Kim Lan Vietnamese Restaurant

We ordered Chicken Satay Soup (Spicy) and shrimp rolls for take out… must say great food! Mighty impress with quantity, super quick service (within 10 minutes) and taste!

Décor wasn’t much to be desired but that’s typical for many similar restaurant types. The phở’ was great and was served with a smile. My fiancé who doesn’t typically like Vietnamese food enjoyed the vermicelli bowl. I would go back especially considering the prices.

The staffs have no characters. The food is in anyway economically prepared. Scrapings place together.
Mediocre. For the economy to have consumers.
You will get hoax. Coax. Wow.
A serve of garbage for ten dollars.

Wanted a quick lunch and can always go for Vietnamese food. The service is bare and non-​existent. The waitresses are just order takers and not overly friendly or helpful. Ordered some Phở and it came quick. The Phở was ok. Not the best or worst I have had, but it was just meh. Prices are a bit higher then average.
Won’t be hurrying back anytime soon. There is lots of other Vietnamese restaurants in NW Calgary I would rather spend my money at.

I’ve eaten a lot of phở around town and in my opinion this was one of the worst places ever. The food was dull and not very fresh looking or tasting. The ambience was uncomfortable for some reason as well.

Most amazing Vietnamese I’ve probably ever eaten. I have no idea what these bad reviews are about. I pride myself on the fact that my fiancé and I have tried several in the city and we just keep coming back.
We always have the prawn salad rolls to start, I love that they have the option for 2 rolls as most are 3+ and that’s too big of a starter for us. I switch between the pork and spring roll vermicelli and the beef and spring roll vermicelli and love them both. I would prefer the beef to not be cooked quite as well usually but they are both amazing. The fish sauce is great. My fiancé 90% of the time gets the rare beef phở which is also amazing. I try his broth at every restaurant and this is by far the best I have had. I find the broth a lot of places to be super bland but this is amazing, so much so that I can usually finish most of my food and still manage to want to steal some of his soup at the end.
We went with friends last week and our one friend had the sweet and sour chicken which was epic. One thing I can say about this place is that the food always tastes fresh.
We usually go to Kim Lan once or twice a week, mostly eat in but take out as well and the take out is always ready in 10 mins.
Super friendly service and amazing food!

Eat here a few times weekly and always receive speedy, friendly service and delicious food!

Josh and I popped in for lunch over the weekend while in the area. As soon as we were seated, I checked the Unilocal reviews and was momentarily frightened. I figured it’s pretty hard to mess up Vietnamese, so we gave it a shot and decided to order.
We started with the prawn salad rolls, I had the rare beef phở and Josh had the beef & spring roll vermicelli. The ladies that are taking your order and serving you are not polite, friendly, or overly helpful. They generally do all of this without saying a word to you, which is strange and slightly scary. –1 star for service!
Our salad rolls were fine, none of this «poorly wrapped» business I read about. Sauce seemed okay and the rolls were pretty tasty. My soup came out hot and full of (completely cooked) beef, but the broth was quite bland and boring. Josh ate his entire bowl but he agreed it wasn’t the best he’d ever had.
I probably wont return because of all the other great Viet places in the city, but it didn’t kill us, so I’d say it’s A-​OK.

Yoinks for all the bad reviews! I’ve eaten here plenty of times without seeing a lot of what people are complaining about.
I’d consider this place solid but not awesome. A 3 – 4 most trips I’ve been in.
Keep in mind I do NOT eat seafood and I don’t think anyone I’ve been with has ever ordered any either.
My must have is the mango bubble tea with lycée jelly over pearls.

I decided to further investigate why this restaurant was so atrocious. And I can conclude that 1 star is too generous.
One of my work associates is Vietnamese and having a background in this cuisine was able to give me some insight to the salad roll fiasco. Surprisingly when I had told the details of the vomit-​inducing situations which I shall now herein refer to as salad-​rollgate, I was horrified and happy that I didn’t end up in the hospital.
The reason the sauce looked like vomit was indeed because the sauce was old, according to her, the sauce if stored for a period of time will separate from the other ingredients, primarily peanut butter, hosin sauce, and water –this is correct because the sauce looked like runny poo. In fact the sauce should be disposed of at the end of the day because it does not require refrigeration and is meant to be eaten at room temperature. This sauce looked like it was about a week old and was cold and had ambiguous floaties on top when I opened it.
Second, the salad rolls. Often times these apps are made in advance as they are difficult to work with and are also meant to be eaten at room temperature. The rolls were hard in some areas and the shrimp smelt like a decaying caracas. Shrimp meat should also be consumed within 24 hours of thawing. I can’t say for certain how old the shrimp was but if I could smell it in my car, back seat, wrapped in plastic, in a container, then something isn’t right! These also should be disposed of at the end of the day.
Salad-​rollgate has been investigated and my case is closed. I will warn others about going next door to Mucho Burrito though, the business license bears the same name as the license at Kim Lan, so run, don’t walk away from these two places, its apparent their only interest is in saving a few bucks.
You all have been saved from a Burrito-​gate investigation in the future.
I’m out.

