Hot Soup, Cold Nights

Spring WAS here. Until the wind blew back winter and tossed in a nice little dump of snow. What more perfect of a setting for some warm vietnamese soup?

It was a cold Monday night and my mother (Jess's mom) was in town for the evening. I worked during the day and got off tired and feeling a bit dreary, not sure I was going to make it through much of a visit. However, the promise of some warm soup close to home was enough to get my feet moving for walk number two of our three block challenge.

Doans is located on 108th street just off of Jasper Ave and was an extremely quick 2 block walk from out place thanks to the brisk pace inspired by the biting wind. The patio was deserted as we walked up the steps and into the promise of a warm setting.

We weren't feeling very adventurous in the drink department as we are all addicted to Vietnamese coffee, and being past 8 pm we all agreed that water was probably the best idea. We did however decide on a half order of pork salad rolls for an appetizer. The rolls arrived quickly and were just the right size for a nibble before dinner. They were stuffed with rice noodles, pork, cilantro and carrots. The peanut dipping sauce was the perfect sweet and spicy accent to the cool cilantro in the rolls. We devoured them and sat back into some comfortable conversation as we waited for our mains.

Mom ordered a cashew chicken stir fry with rice. The dish arrived heaping with chicken and fresh veggies as well as a generous portion of rice. Heath decided on a beef and pineapple hot plate with rice that arrived sizzling and oozing with delicious looking sauce. I decided to go with something other than soup as a lemongrass chicken vermacelli bowl sounded just perfect. It arrived as a heaping portion of food all stuffed into a bowl with a serving of sweet fish sauce to pour overtop.

We all sunk into our meals and tried each others to mixed reviews. My lemon grass chicken was delicious as was Heath's beef and pineapple stirfry. The veggies in all the dishes were cooked to perfection, still crispy and bursting with fresh flavour. The chicken however was another story. I couldn't put my finger on what was funny about it, until my mom independently said it was "spongy". And it was. Spongy chicken aside, we ate most of our individual meals and left more than full. Total bill for three people with left overs and tip: $37.53

Doans overall was a good experience. The service is friendly, although sometimes lacking in promptness. The decor is a mix of formal and casual, and come off as friendly and inviting with the highbacked chairs and warm colors. They also provide chopsticks and forks for those with limited chop-sticking skills. We would recommend Doans for a good introduction to Vietnamese food as there are a lot of familiar chinese inspired stir-fried on their menu as well.

Atmosphere: 7.5/10 - warm and inviting, big space and able to accompany large groups.

Service: 7/10 - there was not enough servers for the number of tables, but the food still arrived in good time.

Food: 7.5/10 - generous serving sizes and fresh veggies make this good bang for your buck! Fresh meat though that had not hit the deep frier would have made this an 8 or 9 out of 10!