Golden Turtle – Pho Rua Vang Restaurant

The menu is too large and they can only make Vietnamese food. We ordered Singapore noodles and vegetable fried rice, neither dish looked or tasted like their name sakes. It looked lime they didn’t fry either one.
They brought our dishes out one at a time with 15 minutes between each. My wife asked for the Singapore noodles not to be too spicy and they cooked it without curry.
We will never come back here.

Being in the area, I decided to stop by Golden Turtle to satisfy my hunger. Originally, I was going to order Phở due to my killer cold & fever, but I was craving rice way too much, so i decided to go with the Com 3 Mau (translates to 3 coloured rice, but basically it was chicken, sunny-​side up egg, and pork skin). The food here was pretty good like many other Phở restaurants, so there’s not much to rave about, but I have yet to try the Phở so I’ll update my review then.
The service here is not too bad. All the servers are young Vietnamese males that seem to know more than sufficient English, so no language barrier! One flaw I found was that due to the layout of the restaurant, you often have to wait a little bit to be greeted and seated since all the servers are on the other side of the room. In addition, it might be a little difficult to flag a server done once you’re ready to order. Other than that, service was prompt and positive.
The design of the restaurant is one that sets it apart from other Phở restaurants. It is extremely spacious, with tons of big windows for natural lighting. I haven’t ever been to the previous After Rain, but I would say that this is one of my favourite Phở restaurants in regards to its atmosphere. I can’t say the same for the washroom though, as although is designed well, wasn’t very well kept when I went. Floors were extremely sticky, counter was all wet, and there were no paper towels to dry your hands. Hopefully, they fix this.
Anyways, if you’re looking for pretty average Vietnamese food along with a bright, classy environment, then this is the place for you.

This is my son’s favourite phở place. We eat here weekly. Their phở broth is quite good, especially when you dine in. Phở just never tastes as good when ordering for take out. The service is fast and efficient. The space is clean, and not as cramped as most Vietnamese restos. I do feel that ever since they moved from their old location the food isn’t as consistent. There fore the 3 star rating. Still one of the better Vietnamese places in Sauga.

Best phở broth in Mississauga! Always order the 102 with a mango smoothie. Also, don’t miss out on spring rolls and Chinese donuts.

Solid. Not the best phở, but happy to have it in the neighborhood. Don’t feel it is as good as the location downtown Toronto.

I used to frequent the old location. It was my favourite phở place out west for several years even though there is a plethora of options in the area. They always had that dirty, dingy, only surviving by a thread but somehow so damn addictive kind of feel to them. However, since the move to a much fancier, cleaner and more upscale location they are no longer the same.
Somehow, the soup stock while is still familiar has deteriorated quite a bit. The noodles are not quite done to the perfection they used to be. The flavours are there but somehow just muted and lesser of.
I was careful to not write this review after my first visit to this new location as things seems to have changed so drastically. I questioned whether they’ve changed their chef or ownership but that wasn’t the case. Anyhow, after several visits since I do notice there are marginal improvements to the food but still nowhere near the quality that it was before. Unfortunately, it seems while they’ve upgraded their appearance they’ve also lost their soul. I am hopeful things will turn around and they bring back the glory days of the past.

Absolutely my favourite Vietnamese restaurant. And I’ve eaten at well over 40 Vietnamese restaurants in and out of The GTA. My favourite dish of all time if I had to pick one would be Bun Bo Hue. And these guys make it the best. Second to none. No competition. The beef in this dish is very flavourful which easily sets it apart from other restaurants that make it but put in ¹⁄₁₀ the effort. I have eaten at this restaurant for 14 years, since they were at their old location down the street. Now this new location is stylish, comfortable and spacious, with the same outstanding flavours they’ve always served. They are clearly a restaurant that can withstand the test of time. Always almost a full house, so you don’t question the quality of food but you should always get a table without the wait. Servers are attentive and helpful. The place is clean. The prices are reasonable. What the heck more can you ask for.

