Restaurants
Hue's Kitchen
Hue's Kitchen is the kind of place I used to love, back when I had just started hanging out in Toronto, and still thought that Yonge and Bloor was the city's epicenter of cool. In those days, Sam the Record Man was the place to go for music, the Village was a great spot (for me, a straight girl) to meet guys, the corner of Yonge and Dundas was under perennial construction, and places like Ginger and Spring Rolls represented the exotic and delicious world of southeast Asian cuisine. Years ago, when Hue's was a full service restaurant, and called Saigon Sister, a waitress told me that Woody Harrelson had just hosted his TIFF party there. So cool!
Flash forward 11 years into the future - four spent in Asia, the rest frequenting pho joints on Spadina and Ossington - and my tastes have grown a little more particular. I still eat at quick-service Ginger from time to time, and while I recognize it's not the best Southeast Asian food the city has to offer, it'll do in a pinch. Hue's Kitchen, across the street from the Yonge/Bloor location of Ginger, is pretty much the same deal, but with slightly smaller portions and better décor.
Keeping the soothing wood panels and verdant back patio from its Saigon Sister days, Hue's offers a more serene environment than your average fast-food joint. Somewhat incongruent with the Zen-like ambiance, a self-serve counter provides extras likes Sriracha and hoisin sauce, lime wedges and serviettes, while numbered signs help busboys deliver meals quickly.
I ate at Hue's twice last week, ordering the vermicelli chicken with salad and spring rolls and the mango salad and avocado-crab fresh roll respectively. The fact that the vermicelli chicken bowl was listed in the "Authentic" category of the menu really appealed to my culinary snobbery. Unfortunately, the flavours did not. Soaked in a superfluity of flavourless sauce, this vermicelli had the right composition (noodles carrots, bean sprouts, mint and a side of spring rolls), but was missing the fishy zing of a genuinely tasty Vietnamese vermicelli. Plus, it had WAY too much sauce.
The mango salad was better, with mangoes neither too green nor too ripe; the fruit riding that fine balance between sweet/soft and tangy/crunchy. Topped with peanuts and crisp sesame-rice crackers, this mild salad benefited well from a hefty dose of self-administered Sriracha sauce.
Mushy avocado and crab rolls were less impressive: the avocado was browning, the iceberg lettuce was wilty, and the hoisin/peanut dipping sauce, tasting like it came straight from the bottle, won top prize for freshest ingredient.
Hue's can't hold a candle to places like Pho Hung, Pho Tien Thanh or Golden Turtle, but it compares more or less equally with Ginger. Although underwhelmed by my meals, I appreciate Hue's Kitchen for what it is: a quick, no-hassle spot to grab a cheap and moderately healthy meal. It also gets bonus points for atmosphere, and the sunny back patio, a lovely place to sit and daydream about days gone by....
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To each their own. To Boot???
I don't think the reviewer's job is to try every dish on the menu of a place he/she is reviewing - this isn't an audit - but rather to sample the fare and provide as objective a view as possible on what he or she sampled and the context in which it was sampled. The reader is left to make his or her own choices based on the review.
The problem with a lot of reviews, I find, is that they take as a benchmark a really great place and compare everything else to that place. That's not a terribly helpful perspective unless you're trying to decide whether to go to the great place or the reviewed place. What if you're not trying to go to the great place? What if you're trying to decide where to go near Yonge-Bloor?
Appetizers came and everyone enjoyed some spring rolls. Unfortunately that is where the dining experience turned for the worse. While the tables food began to roll out, it donned on me that I had yet to receive my drink I had ordered. I informed the waitress (if you want to call them that) and she told me it would be right out. My coworkers were hesitant to begin their meals because guess what? I didn't receive my food either.
I complained to the same waitress again that I had still yet to receive my drink, and now my food was also not present. She went into the back to check, and came back out to deliver food to another table. When I asked to speak to a manager I was told "It's lunch, it's busy"...until I had to raise my voice to indicate I didn't care about the nightmare that their organization is...at which point I was directed to a nasty woman in the kitchen.
After informing her that I had yet to receive my drink or food order, and that I felt their lack of concern was a complete joke, she told me...."It's lunch, it's busy". I replied that I didn't care what time of day it was, when someone orders food you have to deliver it...despite the fact that their are other people in the restaurant. It was at this point that she began yelling at me in a foreign language. I said: "It is absolutely ludicrous that you would speak to a customer like this, let alone a customer that you had yet to serve. Keep your food, keep your drink, I am not paying for the chicken rolls I had". Having little effect, she turned back around and began working again.
I sit now, at my desk, without any food in me, writing a desperate plea to all willing to listen that you should NEVER reward these people with your business again. They do not appreciate anyones business, and they are not willing to correct their own errors.
Shame on you Hue's Kitchen, your managers and staff should be absolutely appalled by how poorly you operate.
For your own sake, DO NOT GO TO HUE'S KITCHEN!
The service was pretty fast and the food was good. And above all the waitress was really nice and friendly.
I'd probably go there again soon!
Having said that, I am not too crazy about the Wonton soup I tried. The broth lacked depth. I'm used to more flavourful (heavier, if you will) wonton soups. They also forgot the shrimp on my husband's Chicken-Beef-Shrimp Rice platter. We ordered the same thing, so I'm not quite clear how they missed the shrimp on his. We didn't complain, we were just out to have a good day and didn't wanna let it affect any of it.
To be fair, service was good/friendly and I found their dishes to be less salty than Salad King's (Ryerson area). Plus I loved the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake (by The Cheesecake Factory).
Will I go back? Yes. In fact I will be in the area later this week and might drop by. Will update the review then :)
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional Pass)
Number of infractions: 7 (Minor: 4, Significant: 2, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Inadequate food temperature control