Green Lemon Grass

I’ve been here a few times, it is usually busy especially during lunch hour. One of only few Viet resto that I visit in Richmond. Unlike other phở places where your food comes the minute your tea is poured, be prepared for a few mins wait which I dont mind. I havent had the usual beef phở yet as I am very picky about it. Spring rolls are golden fried, crispy in traditional rice paper. Chicken cabbage salad was good. Grilled meats quality cuts. I also had the hu tieu ha tien with lots of meat and seafood, although I find the sauce a bit too salty and lack fried onion oil flavor. A variety of dishes on menu. Not your ordinary phở resto.

The quest for good phở continues!
This place was solid. Prices were on the lower end which was good, but the phở itself was slightly above average.
I had the house special phở and my wife had the chicken phở. House special had tripe and tendon which I love and find fewer and fewer places using. Broth was nice but a little sweet oddly enough. Noodles were a gummy lump on the bottom of the bowl which was disappointing.
My wife’s chicken phở had a delicate broth… To the point that we both had trouble getting any flavour out of it. That said, hers came with chicken, chicken balls and a quail’s egg (nice surprise).
We also started with the salad roles. Standard filling wrapped in a too-​chewy wrapper.
Ambience is your typical mismatched décor found in cheaper establishments and cleanliness was slightly below average.
Probably end up back again as our previous favourite in Richmond was torn down to make way for condos, but the quest for perfect phở continues!

I am surprised by the high ratings of this restaurant considering the food taste like dog crap. Tables are small and cramped and our food took a long time to come out.
I ended up ordering T20 which was shrimp and pork with garlic sauce dry rice noodles. I got two pieces of tiny shrimp and lots of uneditable pork liver. Noodles were flavorless. Family had phở wasn’t impressed said everything was flavourless and watered down.
Servers were busy huddled together gossiping they seemed annoyed whenever customers needed something. More pricer than other establishments but with worst food will never come back.

Both soups taste good, but the spring roll is over-​cooked and stuffing tastes weird. Recommend the soups, but not spring roll.

I enjoy eating at this restaurant on a regular basis. The décor is lacklustre but the food is absolutely amazing. Once you find the dish you love, you’ll never eat anything else. However one complaint I have is sometimes the utensils are dirty. Even so, if you notify the staff, they’ll wordlessly and quickly replace them.

Asian food pet peeve No. 2 (after giving me cold rice) — not waving the noodles out when you cook them! The «bowl» of noodle (seriously it was still bowl shaped when I got it, so obviously pre cooked) sat sadly at the bottom of overly sweet beef phở and everything was stuck together. My soupy noodle fiend of a nephew refused to eat his chicken phở because the noodles and chicken were both icky.
Their spring rolls were very tasty though, so from that conjecture, my brother in law’s spring roll bun must have been ok… though he also left lots of noodles behind. The fresh soy milk was delicious as well, but really, more than 50% of the food served was sub par.
Finally, they were quite slow and inattentive so not recommended for a quick meal before a catching a flight.
P.S– I did love the messed up Mexican/​Greek/​Vietnamese décor, a total shame about the food.

I’ve been here a few times for lunch since I work in Richmond now (and am shortly to move here! EEP!), and I’ve also been for dinner so I think I’m about ready to give this place a review. I can’t speak to its authenticity (although a Vietnamese friend brought me here the first time), but I can speak to its yumminess! The soups are great, the spring rolls are always fresh and not too deep fried (and made with real rice paper wrappers — lots of places aren’t doing that anymore), and the portions are huge. Basil beef is a real winner and the «B-​40» seems to be a big favourite among my co-​workers — I think that’s beef satay with spring rolls and vermicelli noodles?
It’s always busy, and I wouldn’t give the place an A-​plus in terms of ambience, customer friendliness or service, but it IS delicious, and has been voted «Best of Richmond» a number of times over the years. And lunch service is always lightning-​fast, so it’s easy to get in and out over your lunch hour. Be prepared to wait a little longer for your food during dinner hour though — just a lil’ tip.

Came here a couple nights ago around 9pm for a late dinner. Surprisingly it was still pretty busy but there was still a good amount of parking outside the restaurant.
Was seated quickly, but when we were ready order, they were so busy that it took awhile before the server could return to take the order. The server did appear sincere and apologetic for the wait. I ordered my usual large phở tai.
The bean sprouts and lime come out soon after. At least 20 minutes go by and I’m wondering where the heck my phở is. The tables around me appear to have gotten their food and it was food that would have taken longer to make than phở. Not impressed.
Was able to finally flag down another server to check up on my order. Of course after that, my phở tai comes out minutes later. I suspect my order went «missing». I received no explanation or apologies.
First thing I notice when my order came out was my beef was not rare. Clearly it’s been cooking so long in the broth that the beef is well done now. Also for a large phở, I didn’t feel like there was a «large» proportion of meat. Granted their beef slices were longer than most places, I still felt I didn’t get as much meat as I would have liked for a large. The broth was actually pretty good. Quite clear and not oily. I’m not sure if it was because I was very hungry at the time, but even the noodles were pretty good. Not as bland as some other restaurants. But overall, the phở was definitely not worth waiting 20+ minutes.
Hard to say if I would come back. They have convenient parking and accept credit card. But the lengthy wait for a phở which didn’t have the meat that I wanted really left a sour taste in my mouth (figuratively speaking) despite the good broth and noodles.

