Kim Bo Restaurant

Came here following Unilocal suggestion, with a colleague, both exhausted but hungry.
Service was kind, place clean and hospitable.
Food was fresh and tasty, not too greasy and not sweet!
Price were very reasonable.
Will come back if i’m in the neighborhood!

Portion sizes are super small, especially for shrimp dishes.

I’m sorry, but I have a hard time believing this place is sanitary. It’s on a sketchy area on Dundas (the resto is actually on Bathurst). The waitress was only ok, we had to ask for everything, the utensils were dirty.
We got the seven «course» meal and it’s edible and fine, but they all taste the same. Make your own roll! Now make it again with this beef. …now make it again w this beef sausage… now eat it with congee. The lettuce and some of the basil was wilted. There was a little ant in my mint, so they don’t wash their leaves properly. It overall was not what I thought it was. I would not dine here again due to the area and quality of food.

Kim Bo appears to be closed. So sad… no more delicious 7 course meals for $ 25.

The 7 dishes of beef is not only an AMAZING TASTING option, but it also includes a fun activity! you get to roll the first 4 courses of beef (all delicious btw!) into your own cold rolls with an assortment of pickled cabbage/​carrot, vermicelli, lettuce, bean sprouts, basil, mint, cucumber, and sauce! I AM IN HEAVEN!
It’s a great and inexpensive date idea for because it’s something delicious AND fun to do all in one! I highly recommend this place for a first date or for someone who’s just getting into Vietnamese cuisine.
The food was incredible and the servers, while not overly attentive, were sweet and helped explain to us how to make the rare beef in the hot pot and how to use the lettuce to make the rolling of the cold rolls easier. I really REALLY enjoyed my experience there and am excited to try the other dishes on the menu! Only downside is that it closes kind of early but seriously, it’s worth trying I am excited to sample their Phở next time I go.

I went for the first time yesterday and had the crispy noodles with vegetables and the Ban with pork. Both dishes were really tasty and the flavours were well balanced. They also had a great hot sauce on our table that really perked things up! That being said I wouldn’t say that Kim Bo is much better or worse than any of the other vietnamese places on Dundas. The only thing that sets them apart is that the atmosphere is nicer. The dining room has a lot of old wood in it and they have a gorgeous antique looking bar by the entrance. It makes me wonder what this place was before Kim Bo moved in! I also had a good experience with the waiters, we were in a hurry and they were great about accomodating us.
Overall I would say this is a satisfying and tasty place to eat. I will return if I’m in the area and hungry but wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way.

I feel sorry for the owner, this place probably has the worse visibility, I’ve been here 5 times already but I still seem to enter the wrong door.
My friends say they make the best authentic Vietnamese food. Get the 7 course dinner, there are lots of variety to keep you entertain.
The ambiance feels similar to other typical Asian restaurants, nothing fancy but the place is spacious and clean. This is a great place for a casual inexpensive dinner with close friends.

The first sign that there was trouble with this restaurant when they brought a supposedly fresh plate of herbs and bean sprouts to our table, which contained a large portion of brown, slimy, rotten bean sprouts. When I notified the waiter about this, he walked away rudely and brought us another plate of brown, slimy, rotten bean sprouts. I don’t know why this place is so highly rated. The food was okay at best, but of small portions and not a truly seven beef menu. They also forgot to bring one of our dishes out, and turned off the lights on us, without asking us why we were still there. When I notified the waiter that we were missing a course, he went back into the kitchen and had a big laugh with the chef. When they finally brought us out the last dish, they did not even apologize for the 30 minute delay. To recap, the food was not fresh and mediocre at best and the service was nonexistent. We had asked for water in the beginning, and it never came. The waiters never asked how we were doing or if we needed anything after we were seated with our food.
In conclusion, there is better, cheaper places to eat in Toronto where you can also get a great dining experience. Do yourself a favour and don’t waste your money or patience at Kim Bo restaurant.

Le resto était pour ainsi dire vide quand nous y sommes allés, mais la qualité était bien présente, et le service impéccable!
Les prix sont très raisonnable.

Restaurant viet égaré entre bathurst et Dundas st W Kim Bo mérite à être mieux connu, j’y ai diné avec 3 amis un mercredi soir et le resto était quasi vide!
L’accueil y est sympathique et l’ambiance plutôt tamisée.
La spécialité ici c’est la formule avec 7 assortiments de boeuf pour 25 $: à essayer le week end car je pense que les portions sont considérables.
Les plats commandés ici respectent la gastronomie viet, simple et raffinné.
PS: né commandez pas le vin rouge c’est de la piquette!
/​/​Vietnamese restaurant lost between Bathurst and Dundas st W, Kim Bo derserved to be known better!
I was there on a wenesday night and the restaurant was almost empty!
Staff here is pretty efficient and the atmosphere kinda soothing.
Specialty here is the 7 meals beef specialty for 25 $: to try on a weekend because I think the size of this dish must be pretty big.
The meals ordered here respect the vietnamese cuisine: simple and tasteful.
PS: do not order the red wine, it almost made my french heart cry…

Dirty utensils. Slow service. Rude waiters.
Never returning back.