Favorite Vietnamese phở restaurant in mississauga hands down. I’ve been a frequent visitor to the old location and now the new location for four years, visiting about once a month.
Quite happy that they moved to the new location as the prior restaurant was run into the ground.
Best phở broth by far and this is coming from someone who’s grown up in Scarborough and a frequent visitor to Richmond Hill/​Markham for Asian fare.
The spring rolls are really great, nice and crispy not like the other sad frozen spring rolls you get warmed up at other phở places.
The owner is a nice man and very courteous and he tells me that they have another new location in Kitchener Waterloo!
If you’re in the area definitely try Golden Turtle and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I’ll remember to add in photos for you guys next visit :)
Regards,

Interior decorating is an art. The previous tenant, After Rain, turned the space into an elegant, modern looking Japanese restaurant. When I heard that my favourite phở restaurant at the time was moving locations here, I was excited to see how Golden Turtle would utilize that same space.
And I ended up super disappointed. They stripped whatever character After Rain brought and seemingly cut as many costs as possible. The result was a much cheaper looking restaurant.
The food was still solid, but is no longer my go-​to spot for Viet food in the city. Phở Queen City has that title now.

Although I enjoy Phở 99 … Golden Turtle is very good. They have more beef and much more tender beef than Phở 99. Been here a few times now and the service is great. Even for Sunday lunch, the place was packed and service was so quick. Delicious phở broth too.

First time at their new location & it looked awesome compared to where they used to be. Clean washroom with French music, chandeliers & everything else exceeded my expectation for how a Phở place should look. The food was okay, 3 stars at best. My seafood Phở could have had more stuff in there, they could have charged more and add mussels and other seafood assorted like My Phở. Sister ordered a special egg noodle, came out late without the special sauce. Their bubble tea could have been a little more well blended, too strong & too much ice.
Extra star is for the staff. Great staff working at the front.

The meat they use in their PHO is top notch. Overall, the phở quality is good to excellent, although noodle is overly cooked. As far as other dishes go, they are mediocre. I am ok to go there, but not enthusiastic.

Price was reasonable and if you have time, you can go across T&T and have a walk.
Today we had their beef noodle soups and I was surprised that they gave us more meat in each of our noodle soup. We also had their deep fried chicken wings. They were freshly deep fried and tasted well with the asian chicken sauce.
Also I think they have the best Viet Coffee…

The food was completely unedible. There were four of us, and when we took our first bites, we all looked up at each other like, «wtf!?» Unanimous.. They were relatively good at their previous location. I don’t know what happened.

I personally work at a Phở restaurant myself and I honestly think their food at this place is terrible. It’s a huge disappointment because it’s a well known fancy restaurant. The portions are extremely small too. I had fried chicken and honestly couldn’t finish, it tasted so dry and old. My sister got a pork rice plate, there was four times more rice than meat, and barely any fish sauce, a normal person would need more than 4 times that much fish sauce to eat all the rice they give you. My dad got phở, and the the brought out a tiny plate of bean sprouts. I was so surprised because I usually give 4 – 5 times that amount at the restaurant I work at. Even the pork tasted terribly prepared and stiff.

As far as Phở goes, this place is pretty good. Service is quick and the place is clean. I’ve only been once to the old location, but this new location seems to be doing well and I haven’t had a bad experience yet. They always have customers but is never rammed, so I got seated quite quickly, even at dinner time on a Saturday. I’m slowly exploring the menu, starting with the tried tested and true, then moving to the more adventurous foods. Parking is ample, but the speed bumps here are a killer. Leave the sports car at home.

Since I use to come here often during my lunch breaks at high school, I figured it was time to write a review about this restaurant; I’d like to inform people that they recently changed locations to the T&T plaza on Central Parkway West.
I like their new location; it’s much closer to my house. The interior is more spacious and definitely cleaner & newer looking compared to their previous location. As for their phở, it’s okay; I usually order an XL Phở Dac Biet and the broth had too much MSG for my taste. The meat and phở noodle ratio was not balance as they gave way more phở noodles than meat.
In terms of food, what I like better is their rice and vermicelli dishes. My favourite dishes are the BBQ chicken with fried rice and the BBQ pork chops with steamed rice (I sometimes order a fried egg with these dishes). Each dish comes with a side of soup from their phở broth.
Overall, I like the rice and vermicelli dishes better than the phở but that’s because my mom’s homemade phở will always be #1 to me so I guess I’m a little bias from that standpoint.

Great Phở: the noodles, the broth, The beef the, chicken… a real delight, but was not impressed with the service, but isn’t it all about the food, right?

This place is great, but not quite as great as it was at its old location. The food is pretty much the same, but I think the service has taken a hit since they moved to the new location. I always liked golden turtle phở over other places because the broth just has an extra something that makes it fantastic. It’s like almost ‘minty’. The broth is what makes the meal, so its the most important factor. This place has the best.
I’m sure once they get their sh– together with the new location, it will once again be a 5 star experience.