Back down to a 3. They’ve raised their prices by ~$ 1 each item and I came there this week and again, it took way too long to receive an order of spring rolls and one order of phở. Also, it was sooo hot and stuffy in the restaurant. We moved outside to the patio but the utensils were really gross.
So, I am deducting 1 star!

If you are a fan of spring rolls this place rocks. I often order the chicken or pork satay and spring roll over vermicelli and always find it satisfying. The spring rolls are pretty darn big and taste great. I have also had their House Special Phở and their rare steak and brisket Phở and they are both good. Their vietnamese subs are pretty decent too.
Did I say I like their spring rolls?

Still my favorite phở place in greater Vancouver. Everything is just so fresh and good. Missed the food here so much when I was away.

Used to go to this place all the time since it is a generally nicer venue than other phở places but realized the food is average and expensive relative to the the portion size and the service is TERRIBLE.

My coworkers were raving to me about how ‘amazing’ this place is, so I just had to try it. I’ve learned now to take what others say with a grain of salt. It was decently good, but not amazing. We ordered the House Special phở and beef ball phở. The toppings were skimpy. I’ve eaten at many Phở restaurants and this place was so cheap on the meat toppings with our noodle broths. The broth was hot, clean, and non-​greasy, I read that there is no MSG in the soup so the soup was a bonus for me. The appetizer bean sprouts came hot and were very fresh, but I prefer my bean sprouts raw. I didn’t like the Spring Rolls too much. They were all right, I guess I’m used to the usual crunchy spring rolls. These ones were kind of bubbly fluffy so it didn’t feel like the regular crispy kind I like. Service is very attentive so that’s a plus. Anyway, it’s just OK, I’ve had much better Phở elsewhere.

I often go to the kingsway location and have tried 3 different dishes there (read my reviews there) and they were all exceptionally good. My first visit here and for lemon grass chicken and I’m very disappointed. I’ve never tasted such bland lemongrass chicken and I’ve been ordering this dish at various restaurants in Vancouver for at least 20years.
To be descriptive the grilled chicken was thoroughly marinated with a «diluted» mixture that made it lightly red in color, barely any lemon grass was on the chicken and even lesser was the taste. Rice was plentiful, accompanying salad was fresh. Sauce was the usual potency.
I assume the other locations would use the same marinate process but I’m not sure I want to risk a good meal to it.
Service decent. Decors decent but not a place for a «date». Pricing good.

I’m familiar with Vietnamese food, this one is «different». Noodle soup was served cold and watery. Beef brisket was as tough as goodyear tire. T’was our first and last.

Had lunch here today. The service was quick the food was decent. This is a great place for a quick bite

I tried to salvage my bowl of House Special Phở by dunking in jalepeno pepper, basil leaves, hoisin sauce, one after another
I also tried pinching in the lime juice and picking out the scraps of under-​cooked beef stripes and the pathetic-​looking slices of red onions — but all efforts were futile…
The soup was not hot enough to soften the fresh (yes, fresh!) bean sprouts so they tasted very tart in my mouth. The broth was… beyond unimaginative, like the owners didn’t even bother to try.
Worst yet, the raw beef slices (albeit big slices) were so chewy that I decided to give up despite being a carnivore.
I feel I wasted my money and my palette on a bowl of nonsense.
No cheerios for you Green Lemon Grass. *shudders*

Nothing too earth-​shattering for typical Viet food here, but at this time of year, it’s a rarity to have an outdoor patio right on Westminister too.
Free parking too.
cozy atmosphere but does feel old.

On a cold, cloudy Vancouver night a bowl of hot Phở is what my friends and I craved.
Weekday night there was barely anyone there so finding parking in their tiny lot was easy. Once inside the restaurant we were greeted and seated promptly. The tea came quickly, and luckily it did because it was quite cold inside the restaurant — the only heat source I saw was a heat lamp. Regardless we ordered right away and hoped the food would arrive soon.
We shared the Spring Rolls. The skin was thick and very crispy. The ends of the spring roll didn’t have much filling and were slightly over-​fried but the middle had just enough. I was sad the fish sauce that came with it didn’t have that familiar stinky, fishy goodness to it — it was very very dilute in taste.
My bowl of phở arrived with plenty of onions but not enough (if any) cilantro. I’m used to lots of cilantro in my phở. Regardless, the noodles were excellent — chewy and cooked perfectly. The meat was thinnly sliced and not hard. The beef tendon was soft and melted in my mouth.
The waitress was attentive and cleared our plates appropriately.
Overall, for my first time it was a decent experience and my bowl of phở really did warm me up and fill me up — so mission accomplished! Next time I’ll look phở-​ward to trying some of their other dishes — rice dishes, other rolls, papaya salad… yum!

Holly crap! What happened? The food was terrible beyond believe.
I used to love their Bun Bo Hue but my gosh the food was so bad to the point I couldn’t stomach the whole bowl (which I almost always do finish) and I hate wasting food. The portion shrunk — noodles, meats and pork knuckle. I think what really killed it was the soup base. It was diluted, WAY too much MSG or instant stock powder. It didn’t taste like real beef bone broth. It was bad. The spiciness couldn’t even cover up the soup that’s poorly done.
My brother ordered a phở with meat balls and tripe. His soup tasted even worse without any spiciness. Again, there was that artificual sweetness rather than the sweetness you get from real vegetables.
We ordered a deep fried spring rolls to share. The skin was a bit thick but the stuffings were quite generous. A tad too salty but it was not bad.
I don’t think I’ll come back for my phở fix here any time soon.