Truong Thanh

As much as there are plenty of late night Vietnamese joints in town, there are only a handful that are open 24 hours.  Of course, the first place that comes to mind is Pho Hoa and also Pho Extreme. Pho 24 Express does the same thing on Kingsway near Metrotown as well. However, there is one more that is somewhat unknown as it is rather low-key looking from the outside.  I first spotted the "Open 24 hours" when I was on the prowl for restaurants with Miss Y, but decided to leave it for times when we had a late hockey game.  Well, this time would be it as Milhouse and Lionel Hutz joined me for eats.

Milhouse had the Pho and it was more or less pretty standard.  I found the broth to be on the sweeter side and a little heavy on the MSG.  At the very least it wasn't bland, I could pick out a few flavours such as anise and charred onion.  The noodles were still toothsome while the meats were sliced thin and tender.  For myself, I tried the Bun Bo Hue which sported a nice oil slick on the top.  It was for a reason though as there was a decent level of spice as well as shrimp paste.  I didn't get much in the way of lemongrass though as the soup was just salty.  Furthermore, there was no pork blood nor knuckle present.  With that being said, the other meats were fine and the rice noodles were chewy in texture.

Naturally, a bowl of noodles wouldn't be enough so I got a plate of Lemongrass Chicken, Fried Eggs and Rice as well. The 2 fried eggs still sported runny yolks which, of course, was really good with the properly steamed rice.  I found the chicken to relatively juicy with a slight char.  Once again, I didn't get a big hit of lemongrass, although the chicken was well-seasoned.  Lionel Hutz went for a Banh Mi Dac Biet (without any greens) because he doesn't like Pho (and his girlfriend is Vietnamese!).  He thought the bread was light and nicely toasted while the ingredients were fine.  There was a noticeable amount of pate which added a nice flavour.

Interestingly, the last item to hit our table was the appie being the Roll Combo consisting of one each of a spring roll, pork salad roll and shrimp salad roll.  Made with a wheat wrapper, the spring roll hot and crunchy.  The filling was moist and flavourful.  Both salad rolls were pretty standard except the rice wrapper was a touch dry.  For a 24-hour joint, Troung Thanh more than fits the bill.  Food wasn't outstanding, yet at the very least, the food is far superior than Pho Hoa up the street.

The Good:
- Open 24 hours
- Decent eats
- Relatively okay service

The Bad:
- Place is not particularly big, can be full at times
- A little heavy with the MSG