Happened to be in SSP with mom after shopping for SIM cards. We wanted to find a new place we haven't been to before. Normally we'd go for pig liver and beef noodles (潤牛麵) over at Wai Kee on Fuk Wing Street. Searching on Openrice led us to this hidden gem at the food centre atop the Pei Ho Street Market Complex (home to almost 20 shops).
Once we arrived, my mom was trying to find a table that felt the coolest as she cant stand the heat. The lady owner suggested a table and said it was the best table in the house in terms of temperature. She then came over to explain the menu and the difference between the afternoon tea noodles were merely smaller than the regular menu ones. She suggested that my mom have the smaller bowls. She also told us that each of the side dish menus can be ordered as separate items even though the prices were listed as plates with multiples of each.
In the end, I ordered the special beef noodles (招牌湯河粉) and my mom ordered the afternoon tea vietnamese shrimp meat and sausage rice noodles in tomato broth (越式蝦膠扎肉番茄湯米粉). It is the first time I got a plate of fresh chilli's at a Viet restaurant without having to ask for it. My pho tasted good. I liked the soup. There was a fair amount of difference cuts of beef, beef balls, tripes, etc. The shop lacked hoi sin sauce but did have a sriracha style chili sauce. When I asked if they had hoi sin sauce and chilli sauce (sriracha style), the lady owner asked if I came back from Canada. She was a smart one. Turned out they used to own a cha chaan teng (Hong Kong style cafe) in Vancouver so they know what Viet restaurants in Canada are like. The tomato broth my mom had didn't have as much taste as she'd like. I thought it was decent.
We then ordered a few spring rolls (good), shrimp cake (very good), pork chop (not our favourite) and chicken wings (good). Lime soda was good, but not sure if it's good enough to justify 5 HKD when an upgrade to a iced lemon tea is only 2 HKD.
While the lady owner suggested the best table in the house, we still found it hot and I took out my portable fan (芭蕉扇). At the end of the meal, I completely forgot to take it with me and this is even after the owners reminded us to take our belongings.
I realized I had left the fan about two hours later. I phoned up the restaurant and lady owner told me that she remembered me and said the fan wasn't there and she said she may know who took it (one of her frequent customer's son). She took my number down and said she would try ask her frequent customer to bring it back when she sees them.
About a month later, I got a call from her saying she got my portable fan back. While the fan is easily replaceable and very cheap, my girlfriend bought it for me and I really didn't want to get a new one. If the owners are reading this, thank you very much once again!
The day I picked up my fan, I had another meal. This time I ordered the curry beef brisket vietnamese rice noodles (越式咖喱牛腩湯檬). Like my first meal here, this was tasty as well. Loved the curry soup. Lady owner is very friendly and loves a good chat. She said just because I came to get my fan back doesn't mean I had to buy food from them. I was like "but I wanted to".
I will definitely come back here. It may not be the most authentic or most Canadian-Viet-like pho in Hong Kong, but the food tastes great and it's a bargain compared to most of the other Viet restaurants in town.
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