Although I eat Vietnamese food quite frequently, I rarely go to Thanh Thanh, mostly because I had once, way back when, had a very westernized, flavorless bowl of Pho. One of my Noodle group members, BuBear, suggested a Noodle Field Trip, and he included Thanh Thanh as one of the places to go for Bun Bo Hue. As shocked as I was, I never turn down BuBear's suggestions, as he's one of the few people I know who not only loves food, but is an amazing chef. Being Vietnamese himself, he is also well versed in what makes a good bowl of Bun Bo Hue.
At Thanh Thanh, the entire menu is in English, and they have Bun Bo Hue listed as "Central Vietnamese Noodle Soup." Although I can appreciate that this makes Vietnamese cuisine more approachable to guests who are somewhat new to the dishes, it can make ordering certain dishes a tad confusing. Luckily, the servers and owners speak Vietnamese, so you can just as easily order the dishes in Vietnamese.
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| Central Vietnamese Noodle Soup |
The first impression surprised me - abundant fragrant chili oil, a generous amount of sliced onion and chopped scallions, and finely sliced beef shank.
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| Thin vermicelli rice noodles |
Another surprise! They use thin vermicelli, rather than the thicker "lai fun" style vermicelli (as thick as spaghetti) typically used in Bun Bo Hue. Personally, I prefer the thicker noodles, so I'd ask for a substitution next time.
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| You can see the lemongrass! |
The soup was incredibly flavorful, with a slight sweetness from the pork used to make the broth and abundant lemongrass. I was also pleasantly surprised by the evident flavor of shrimp paste, which is usually used in such small quantities due to its pungency. The beef shank was perfectly tender, and well prepared.
My only complaint would be that there was only beef shank as the topping, when there should at least be Vietnamese pork sausage and pork hock. Even better, although very rare in Edmonton, there should be pork blood and oxtail. As well, the portion size was quite a bit smaller than other restaurants, which at $8.45 a bowl, is relatively expensive compared to other Vietnamese restaurants in Edmonton. However, I'd say this was a small price to pay for a cleaner restaurant and a beautifully renovated restaurant.
Overall, I was very impressed - the restaurant was very clean, service was good (which is somewhat rare in Vietnamese restaurants), and the flavors (even if the ingredients were tweaked) in the Bun Bo Hue were still very authentic. Definitely a pleasant surprise when considering the flavorless Pho I had here in the past.
Although this will never be my first choice for Vietnamese food, because I personally place the most precedence on overall authenticity of dishes rather than dining ambiance, I would definitely consider coming back to try some of the other dishes next time!
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