We wanted a quick casual meal for a reasonable price this evening. We went to Kim Lan at about 830pm (it closes at 9pm) and were literally in and out in a half hour. Service very friendly and knowledgeable about the menu which is quite lengthy! The restaurant was clean and not too busy. We had a seat and ordered the chicken phở soup and the shrimp and spring rolls on vermicelli. The soup literally came out in 3 minutes, hot and well seasoned. I had to wait for my meal — this happened before at this restaurant the one other time we have been here. I think everyone should eat together, no? So, no big deal, I waited and sipped my jasmine tea (only $ 1 for a pot of it!). The vermicelli that arrived before me was a bit clumpy, likely the last batch of it made before they shut the place down. I had asked for my meal to be extra spicy and there was supposed to be satay on the shrimp. I politely told the gal I could not taste anything spicy thus she took the satay off the bill saving me 50 cents. :) As always I had my cayenne pepper with me that saved the dish. The spring rolls were hot, crispy and deelish. The shrimp were good too, not overcooked and I found the portion sizes to be quite generous. I have had better bowls but I ate it all and we both left satisfied. I do not know of anywhere else in Calgary where 2 people can eat for $ 20 total.
Thanks Kim Lan for providing us what we came for — quick and casual dining!
(Kim Lan is located in the Beacon Hill shopping centre so PARKING is never an issue. This is one of many things I love about living in the burbs!)

Calgary is one of the best places to have Vietnamese food, our population of ethnic Vietnamese especially in the NE makes our noodle soups really amazing. The drive down to the NE isn’t always an easy one, so having a place to have Phở in the NW is always a welcome.
But this restaurant is not all that welcoming. I found the restaurant disappointing when it first opened 2 years? back and this time it was even worse. We dropped by just after the lunch rush and the food we were served was premade stuff from lunch, it was cold and dry to start, and incredibly unflavorful.
I honestly don’t understand how people find this place to be a 4 – 5 star. Anyone who’s had good Phở in Calgary would agree this place is not worth the drive, or the money. Sorry Kim Lan, you are now on the list of bad Phở places in the NW (of which there are too many).

I’ve tried this place twice and wasn’t overly impressed. I’ve only tried the vermicelli dishes here and they didn’t have much flavour. This is disappointing since there’s not much selection for Vietnamese in the far NW.

Bah! Where’s the health inspector when u need one?

I can’t say our recent meal was bad, it was all just very forgettable. The salad rolls were loosely wrapped (made them very difficult to eat without everything falling out), spring rolls were greasy (but tasty) and the sweet & sour chicken and beef phở tasteless. Had to add a LOT of hoisin and sambal to add some life.

I think Kim Lan is a great place to stay in for lunch or take out. The first time I went there I was only so-​so on it because I usually get chicken and spring rolls on rice vermicelli when I go for viet food, and I found theres a little lacking in flavour. I decided to give it a second try, and I’m glad I did. I’m a sate sauce junky, so I asked if I could switch the noodle bowl with lemongrass chicken to sate sauce. Problem solved, this was one of the best dishes I’ve had at a vietnamese restaurant. I also always get an order of salad rolls to go, I think they have one of the best peanut sauces around for flavour… you might disagree if you like a thick sauce because theirs is not. The service is also quick, the servers very friendly and accommodating. It was also great to watch the Olympics on one of the 2 large televisions they have at either side of the restaurant while I ate my yummy meal.

Yeah, the sate is amazing. Everything else is no better or no worse than other places in the city. The only drawback is the price. It is like $ 1 – 2 more than average for Vietnamese food. Viet food is supposed to be cheap, but there aren’t too many viet places in this part of town so there aren’t many options

Geoff B. Is right! This place really does make the great Chicken Satay soup. Normally I go for the regular Beef Noodle soup, but I was feely saucy and wanted a change. Oh man, I wasn’t sorry I switched. It’s not that the Beef Noodle soup isn’t delicious as well, I just get that most often when I go out for Vietnamese.
In fact, everything from Kim Lan seems to hit the spot for quality and quantity. Rest-​assured you won’t be leaving this place hungry, unless you’re only getting a drink or something really, really small. For the most part, the portions of food you get are huge and definitely filling!
I find the prices to be about the same as other Vietnamese places around the city, so it doesn’t beat any store out on that. What it does beat other places for is the service. I find this restaurant to be extremely quick when making meals. Most Vietnamese places are dine-​in, but Kim Lan seems more like a fast food restaurant. It’s great if you’re craving Vietnamese but don’t have time to sit and eat.
Yummy Kim Lan will satisfy your every Vietnamese craving. And they really are oh so yummy!

I go to Kim Lan quite frequently, as I have yet to find a restaurant that tops their Chicken Satay soup. The service is usually quite good, and the food comes *very* quickly. I am unable to offer any recommendations on their other food, as I never want to mess with a good thing and pass up on my soup.