Large Phở Noodle – rare beef and tripe – $6.00

Mango Milk Shake with Jelly – $4.50

The Backstory:

If you don’t know what Phở is then you’ve been living under a rock for the past 5 years. This Vietnamese beef and noodle soup has been sweeping North America in recent times, with new Phở restaurants popping up everywhere. Like this one – Star King.

Star King Viet Thai Cuisine - 7050 Warden Avenue

Phở has especially won over young food goers for it’s quickness, price, and taste. It’s simple – beef broth, rice noodles, and the beef of your choice; deli sliced, meatballs, etc. It’s often served with fresh basil, lime, bean sprouts or even hot peppers. It’s not hard to screw up, but Star King did.

It bought out a vacated Kelsey’s. It closed down about half a year ago, struggled since it opened alongside a Boston Pizza. Kelsey’s finally closed up and stood as a ghost building for quite some time, with the neighbourhood heavily anticipating what was to come of the prime real estate. Enter Star King, which just opened this week.

The Review:

Large rare beef with tripe - $6.00

- where’s the soup!?! How can you have SOUP noodles, when there’s more NOODLES than soup! THE SOUP COMES FIRST for cryin’ out loud.

- no fresh noodles – there should be an option of ‘fresh’ or ‘dry’ – think fresh coffee or instant coffee, big difference.

- no tapioca, had to settle on jelly. How are you going to serve bubble tea, with no bubbles, ridiculous

- poor service – the restaurant is huge, awkwardly huge. The decor is untouched, poor decision, there are pictures of John Travolta and Tom Cruise everywhere. Phở restaurants are modeled on open-concept vendors in the streets of Hanoi. Waiters were always m.i.a.

The Verdict:

Not doin’ it – 1/5

- Albert