Red Papaya

So here is the deal. Their food tasted fine, but they mark things as vegetarian when they are not. I have eaten their «vegetarian» pad thai before, but today when I asked further I was told that the oyster sauce comes mixed in and there is no way to have it vegetarian even though that option is listed on their menu at
. I was told that the best option for me was to get a stir fry, because anything with noodles would have the oyster sauce already mixed in and not be vegetarian regardless of how it is marked on that menu.
I’m disgusted that I ate ingredients that I work hard to avoid, because things that are marked vegetarian on that menu are not so.
I can’t trust any food from a place that does this.

Red Papaya is right in the heart of Guelph inside the Old Quebec Street Mall. The décor is lovely with dark wood floors, railings and furniture. The lighting is dim, music plays over the speakers and there is a big mural on one of the walls. The tables are a mix of bench seating and chairs.
We ordered Phở, which was decent. It’s not authentic phở, definitely a westernized version but good none-​the-​less. We also ordered the noodle of the day, which that day was crispy noodle with beef and vegetables. To me, this looked unappealing but turned out great! The sauce was garlicky and full of flavour. I would definitely recommend it over their Phở.
Great atmosphere, good food, terrible service. The host was average, nothing worth mentioning there, but our server made us laugh.
While perusing the menu we asked her «What are beef balls?» (an option for the phở) and her answer was:
«They are balls of beef» (thank you I got that from the name of the food), «except I don’t think they’re normal balls of beef because people say they have a funny taste». LOL… we didn’t’ bother asking anymore questions after that.
The surprisingly poor service continued for the rest of the meal.
I am giving this place 3 stars because servers change and this may have been a bad apple, and the rest of the experience was good.
Worth Noting: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday they have really cheap beer.