Spring Rolls has good har gow, who knew?

On Tuesday, my dearest manager Marcelo (who travelled to India with me last year) took our team out to Spring Rolls at Front and Church to tell us that he is resigning. We're all devastated, of course (Marcelo, are you reading this?), but we're happy for him and hope he likes his new company. To get my mind off it, let me talk about the food.

I've been to Spring Rolls many times and it's definitely a decent place for Thai/Vietnamese/Korean, but it's a chain so it lacks a bit of charm and personality. Don't get me wrong, the food is good and you'd enjoy it, but it's no Salad King.

Marcelo and I ordered some har gow (dim sum shrimp dumplings) to share and we both got the Pho Saigon (Vietnamese rice noodle soup with rare beef, meatballs, brisket, bean sprouts, and basil). Now, since this isn't a dim sum restaurant, I can't see them back there making the dumplings from scratch. They must be frozen, but that's a complete assumption on my part. Nevertheless, they were fantastic with a generous amount of mustard and hot sauce for dipping. There aren't any dim sum places right downtown, so the har gow at Spring Rolls will definitely do in a pinch.

The Pho Saigon was ok. The rare beef, meatballs, and brisket were just right. They bury the bean sprouts at the bottom of the soup instead of serving them to you on a separate plate like in real pho places. The basil is also placed in the soup instead of on the side as it usually is. But, they do bring you limes, oyster sauce, and hot sauce on request. The real failure of that particular pho was the rice noodles. They were the really wide kind and they got very mushy very quickly. But similarly, there aren't any pho places downtown, so the pho at Spring Rolls will do in a pinch.

Marcelo, don't leave me.

Spring Rolls Restaurant
85 Front Street East
Toronto, ON
Mon-Sat: 11-11PM
Sun: 12-11PM