It was a sad day when I tucked into my last bowl of the namesake dish from Beef Noodle Soup Restaurant. But, in its place Pho Thanh Cong has sprung up and offers their version of satisfying beef noodle soup. Gone is the dark 80s décor, the dining room now bright and airy with comfortable hug-your-bum chairs.

You’ll find a lot of filling and little wrapper in their deep-fried spring rolls ($6 for two). With the delicate skin and ample filling, the spring rolls have a light juicy quality that makes you want to have a second. Maybe I can’t share these anymore.

Hulking beef bones are now the rage at Vietnamese restaurants. Pho Thanh Cong’s beef rib pho ($22) arrives with two decently sized bones as well as a handful of shaved beef. There’s a lot of toppings so you won’t be left with a bowl filled with noodles.

And while the beef ribs don’t have a lot of flavours on its own, the restaurant offers a lot of condiments including three types of hot sauce and garlic slivers. After creating a sauce of hoisin, garlic chili, and garlic slivers and slathering it onto the ribs, they were delicious.

The rare beef and brisket rice noodle soup ($17 for medium) also has a hefty portion of protein. Although the rare beef was very lean so some diners may find it tough. Still, the broth was full of flavour and perfectly seasoned, so much so that I could enjoy the pho without any condiments. Sometimes it’s nice to just savour the beef broth and herbs sprinkled throughout.

Weekday lunches are never busy at the restaurant, so service was attentive and quick. Customers are given a choice of having the bean sprouts raw or boiled and if the first plate isn’t enough, they note to just ask for more.

Pho Thanh Cong’s soon becoming one of my favourite places for inexpensive pho. And to save even more, bring cash with you for a 10% discount. Bone-in appetit. 

Vegetarians rejoice, you’re no longer restricted to Monday and Tuesdays for eating at Fat Choi, the plant-based menu run within Soos restaurant. So go ahead, make a weekend plan to dig into some flavourful Asian creations.

They even started offering a six-course tasting menu ($55 per person) allowing the table to sample 60% of their offerings. It started with some scrumptious cakes ($14; normally 4 to an order), a soft steamed rice cake topped with finely chopped preserved radish. Much silkier than radish cake, it’s a cross between that and silken tofu. And while the sweet and salty radish relish was a good start, the dish needed something else (maybe scallions or fried shallots) and more of their famous sambal as I couldn’t taste a lick of heat.

One dish that stood the test of time is the dhal and roti ($14), a deeply flavoured yellow lentil curry topped with onion chili oil. Yet, it’s the flaky Malay roti that really makes the dish – piping hot and well toasted with crispy edges. I could eat this with a dip, as a wrap, or stuffed.

If dining a la carte, it may be wise to order some of the roti with the satay veg ($19), to dip into the thick savoury peanut sauce but also to counteract the saltiness of the dish. Served without a side, the vegetables didn’t need so much seasoning, especially the rapini which almost seemed like it was marinated in salt water. It’d be wise for Fat Choi to serve this with rice.

Plenty of slices of “barbeque pork” seitan are tucked into a fluffy steamed bun to create the char siu bao ($19). It’s tasty, sandwiched with a large slice of pickled daikon, leaf lettuce, and scallion mayo.

We all agreed something has changed with the prosperity tossed slaw ($24). It’s still made with twenty ingredients that create a cacophony of textures, but the ratio of the ingredients has changed – more cabbage and radish and less herbs? Perhaps it just wasn’t dressed with enough of the yuzu plum dressing and way too many peanuts, but the salad just didn’t pack that punch of flavour of the past.

The same can’t be said about the cumin noods ($26). If you’re a fan of Northern Chinese dishes like dan dan noodles, grilled lamb skewers and hand-pulled noodles, the dish is the baby born from the trio. But you must like cumin as there’s tons of it!

Crumbled tofu was flavoured with the spice, a light helping of numbing Szechuan pepper (thank you!), chili oil, and Chinese vinegar to create a spicy and savoury concoction. The flat ribbons of noodles had a lovely springy texture and could hold up against the sauce. Make sure to get a bite with the crunchy celery, scallions, and micro greens as they help balance out the cumin.

While I’m happy to hear Fat Choi’s menu is available all the time, I can’t help but feel it’s not as good as before. Maybe it’s from the kitchen juggling between two menus or that I couldn’t end the meal with a bowl of laksa, my favourite dish from Fat Choi and Soos. Still, at $55 their tasting menu is reasonably priced and satisfying, a win for veggies for sure.

Never did I think I’d be having Indian food in Halifax. Yet, while walking around the Brewery Market, waiting for the Alexander Keith’s tour to start, we stumbled upon the intoxicating aromas of Tawa Grill and eyed the pans of delicious food laid out across the tables.

Tawa is a Nepalese Indian restaurant with an extensive menu of Indian and Hakka specialities. And since it’s located in Halifax, many traditional dishes include seafood such as the chili fish ($16.50). Flakey tender pieces of cod were tossed in a sauce that had just enough heat to salivate the tongue without scorching. Arriving piping hot, the fragrant ginger, garlic, green onions, bell pepper, and chilis combine into a wonderful sauce covering the still crispy fish. You’ll need an order of plain basmati rice ($5) to balance off the dish’s saltiness.