Nice open space with tasteful décor. We were seated promptly and the place was busy at lunch on Saturday.
We ordered phở (101 and 111), steamed rice rolls and jackfruit shake. The service is pretty quick but they seem rather disorganized. Wrong orders brought to tables. Large trays holding large bowls of soup intended to expedite food delivery are accidents waiting to happen. The tray is too big to fit on the table so the poor guy has to wait for someone to come take them off the tray and put them on the tables. The food quality is the same as their original location.

I came here about a month ago and wasn’t very pleased. I ordered a curry beef dish and while this was my fault, I didn’t know it didn’t come with rice. However, I was eating by myself and not many people eat curry without rice. This was something the waiter should have picked up on this and told me it didn’t come with rice.
However, this wouldn’t automatically get them two stars. What really annoyed me was that asking for white rice was very confusing for them. It took about 5 minutes for them to come to my table and then when I inquired another 5 minutes later, they said it was coming. So they re-​heat my food and then there is still no rice! I had to ask 3 times for white rice. Ridiculous.
In addition, this place is dirty (even though it is new). Overall, there are much better phở places. I’d rather to the Phở Mi 99 or Phở Queen city than this place.

Would not recommend this place. I usually go to phở hung or phở mi asia. But this was close to T and T so we tried it out.
So many waiters running around but no one paid attention to the customers. Need to train staff better.
Had bun bo hue. Couldnt eat it. So much fat. I couldnt taste the broth, just lard.
The chicken dish was just okay, nothing special but did not come with rice. Honestly what phở place have rice separately and when we asked if it came with rice so we could order it the guy didnt understand us.

I don’t know what happened but after they relocated to this new location everything has gone downhill. All the previous employees at their old location are now replaced by new ones. So during my most recent visit everyone was literally walking around clueless and handing out orders to the wrong table.
My family and I always expect delicious phở from Golden Turtle but were very disappointed. It took about 20 minutes for our phở orders to come out. When it eventually came to our table all of the noodles were broken. My dad waved over an employee and all he did was awkwardly say that the kitchen staff are new. My dad replied back that this restaurant has been opened for 20+ years so this is not what returning customers expect. The owner then told her employees to send back all of our orders and make new ones. After another 5 – 10 minute wait we finally had the Golden Turtle phở we were expecting. We were highly unimpressed and definitely will not be visiting anytime soon.
I hope Golden Turtle steps up their game and clean their new location up because it’s quite dirty. The windows and floors are not clean. It’s as if they ran their old location into the ground before switching to a newer location. Additionally, I really dislike how they have so much MSG in their broths. You’ll get really thirsty after eating there.

Golden Turtle is a great find for me in Mississauga. I have long wanted to find a Vietnamese restaurant that tastes like how things were 2 decades ago. I also like the aroma of fish sauce hitting my nostrils before I am seated. Golden Turtle delivers on both accounts.
I ordered a BBQ Chicken on Rice, and my BF ordered a Red Curry Fish with Bamboo and Eggplant. The BBQ chicken was actually grilled lemongrass chicken. The Chinese name more accurately describes this entrée. The lemongrass chicken tasted *perfect*. It was tender, sweet and with an aroma of lemongrass. I wish there was more chicken, because there was about 2 bowls of white rice that came with the chicken. BTW, the fish sauce that came along was undiluted, which was exactly how it is supposed to be and how I like it.
The Red Curry Fish was tasty. I cannot attest to its Thai authenticity but it tasted bold and creamy. There were lots of bamboo and eggplant, but it could have more fish. It went so well with white rice that too bad you must order the rice separately. BF solved this problem by eating half of my rice. (And with this help, there still was just enough chicken to go with the reminding rice).
Both my BF and I were pleasantly surprised by the services. The waiters were very polite and well spoken. They didn’t just place the plates onto the table; they tried to present the plates nice and neat in front of us. And after we had finished, a waiter asked us how we found the food and if we liked it. My BF and I were like «wow».
If only the portion of the protein (fish and chicken) was more in proportion with the overall entrée and the rice, the food would be 4 stars on its own easily.
As it is now, food 3.5 stars. Services add 0.5 stars. Overall 4 stars.

We’ve been eating at Golden Turtle for many years, but have only been to this new location twice.
The phở broth is the best in Mississauga and the vermicelli dishes are great, with generous portions of protein.
The servers are very friendly and efficient.