Xe Lua Vietnamese Restaurant

First of all I just want to extend a happy belated new year to everyone who follows this blog.  After five months of writing I have had almost 4000 hits where a lot of them come from North America, Russia, Australia, France and Romania.  I love all the feedback I get good or bad.  Some agree with my ratings and some don’t but none the less the interest is there so it is greatly appreciated.

The other afternoon I had a chance to go eat a Xe Lua Vietnamese restaurant in Markham.  I went for their curry chicken on rice for lunch while my wife had their pho with tripe and beef tendon.  I ordered an ice tea to wash my food down. 

The dishes arrived within ten minutes of ordering.  I will start with the pho as I had some of it from my wife.  The soup was somewhat beefy tasting and the noodles were a little soft however overall the appearance and taste was acceptable.  It certainly was worth the 6 bucks for a bowl of pho there. 

For my past readers, yes I love curry chicken however there have only a couple of places that have really impressed me.  The curry was of the dark brown and creamy type which was quite similar to Japanese curry.  The curry definitely had a kick to it and I would give it a 7 on the spiciness scale.  Although the curry itself did not disappoint, the chicken unfortunately did.  Many of the pieces looked like they were “mashed” with the back of the butcher knife.  There were like 8 pieces but they were all very much broken up.  The pieces of bone where jagged and could cut someone if they were not careful when eating this dish.  Instead of the usual potatoes with the curry, they used taro.  Although I am not unhappy with the taro as it adds an extra dimension to this dish, I certainly prefer the potatoes only because the potatoes can trap the curry flavor than the taro.  

Curry Chicken and Rice

Pho with Tripe and Beef

The ice tea was slightly different in that they use lime rather than the traditional lemon.  Again it provides a different twist to the traditional ice tea but again I prefer the lemon in the ice tea. 

Overall, if I had to do it all over I would go for the pho next time.  It certainly seemed more enjoyable and probably more tasty than the curry chicken.  Although I don’t fault any restaurant for trying something different with their dishes, sometimes sticking with tradition may be better.  There is plenty of free parking in this plaza and plenty of tables for one to sit.  I would go back but I would go with the pho and pass on the curry chicken.  Overall I give this a 3 out of 5. 

Xe Lua Vietnamese Restaurant

8380 Kennedy Road  Markham, ON L3R 0W4
(905) 305-6661