For diners who love saucy dishes, the creamy tomato-based curry in the kaida chicken ($16.50) is lovely for slathering on rice or dipping naan into. Of all the dishes, it held the least heat but still incorporated enough spices for flavour. There were generous chunks of chicken steeped in the gravy, but I would have liked dark meat better as the chicken breast was a little tough.

Tawa’s shrimp biryani ($17.99) was huge and while the shrimp were overcooked the rice was moist and flavourful. I couldn’t get enough of the dish and had bowl after bowl despite being stuffed.

You will not leave hungry. Even their naan ($3; two orders in picture) was sizeable and seemed like it was coming from a never-ending basket. Do yourself a favour and start with one then add on as needed.

Perhaps what ultimately convinced us to go into Tawa Grill was the number of south Asian diners. Couples, groups, and families alike were at tables diving into shared dishes. All hot, fresh, and teeming with flavours. Halifax does Indian great. 

Having taken over a defunct credit union’s banking location, Sibel’s dining room offers soaring ceilings that creates an airy comfortable environment. Its large bar and modern décor provides a swanky vibe to the place – it’ll likely become a popular destination for corporate parties, milestone birthdays, and showers buyouts.

The Turkish focused menu offers an array of dips. We started with the fatteh ($10), one that I’ve never had before. The pressed yogurt reminds me of a thinner labneh. Covered with oil, which the menu describes as infused with garlic and shallots, it tasted liked nothing except for the roasted cashews on top. The dip really needs more spices or seasonings to add interest.

Luckily, the starter arrives with complimentary feta, butter, and hummus. Ultimately, with some feta on the fatteh it helps augment the flavours with a bit of saltiness. Maybe Sibel just likes to shy away from salt, as their hummus was also served neutral so tastes like nothing more than blended chickpeas with a bit of oil.

Even the Turkish babaganoush ($9) was also relatively tasteless. There wasn’t the expected smokiness from using grilled eggplant any any onion, garlic, or parsley was muted. If anything, the sweet and tangy pomegranate glaze stood out the most.

The best thing about the dips is having the pita. Freshly prepared in a wood burning oven, it was sizzling hot and delicious. Sprinkled with an everything bagel seasoning, it thankfully adds a bit of zest to the plain dips.

Sibel’s fried kubbeh ($14) was surprisingly fluffy in the centre, the mixture of beef, bulgur, onion, walnuts, and spices crumble onto the plate upon breaking through the crispy coating. Dipped with pistachio it’s beautiful to behold and tasty, just a rather small portion (two per order) for the price.

The mixed kebab platter ($38) is a great way to try several proteins:

• Despite the lamb chop being cut thinly and being overdone, it was still tender and well seasoned.
• In comparison, the cubes of filet were done a perfect medium rare but wasn’t as flavourful. While not necessarily bad, I’d recommend you having these first, so it doesn’t seem as plain.
• The full adana kebab was juicy and mixed with enough spices so it’s flavour without being overwhelming.
• Lastly, the chicken wings were done well, cooked through without becoming dry and having a nice char on the skin.

Overall, for incorporating so many different types of proteins with bones and different cooking times, the platter came together well. Made to feed a sumo wrestler, it’d be a lot of food for one, so is ideal for sharing. Aside from all the proteins, there’s also a bed of deliciously saucy bulgur, fluffy white rice, bread, shredded cabbage, onions, spicy grilled peppers, and half a tomato. It’s not a lot of vegetables, so if you want something to balance out the proteins, pair this with a salad.

On another visit, I stuck with just the adana kebab ($34) and it was equally juicy. It’s just surprising that by itself you don’t get much more of the kebab despite the main being almost equally priced to the mixed kebab platter. In my books, the mixed platter is a much better deal.

At least that had more sides than the shrimp kebab ($35). It was almost comical how noticeably smaller it was than the other two mains, served with only bulgur and a roasted tomato. You'll only want to order this if you're in the mood for a very light meal. At least the shrimp were sizable and cooked well. 

Their pide are a great option for any pizza lovers. A thinnish chewy toasted bread forms the base and the chicken fillet pide ($24) was filled with a healthy portion of mozzarella and chicken. It was enjoyable, but a little plain since there were scant amounts of other ingredients listed on the menu (mushrooms, olives, and tomato). I would have liked more of the vegetables to balance out the dish.

Their display case of desserts will beckon you to take a closer look. Warning: once you get there it’ll be very difficult to say no.

If you don’t mind the sugariness, the triliche ($11.50) is an ideal option for sharing. The moist cake was soaked in the sweetened condensed milk mixture until it had a pudding consistency. Topped with caramel or strawberry, we likely should have gotten strawberry as the caramel’s sweetness mixed with the already sugary cake was a lot. Still, I enjoyed the caramel’s depth of flavour.

Sadly, the baklava ($10) must have been sitting around for too long after being precut and plated. The bottom layers were completely fused together so the honey mixture had a glue-like consistency. It’s a shame, as there were ample amounts of ground pistachios within the pastry that gave it a lovely richness. On a return visit, a fresher version of the dessert was better, but didn’t have as many pistachios. I guess you can’t win with the baklava.

Sibel’s dining room has a lovely modern feel, but the hulking television screen suspended on the ceiling was almost too modern. It kept showcasing a loop of footage from the Maldives. While beautiful, the tropical scenes were out of place – something sultry like whisps of swirling smoke may be more appropriate. I guess the enormous screen will be useful for hosting viewing parties for final sporting events or even broadcasting something during private events. Who wouldn’t want to see their slide show in all its full glory?