It’s a tad hard to describe the food here since I don’t really understand the language but my friend tried this place, loved it, and took us here. We started with the wrapping your own rice paper rolls with beef cooked in a hot broth, then with sausages. The giant beefball with shrimp chips was probably my favourite. There was also Phở, and beef congee, and stiry-​fried dice beef. Was that 7 dishes of beef yet?
The food was great though and I wish I was more hungry and didnt have so much beef on the days before hand. Service was okay, and the place was extremely quiet. I would have thought this place would attract more customers.

Sorry :(
Came here for the Bo 7 Mon and was really disappointed …
The cost is $ 25 for two people. The meal boasts 7 beef dishes but each dish is really tiny … like 4 slices of paper thin beef is considered a dish.
Bo 7 Mon is one of my husband’s favourite meals but he was kind of silent all throughout the meal — I think from disappointment.
The side plate of veggies and noodles for wrapping was a little sparse. According to my husband, there were enough noodles for one of his typical rolls — of course he was exaggerating but we both were very polite and tried to pace ourselves. Not enough veggies either — we really tried to pace ourselves so we wouldn’t take more than our fair share.
The nuoc mam was a touch on the sour side.
The rice paper rolls were a little smaller than what we are used to too. We like the huge diameter rice papers because we like to make biiig rolls!
Each dish was kinda mediocre … the congee was not particularly flavourful, the bo la lot was kind of sad, the big meat ball was not that great, etc. And finally, the last dish was some sort of beef stirfry with celery and carrots — that is not traditionally part of the Bo 7 Mon!
The Che Ba Mau (tri-​coloured bean dessert) was average.
Service was really nice though. The waiters were attentive without being overbearing and had really gentle eyes and smiles.
We both left hungry (and prior to coming to the restaurant I already had two bowls of cereal and a big glass of mango juice) but didn’t feel like trying anything else on the menu.
There is free parking on the residential side streets.

Kim Bo is a Vietnamese restaurant situated in that weird, dull intersection of Dundas West and Bathurst. Whenever anyone mentions these cross streets I instantly YAWN (you will too) and struggle to maintain consciousness. There is absolutely nothing there. Nothing that is… except beef.
I visited on one of Lauren M’s (apparently many) seven-​courses-​of-​beef (Bò 7 món) extravaganzas. It’s a wide array of food, but not as beefy as you might think. The courses come out at a reasonable pace, and there is an assortment of bovine mini-​adventures, from a hotpot course, to stubby sausages that resemble mini cigars, some crumbly but delicious beef and veg meatballs, soup, and salad.
Method for the un-​initiated (like me): you are given a stack of dry rice paper and a bowl of warm water. You soak those bad boys for no more than 13 seconds and then place them flat on your plate. I found that the wet rice paper continued to soften even out of the water, so don’t over do the soak. Then you cram them full of boomshakalaka. For wrapping tips see:
The food was amazing but I was not sated after this meal. And getting another serving would have put us over the edge. Strange dilemma. Maybe I’ve just got «the hunger»? At any rate, solid eats and service. Kim Bo finally gives Torontonians a reason to visit this Godforsaken intersection.
Obligatory Title Pun: KIMBO’s a real SLICE. (Lauren M will get this one.)
Menu Readability: Very photographic and informative.
Need to mention: Prices are very reasonable.
What this place teaches me about myself: Seven courses of beef? Make it eight. Do I hear nine? Ten! Ten courses of beef, going once…

Came here for their 7 courses of beef extravaganza. This meal is just fun to eat. Every course is different and requires a «hands on» approach. You share with friends and chat in between courses.
Very impressed with the overall cleanliness compared to other Vietnamese resto’s. The staff was friendly and speedy with refilling our glasses. Judging on the quality of the 7 courses thing, the rest of their food is probably pretty good.

