Discovering a Neighbourhood Gem - Triple Coconut Tree

In a concerted effort to try restaurants closer to home, I checked out Triple Coconut Tree a few times a few months ago. They serve the usual pho and banh mi, as well as some snacks such as chicken wings and spring rolls. 

First up is the Banh Mi, a Vietnamese sandwich, filled with carrots, cilantro, and assorted meats, such as Vietnamese ham, pork and chicken. The one we have here is called the Dac Biet. The bread was not as fresh as I've had in other places, such as DD Mau. I think that there is too much carrot, and it's used as a filler. 

The meat to bread ratio is pretty fair, and the filling goes right up to the ends of the bun, which is very important to me. As you can see, there are a lot of carrots here, and I think I wouldn't have minded it so much had they been properly pickled.  
For comfort food, we got a few bowls of Pho to try. First up was the Pho Tai Bo Vien. I really liked the rawness of the beef here and there wer lots of it. The meatballs were average, with a nice bounce but it was very mild in flavour. The broth arrived piping hot and I liked that it wasn't overly oily. 

Now the bowl in the first looks a bit bland, because we got it without green onion and cilantro. This bowl is more indicative of their usual serving style, and it is the Pho Tai Sach. I have to admit that I was impressed that they did remember to not add the greens in the first bowl. I've made the request before and it has gone ignored. The bowl has the same sliced beef but instead of the meatballs, this bowl has tripe as well. This is a good serving of tripe because I've had pho in some places where you have a hard time trying to find some, Hai Phong comes to mind. 

Another noodle soup that we tried is the Bun Bo Hue, a spicy pork noodle soup, but the spicy seemed primarily to come of the blast of chili oil on the side. This was a bit disappointing and the broth on this wasn't even that hot in temperature. The presentation was messy but I did like the abundance of fillings inside the soup itself. So it's sort of a hit and miss all at once. We also tried their Chicken Wings, and these were surprisingly good, nice and crispy, and a deal at just $4.95 for a half dozen. 

Take Note:

• Inconsistent temperature of the broth, hot on one visit, lukewarm on another one
• Get the wings and ask for some lemon wedges to squeeze on top
• Banh Mi has more vegetable than meat, and not really worth a try.