Pho Galaxy

A meal worth travelling 4527 miles for. After a nine hour flight and 3 hour drive to the small Canadian town of Chilliwack we ended our first day in British Columbia at Pho Galaxy, a very popular Vietnamese restaurant.

My first visit to Galaxy Pho and first experience with Vietnamese food was back in the summer of 2017 while visiting family in the small Canadian town of Chilliwack.

Fast forward two years and I'm back in Canada again, this time with Today's Menu writer and my better half, Kristal. After a nine and a half hour flight from Manchester to Vancouver and a couple of hours in the hire car to reach Chilliwack, the first place to visit while in town was of course Galaxy Pho.

The restaurant hadn't changed at all in the two years I'd been away and we were greeted by the owner as if we were regulars. While the décor might be basic in appearance it is the quality of the food that counts and what we were about to sample did not disappoint.

To kick things off both Kristal and myself ordered a portion of salad rolls, although looking back at it now we would have probably been better ordering just the one as the potions were massive. Filled with juicy prawns (or shrimps if you are Canadian) and strips of pork the rice paper around them was almost bursting. To accompany the salad rolls there was what can only be described as the tastiest peanut dipping sauce I have ever tasted.

After sharing what later turned out to be just one potion of the salad rolls, the main course arrived, along with another portion of the gigantic salad rolls. Putting the salad rolls to one side I grabbed my chops sticks and tucked into the bucket sized bowl of pho with beef slices and beef balls that had be placed in front of me. Feeling a little like Adam Richman from Man v. Food, I ate the perfect blend of beef, noodles and the added bean sprouts. Switching from chop sticks to soup spoon once all that was left I devoured the delicious broth that remained.

​The thing I enjoy about this type of food is that it is all about the favour of the broth that has been bubbling away for hours, there is the option to some spice to the dish if you like with diced chillis and chilli oils provided, I however opted for a squeeze of hoisin sauce and dash of sriracha sauce.

A slight mix up which meant that we didn't receive our drinks order was the only slight negative point during our visit, but a very sincere apology from the owners more than made up for this and to be honest I'm not entirely sure I had any room left for the bubble tea I had ordered anyway.

For under $20 per person, this was still the best pho and salad rolls I've tasted and since my previous visit here in 2017. I've sampled Vietnamese food in several countries, unfortunately not Vietnam yet though. Leaving with a full portion of salad rolls in a takeaway box, we enjoyed these the next day sat by a river during another long drive.