| rev:text
| - Came here today for lunch around 1pm (Saturday). It was pretty quiet and only a few booth seat tables were occupied. I got voucher for this place weeks ago and decide to try it today. I also passed by before and love what they did with the decor/lighting. However, reviews here seems average so I didn't have much expectation for the pho (I'm Chinese and when I'm at Vietnamese restaurant, I tend to choose something that's classic Vietnamese like pho). Another table ordered Chinese dishes and as a Chinese, I think I get the most authentic and better value in Chinatown. When I go to Vietnamese place, I want to know if they could do their classic pho right.
I ordered the 'Fickle Special pho' for $9.99. Service was quick (I'm glad it didn't take more than 5 min to put together pho) and the bowl was pretty big. I usually order 'medium' when I go to places in Chinatown so I think this bowl is equivalent to a large. I normally can't tell if a soup uses MSG, but I do like this soup because it's actually quite tasty and not overly salty like some places on Chinatown. As for the contents, by comparison to Chinatown (where I usually go for pho because I live downtown), I find you get more of everything in one bowl; more pieces of beef, brisket, beef balls, tendons, tripes and even pieces of onions. Other places I usually just get 2 of each. Also, the quality of these pieces are better IMO. The brisket tastes beefier and juicer and not thin and dry. The pieces of tendons were bigger and thicker. So overall, this bowl of pho I had today exceeded my expectation. Although it's about $2 more than a typical large bowl of pho on Spadina, I think the value was there and I would come here again for their pho.
Decor was also quite nice. Since the place is relatively new, everything feels very clean. Although I didn't come in at night, the changing light color was still nice during the day. The drinking glasses were shiny and spotless. The only thing that I find a bit strange at first was the menu they use for dine-in customers are paper ones just like a takeout menu and that you get a pair of disposable chopsticks that's wrapped in plastic. Just a little different compared to Chinatown pho places. But I guess at least you won't have to worry about holding a sticky plastic menu or chopstick that weren't washed properly :)
I also used the washroom so I might as well review on that too while I'm here.
I think they did a pretty nice job for the washroom. Usually with these places, you probably find something that either sticky or smelly or that not much effort had been made in terms of decor. But their washroom (1 person only) is quite nice and maybe even elegant IMO for a restaurant. Generally black and white, the wall tiles was kind of interesting as they got dimensional patterns on them. The mirror frame was assembled with small black tiles, cheap pink soap were not used. The paper towels and toilet papers were the soft types, like you'd use at home, and not some industrial paper stuff. The soap container and paper towel holder were stainless steel finish and there's also a nice bottle of purple color sanitizer available. There was also one of those handle bar installed beside the toilet for those who need some assistant, which I thought was considerate and good attention to details.
So based on my experience today, I am not sure about their other items, but the house special pho was quite good. I give Fickle a 4 star and would come back again.
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