If I go to Pho Hoai, then it's $25 including tip. Both places are good but obviously one is a bit nicer/cleaner than the other.

If this place is good and is that nice, what's wrong with paying a few bucks more?

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by max_boost
There is always a correlation between prices, decor and location.

I imagine they spent some $$$ to make it look that nice, + expensive rent, it's expected they charge a premium for their pho.

I go to Sunny's with my gf every week and it's $30 including tip. If I go to Pho Hoai, then it's $25 including tip. Both places are good but obviously one is a bit nicer/cleaner than the other.

If this place is good and is that nice, what's wrong with paying a few bucks more?


Cause its just PHO.......

[max_boost]

Originally posted by dj_rice



Cause its just PHO....... You'll probably find happy, smiling cute servers at this restaurant vs your typical cheap Vietnamese joint where the middle aged lady looks like she's going to rip your head off if you make any sort of special request.

It might be just PHO but the premium is justified everything else considered.

Are there a lot of Vietnamese people living in the NW? Catering to white folks is the way to go. Asians are just fucking hard to deal with sometimes. LOL

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by max_boost
You'll probably find happy, smiling cute servers at this restaurant vs your typical cheap Vietnamese joint where the middle aged lady looks like she's going to rip your head off if you make any sort of special request.

It might be just PHO but the premium is justified everything else considered.

Are there a lot of Vietnamese people living in the NW? Catering to white folks is the way to go. Asians are just fucking hard to deal with sometimes. LOL


True dat, but from a business standpoint, smart move......praise on them



I think I should open up a upscale Vietnamese Submarine restaurant...

[Justing]

Originally posted by max_boost
There is always a correlation between prices, decor and location.

I imagine they spent some $$$ to make it look that nice, + expensive rent, it's expected they charge a premium for their pho.

I go to Sunny's with my gf every week and it's $30 including tip. If I go to Pho Hoai, then it's $25 including tip. Both places are good but obviously one is a bit nicer/cleaner than the other.

If this place is good and is that nice, what's wrong with paying a few bucks more?



:werd: :werd: :werd: :werd:


i'll check out this place asap. its close and its damn near impossible to find a pho place that is even remotely clean. :thumbsup:

[Justing]

finally had a chance to go tonight

very impressed with this place
substantially nicer than any pho place i've been to in calgary.
The tables are get this... clean and so is everything else!
chopsticks and spoons aren't sitting in a bucket and they ctually have settings.

Food was good and not overpriced.
it was 7.95 for a large pho... seems more than reasonable to me? especially since you can actually sit comfortably in this place.

Service was excellent, the server actually came to see how everything was mid-meal which has NEVER happened to me before in a viet place.

me and the gf had salad rolls, 2 bowls of pho and tea.
bill came to like $19 something, $25 with tip

highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a clean and good pho restaurant:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Ajay]

Think I might check this out tomorrow for lunch. I just checked out their website.

Kinda cool that you can text your order to them!

[l/l/rX]

Originally posted by Justing
finally had a chance to go tonight

very impressed with this place
substantially nicer than any pho place i've been to in calgary.
The tables are get this... clean and so is everything else!
chopsticks and spoons aren't sitting in a bucket and they ctually have settings.

Food was good and not overpriced.
it was 7.95 for a large pho... seems more than reasonable to me? especially since you can actually sit comfortably in this place.

Service was excellent, the server actually came to see how everything was mid-meal which has NEVER happened to me before in a viet place.


the portion though compared to other pho places for the price is smaller. its noticeably smaller.

service is excellent not gonna lie there. everything is superb there, just the portions are smaller. thats all.

so it comes down to, do you want great service (for a pho restaurant), do you want really nice utensils, a clean modern looking pho restaurant and sacrifice your meal portions?

and ya like max_boost said...they primarily rack in the white crowd for their business, seeing how its mostly a white surrounding community.

[adam c]

mmm Phở

[mrjay1987]

I always see this on my way to my house. I didn't know it was pho though. Time to try it out! :thumbsup:

UPDATE: yeah kinda expensive for the portions but it's pretty good.

[smurfette]

Just went there this evening and was very disappointed in the service. There were a few people, and we waited 30 mins for our curry chicken dish...30 mins!! Yet, they were serving other people who came AFTER, with their dishes while we (the only asians) in the restaurant waited. The food was aiight, portions are smaller. But after the horrible service experience, never going back. :thumbsdow

[anhsicun]

i don't know man most pho place that caters to white people usually taste like shit .....rice and other stuff mite taste good but pho taste like shit like all those resturant on 17 ave downtown.....

smurfette u know why u got bad services cuz they know most asian people don;t tip lol my friend use to work at saigon y2k and she hated to serve asian people thier cuz they never tip.

[Cooked Rice]

Hmm. I may try it out. I was just at Saigon Passion in the NE, on the weekend for my 2nd time ever. And I must say it was one of the more cleaner vietnamese places i've eaten at, along with Le Pho's. It's like $7 for a bowl of rare beef pho at Saigon Passion and Le Pho's. I've been going out a lot for vietnamese lately, because I don't live with my parents anymore. They use to make pho for lunch every weekend.

[van]

Probably because Saigon Passion was an old Humpty's / Denny's restaurant that's why lol. Service sucks there too took around 20 minutes for someone to grab our order after sitting us down + they don't offer you any tea or water. It should be standard for tea at any Pho restaurant in my opinion.

[teggypimp95]

This place is horrible. I live really close, and i would never eat there again. Service was bad, (the place was even empty), way over priced for veit food, portions were so small i think i got 3 pieces of meet and the rest was rice and what ever else they had in there.
Ordered the over priced spring rolls, waited wayy to long, stone cold when we got them.

Don’t even get me started on the damn restaurant. The place is like eating in the gym back in Jr high with a bunch of tables folded out. Chairs are totally uncomfortable. Pretty much the worst atmosphere for a restaurant i have seen.

Sorry for the rant but i haven’t been this unimpressed in a long time. My family also went not long ago and they felt the same about it. Stay away and go some where else please.

[dj_rice]

Dun dun dun....did I say it or what

[dj_rice]

Dun dun dun....did I say it or what

[Archea]

My favorite Pho would have to be the Lemon Grass Grill by Chinook Ctrain station lol


mmm....lemon grass chicken :)

Its clean and the food is always piping hot when I get it :)