Saigon Boy Noodle House

Best vegetarian phở. Fast and friendly service. Lots of seating. We are regulars there and have never been disappointed.

Very decent phở shop, well priced.

Went here based on various reviews, wasn’t really impressed at all. The broth was average at best and for me, the quality of a Phở restaurant is *all* in the broth. That’s what distinguishes one from the other. A good phở broth takes time and love, needs quality ingredients, lots of bones to enrich the broth, the spices and not too much fish sauce or MSG, but just enough.
The meat was extremely fatty and I didn’t even order the fatty cut of meat. Perhaps they were better before, but when I went it was a miss. Many better phở restaurants in this area.
PS: They do take interac now, which apparently they didn’t before.

Good Vietnamese restaurant with good prices.
Fast service and small intimate seating area.
The rice plates are generously portioned and the phở is great. The soup base tastes authentic, home made and not from a base.
All in all a better than average phở place. Better than ok but not fine dining. Great value.

The ice cream-​based bubble tea here is great, but I don’t like the phở very much, despite the great things that people seem to say about it. It’s huge, yes, but I’ve found it’s largely broth, and it’s so flavourless that you really have no choice but to empty a sriracha bottle into it.
When I went with my mom, she ordered the ginger beef with egg noodles, but got vermicelli noodles instead, and the sauce didn’t really taste like ginger. As well, the server, while very nice, took forever to bring us our bill despite there being only two other tables and us having pushed our plates to the side.
The spring rolls are good, as well as the (peanut?) sauce that comes with them.
I’ve only had underwhelming experiences here :(

Interior was nice, I noticed the servers cleaning often, so that’s a good sign.
I had spring rolls (pork) they had a great crispy outside and a savoury sweet inside. Pretty great! I wish it came with four instead of 3…
I had standard rare beef phở, was good, similar to others I have had. No complaints.

My parents and I had an early dinner here today and it was awesome.
Their small soup bowls are $ 7.95, medium is $ 8.95 and large is $ 9.95. I got a small #31 which was «shrimp, pork, fish cake and crab meat in tapioca noodle soup». My mom got a small #28 which was the «Saigon Boy Rice Noodle Soup» (aka Deluxe Phở — rare beef, beef brisket, tripe, beef tendons, beef meatballs and a quail egg). My dad also got the #28 in medium.
I really loved my soup. The broth was so flavourful, and not too salty or fatty. I got 2 good sized shrimp, 2 pieces of imitation crab (there’s no real crab meat unfortunately), 2 pieces of fried fish cakes, 4 pieces of thinly sliced pork and a few spoonfuls of ground pork. There’s a good amount of meat in the soup! The tapioca noodles were awesome. I love the chewiness of tapioca noodles and these did not disappoint. They sprinkle some fried onions on top of the soup, which adds a great flavour to the dish. There’s also cilantro and green onions in the soup (so if you are a cilantro hater, ask them to omit it). This was the best noodle soup I’ve had in Ottawa.
My parents also loved their soup. They said it was much better than other places they’ve had in Ottawa and even better than some places in Toronto (!). My mom’s only complaints were that the tripe was too chewy, and the yolk of the quail egg was too mushy (because they likely used canned quail eggs instead of boiling fresh quail eggs — but this is likely true for all phở restaurants in Ottawa, as fresh quail eggs are super expensive and a pain in the butt to peel), but other than that, she loved it.
We were greeted as soon as we walked in. We got complimentary tea as soon as we sat down, and the server checked up on us appropriately.
The place seats less than 30 people. The restaurant is clean and the staff were nice. FYI: I don’t think they have a liquor license. Also, I don’t think they accept credit cards, so cash or debit only. Street parking only.
Overall we loved it. We will be back :)

This has become my regular phở place. The location of the restaurant makes it pretty easy for me to walk to.
I’ve found the broth for the phở soup to be my favourite that I’ve found in Ottawa.
Prices are reasonable, restaurant is clean and the service is very courteous. What more could you want?

DAMN BOY!!! Another solid phở place on Somerset. I got the #18 large. If they had told me the large was the size of a bucket I would have opted for something smaller aka they have awesome portion sizes.
The broth has a nice flavour to it and doesn’t taste like the broth is half MSG, I will leave the other places unnamed. There’s a nice portion of cilantro on the top and they do put a decent amount of toppings in your bowl. Rare beef, brisket, tendon and tripe… not bad at all. Add some hoisin and sriracha and it’s a hangover cure of champions. It’s a divey place with solid food… cash only, don’t whine later if you read this review and they won’t take your card! Also if you get the large you better be hungry.

I’ve been to pretty much every phở shop on Somerset, but somehow hadn’t tried this place – probably because it’s east of Bronson and hence not in the phở epicentre. Reviewers below are spot on: this place is a gem, and I can’t imagine going anywhere else for phở at this point.
I have long been a partisan of Thu Do, mostly because their spring rolls are so great. I was mostly of the opinion that phở is phở and you can’t really stand out too much. Saigon Boy revolutionized my phở worldview because they have literally 3 – 4 times as much meat as their competitors! My large bowl of rare beef and beef ball had nearly 20 large pieces of meet and as many halved beef balls. I was especially blown away because the last time at Thu Do I was thinking how their really wasn’t much of a meat difference between their medium and large bowls, where one gets about 7 pieces of rare beef and 6 halved beef balls. Saigon Boy is a gamechanger, meat-​wise.
They deliver on the all the other phở metrics as well: piping hot, rich savoury broth, big mass of noodles, fresh accoutrements. Price is standard, I found, at $ 8.99 or so for a large bowl. I can’t attest to anything other than phở, but I will certainly be trying other items in the future as this is now my go-​to spot.
The owner is super nice, and he even popped by to ask me how my meal was – don’t think I’ve had that at any other phở spot. I’m going back tomorrow!