Lets start this post with a funny story: Francis owed my dad two bowls of Pho in payment for a computer we gave to him. And then when the time came, my dad ended up paying for Francis' pho 😂 I think that means Francis owes my dad three bowls now! But knowing my dad he would never actually let Fran pay.

Pho Hien is one of the more popular eateries in Canley Heights. I have never seen it NOT packed but I feel like it's also not impossible to get a table. We don't normally eat here but in the event that my dad and Francis had a little IOU some Pho situation going on, we decide to check it out.


Inside the place is very clean and nice and decor is quite simple save for the bar in the picture above and also the large TV screens on each wall. The vibe of this place is noisy and bustling but not annoying.

I would say the service isn't great but typical of an Asian place - they take your order after you sit down and off they go. No smiles, no nothing. We had a really bad experience with service which I will tell the story of later down in this post.






OKAAAAY now let me tell you that "bad service" story I mentioned at the beginning of this post. So my mom ordered Mi Quang and it literally arrived when EVERYONE ELSE FINISHED EATING. But that's not even the full story. A few minutes after everyone else's dishes arrived, my mom waved over the waiter and asked him how much longer her dish was going to take. He said 5 minutes and walked off. So she waited 5 minutes before asking him again and he was like "Oh 5 minutes" AGAIN. We thought that he forgot to send her order to the kitchen when we saw him walk through to the back but a few seconds later, he just delivers food to another customer for their order. Now over 5 minutes later, we're all nearly done with our food and all very annoyed that my mom's dish hasn't arrived because that wait time is too ridiculous. My mom tries to wave over the same waiter again and he looks at us before rushing into the kitchen. We saw and tried to wave him over again after he walked out and he literally ignored us and served other customers!!!

So we waved over a waitress who didn't really seem concerned at all for our complaints (I feel like she even rolled her eyes) and she went into the kitchen to check. She came back and slammed the bowl and plate on our table. It turns out the meal had already been made. But yet she still truly made us feel like we were rude or we did something wrong when we had been patiently waiting. And that is a horrible way to serve people.


For the long-ass wait and having this meal to show for it with NO APOLOGIES, I was fuming. Between everyone, we couldn't finish it because it was so unpalatable. Food should never be served at this standard. Coupled with the bad service, it ruined my entire experience at Pho Hien.

So in the end, I don't recommend this place. Because for the money you pay and all the other great places to eat at in Canley Heights, you can get food just as good if not better and definitely with 100% better service. You might come in and receive really good food, but for me if the restaurant treats customers (especially my mom) really rude like that I won't be returning. And as someone who writes food reviews, this is my honest opinion and view.

My mom told them when she went to pay for our dinner that she waited so long for her meal and the servers were rude, and the guy behind the counter didn't say anything. Just collected the money. Again, no apologies. Shocking.


TL;DR:
Price: Mid-range under $15
Quality: Hit/miss
Service: Horrible.
Ambience: Very busy place

Parramatta Westfield has been continuously evolving in what kind of foods and shops they offer. It is one of the places where I find myself stopping by way too often even though I don't live in the area. A place I recently visited with my sister was Spanish Doughnuts on the Level 5 Food court. Looking for a treat after those post-shopping-but-buying-nothing blues, my sister and I chose a selection of the sweet spanish doughnuts aka churros.

It is a small stall towards the front-middle of the food court, almost hard to miss with its enticing display case. There are literally ALL kinds of churros from plain, sweet, savoury, loops, short, long, breakfast so get ready to feast your eyes 👀 ✨ Of course by the end of the shopping day, the baskets and churro offerings were looking a bit more empty than they probably started off as. The staff were quite friendly and bonus points for not being annoyed as we took ages to decide which churros to buy!

There is heaps of nice seating in the food court, however we got 4 x churros take away. Immediately as soon as we got home, I went out into the garden to take some lovely photos… but then….






In all honesty I didn't really like any of the churros we picked up here. Not only were they way too sweet but they were very chewy and oily which took away from the whole experience. Perhaps these are different when they are freshly made but I doubt they ever are since they are all coated in chocolate and cooled. If I ever visit Spanish Doughnuts again I would probably want to try the plain churros with the chocolate dipping sauce on the side or a savoury churro and hope it will be better. But until I try those, I sadly wouldn't recommend this place!


TL;DR:
Price: Expensive because it's quite small
Quality: Not fresh, oily, chewy, too sickly sweet
Service: Patient and efficient
Ambience: Food court level

One cold winter Saturday night, Francis came over to my place and we had plans to go out and have a nice dinner. Enter, my family who all suddenly wanted to come along 😂 So being the pretty broke ass students we are, we obviously said Yes and even let my parents choose where they would like to eat.

My dad was pretty keen to try out Tay Do, the Vietnamese Chinese restaurant in Canley Heights because of some of the deals he had seen on the door. Tay Do is unfortunately one of the places you might have not even noticed as it is opposite from the chain of more popular restaurants on the other side of the road.

Continuing those Indian-food-adventures-because-my-dad-loves-Groupons posts which I haven't written in a while! 😁  Shaahi Tandoori is located in Enmore and a restaurant that my family and I visited recently. It is quite close to my university and also across the road from Cow & Moon! It isn't too difficult to find due to being one of the most brightly lit places with its sign and various fairy lights hanging out by the entrance.

We parked nearby in a communal car parking space and easily walked up the road to the restaurant. The signs outside had various deals displayed but because we were here with a Groupon voucher, we didn't pay them too much attention. However they sound really good for a lunch or dinner!

4 x servings of rice

4 x desserts

4 x cans of soft drink

Vanessa opts for some Thai Pad See Ew at Bang Luck as well as Xiao Long Bao at Hong Kong Diner. Whereas I head over to the first eatery seen on arrival, Alex Lee Kitchen for some Singaporean food!