Best Pho in Kingston

When I arrived at Queen’s in 1999, I felt like I knew a bit about global cuisine. I had tried a few interesting things in my mere 19 years of life but little did I know how much more there was (and still is) for me to try. I remember walking past restaurants along Princess Street and seeing students inside sitting in front of large, steaming bowls with long noodles hanging from their mouths. It always appealed to me to find out more but I never did until recently.

I don’t know what took me so long to finally try pho but I did it about 2 months ago after recommendations from friends on where to go. Now, before I go any further, I’m going to preface this post by saying that yes, I realize some of the best ethnic cuisine isn’t always found in small cities like Kingston and that one should really visit a bigger centre like Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal to get a truly authentic experience. But this site isn’t about those cities and we do have a pretty great assortment of restaurants to choose from, so we’re going to celebrate them and focus on where to get the very best pho in Kingston.

I went on my first pho journey after consulting with my Facebook hive. My friends’ preferences were varied and quite evenly distributed so I decided to go with Mekong since it is a restaurant that I order from frequently. Harvey and I made the jaunt knowing we had to eat in to enjoy this particular dish to the fullest. Harvey got the spicy beef and I went with the regular beef. Both were delicious and now have me on a personal mission to taste as much pho in Kingston as possible.

So, help me out:

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In my limited experience I have learned that there are many variations on how pho can be served (I have also learned that it is pronounced “fa”). It can be mild or spicy; made primarily with beef or chicken, but also sometimes seafood, tripe and other meats; the size of the noodles can vary as can the herbs served with it. I am open to all of these things and excited to try more. So tell us, where do you go for a hot bowl of pho on a cold winter day in Kingston? Did we miss an obvious option on our list? Give a shout out to your favourite pho restaurant in the comments below.

Thanks to areta ekarafi for today’s pic.