I came here for the 7-​course beef extravaganza and I’d return for that reason again. I wasn’t sure what to expect (for some reason i pictured 7 slabs of steak), but I was happily mistaken! I could not get over the mountain of fresh greens that came with our order; I’m a big fan of any place that serves up this much basil! I had a great time assembling my rice paper wrappers, which seem to make everything taste more delicious (maybe all the flavor is just saturated in a more condensed format?!)
Overall the service was very good and the price was reasonable. The beef isn’t served in overwhelmingly large portions, and every course is distinct and delicious on its own. I’d come here again but only to order this.
The bathrooms here are not insulated and the plumbing is a little sketchy, but they were clean enough.

holy sh*t. so yummy
have to try the seven course beeef

Fantastic experience and delicious food.
Came here with Lauren and Tony for their 7 course beef menu, which was incredible.
The restaurant is unassuming, and the only other table in the place was a multi-​generational Cantonese family. Already, I knew this was going to be good.
For the meal, you basically get beef served 7 ways, served with rice paper rolls, rice noodles, basil, mint, sprouts and nuoc cham. You roll it yourself, which was a little challenging at first, but we all did better once we figured out that you can’t over stuff it (except for Tony, who’s skills degenerated with every course somehow)
It was a ton of fun, and delicious. I’m planning on returning with my friends and my own multi-​generational Cantonese family. Also, the price was under $ 20 with tax and tip!

This place is Kimbo Slice Beef madness FTW!
Thank you Lauren M. for introducing me to this place. It was a fantastic dive where you get your hands dirty assembling viet rice wraps in the 7 courses of beef. It was all beefy goodness as you can see with Elaine’s (soon to be posted) and Lauren’s awesome photos.
This was carnivorous heaven, and I was in it.
Would I go back? You betcha.

I came to Kim Bo Restaurant specifically for the «Bò 7 món» (in English «7 COURSES OF BEEF»)
OMFG. Why hadn’t I heard about this before! I came across this dish listed on menus in many Vietnamese places in San Francisco so I was desperate to try it. Kim Bo Restaurant seems to be the only place in Toronto that has it.
Bò 7 món courses are:
1. Bò nhúng dm: Raw slices of beef to be cooked in a heated broth
2. Bò nng hành: Strips of beef rolled around a piece of scallion
3. Bò nng m chài: Ground beef rolled in caul
4. Bò lá lt: Ground beef rolled in a Lolot leaf
5. Bò ch ùm: Beef patties served with rice crackers
6. Gi bò: a stir-​fry made with carrot, daikon, and celery salad with small cubes of beef
7. Bò ch ùm: Beef patties served with rice crackers Cháo Bò: Beef Congee
All this is served with a big plate of greens, bean sprouts, cucumber, carrots, vermecelli noodles and rice paper. The first 6 dishes can be assembled (DIY style) into rice paper rolls. You also get a small hotpot of broth to cook the first dish.
I am simply amazed. ALL 7 dishes were good. Number 6 was my least favourite, but it was still decent. The other 6 dishes were ALL tasty. Number 2, 3 and 4 were my favs. Yum.
As a bonus, this feast costs $ 25 and feeds 2 – 3 people. They will allow you to add an additional «half» order for an extra $ 10, so 3 of us Unilocalers feasted for $ 35 plus tax and tip.
I’m surprised others referred to this place as a «dive». Honestly — for a typical Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Toronto, the décor was okay and it was very clean inside. Quite spacious too. Service was friendly and effecient. Quiet inside on a Friday evening.
5 stars for the 7 course beef because it was delicious and extremely unique in Toronto. I will be back, but there’s no way I’m trying anything else. Don’t be stupid and get phở, you can get that anywhere!

Kim Bo, hidden behind a thick wooden door, is a somewhat typical Vietnamese restaurant in a rather atypical place. It’s located right across from Toronto Western Hospital and just down the street from a funeral home, so the clientèle can be a bit odd. One time while my friend and I were having dinner there, a bunch of older biker dudes started telling us about their friend who had just passed away. They were very nice and it was a nice moment, but it’s not something that happens often when I go to get phở.
The interior was just recently renovated and is fairly spacious and nice for a Vietnamese place. The prices are good, ranging about $ 8 — $ 15. Personally I’m all about the Phở and it’s definitely worthwhile here, although I have had better. My roommate always gets the Spring Rolls on Vermicelli which he seems to enjoy.
Basically it is pretty good food for a good price, in a somewhat strange (not in a bad way) environment.

Kim Bo is the only phở within lunchtime walking distance of my office. If there were any other choices, I’d never go there. But sometimes, you just need phở, you know?
The interior is dark and cluttered. The service is quick-​ish and the prices are cheap. I usually get the standard rare beef phở, and it is nothing remarkable. Last time, I ordered a spicy noodle soup (was it Hue style? I forget) and it looked and tasted like they had simply dumped a liberal amount of chili oil into the regular phở. The flavour was harsh.
Kim Bo is apparently a satisfactory choice for doctors and nurses on break from Toronto Western Hospital across the street. But who says medical professionals have great taste in restaurants? I expect their choices are also limited by a short lunch hour schedule.