Opened: Before 2012- Address: 1112 – 17th Ave SW
- Kid Friendly: w/Highchairs, w/Kids Menu
- Website: http://www.goldenbell.ca/
- Google Pics: Link
I grew up in a B.C. mountain town in the eighties. Restaurant options were, steak, burgers, pizza and pastas. As a result years ago when I was asked if I liked Vietnamese food, I could only say I’d never had it.
My first experience with Vietnamese was a spicy phở. I didn’t like it much, but enough that we went back soon and I tried a vermicelli dish, I loved it! It’s been sixteen years and I should try pho again, but I really just enjoy my vermicelli too much. Maybe soon. I hear you’re less open to new foods the older you get, so I need to push that clock back.
We started going to Golden Bell in 2013, a few years after it opened. It was excellent. I’m not going to say it’s the best in the city, I even have one on my own list that I hold a little higher. However we go here more. Why then? Because it’s good, consistent and at the right price point for frequent visits.
When our daughter was less than a year old we took her here. We both wanted her to be familiar with more flavours and spices at a younger age than either of use were. Well it was a big hit, she ate lemongrass chicken, spring rolls, bean sprouts, rice vermicelli and developed a love for fish sauce.
We frequent Golden Bell about once a month, however we were there last week in addition to this week, and that’s hardly rare. If you need a more accurate count let’s just say 18 times a year. We always get an order of spring rolls for our daughter and cut them up to cool for her. She get’s a little dish of fish sauce for dipping. Honestly she’s all about dipping. If you can dip it, she’ll eat it.
Golden Bell is located on a busy area of 17th ave right next door to the Boston Pizza. They have a small patio out front that holds four tables. Inside is a modest interior with about twelve tables and a bar that seats another three. However I’ve never seen anyone sit at the bar. That being said we are usually there between 5-6, and I have seen the restaurant much busier around 7. Golden Bell is licenced and you can enjoy from a small selection of beer.
My wife and I mostly order the same rice vermicelli dish I’ve been ordering for a decade and a half. At Golden Bell that is number 72B, Charbroiled lemongrass chicken and a single diced spring roll, served on rice vermicelli noodles with bean sprouts, lettuce, shredded cucumber and carrots, topped with ground peanuts and green onion. On the side is a bowl of the beloved fish sauce for you to add to your desired mixture. I’m told that an intention is to preserve the various textures of the food and not let it turn soggy. As a result you should add fish sauce to the dish sparingly, only enough to coat the vermicelli so that they’re not in one big clump. I pour the whole bowl in and look for more.
What I love about my rice vermicelli dish is the mix of textures. The rice noodles are so fine and then the chicken and few spring rolls mixed in and bean sprouts, it’s just fun to eat. The flavours of the lemongrass chicken with the fish sauce together is what makes the meal for me. What is fish sauce? Well really it is Nước chắm, this accompanies many vietnamese dishes and is a sweet, spicy, sour and fishy sauce. It’s made with fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, chili peppers and some shredded carrot. There are various of course, but this gives you an idea if you’re not familiar.
Where I do change things up is with appetizers, which I almost always order. At Golden Bell they have a smallish list of appetizers, but all the favorites are here. There are spring rolls, (both pork and vegetable), shrimp salad rolls and chicken salad rolls as well as chicken wings and ginger beef. I haven’t seen canadian style ginger beef at other vietnamese restaurants. However let’s not fool ourselves and call it chinese, so why not have it here too. Afterall our daughter also loves the ginger beef.
When bringing little ones out for vietnamese start with spring rolls. The texture is easy and approachable. Our daughter likes the vermicelli noodles, however has a hard time chewing and breaking them down, she might cough and even choke. I prevent this by cutting them up superfine. Don’t do it to mine, but she needs it. The lemongrass chicken I also cut up small for her, like any other food. Golden Bell uses nice tender cuts of chicken and our daughter has never had difficulty chewing them, neither have I. The ginger beef, also requires cutting up for her and is mildly spicy, so depending on your child’s feeling about spice you may need to consume this one yourself.
One last thing must be mentioned when talking about Vietnamese cuisine. The sauces, hoisin, fish, peanut, shrimp paste, tuong, soy and hot chilli. Try them all, add them to everything, dip everything. Hoisin sauces are nearly the same everywhere, but peanuts sauces can have a lot of variety. Golden Bell’s peanut sauce white it is distinctly peanut, it isn’t overwhelmingly so. I’ve had peanut sauces where it tastes like a thinned down peanut butter. Not necessarily bad, but good to know.
I feel that Vietnamese cuisine is “fresher feeling” without the abundance of deep fried items. There can be a great variety of unique spices and cooking styles in the appetizers at other Vietnamese restaurants and that’s a great way to share and try things out.
I think my revisit to phở is long overdue, maybe a phở soup for me and my daughter to share is in the near future.