Xe Lua Vietnamese Cuisine (aka Trainhead).

pho... I haven't eaten or reviewed a pho (fahhh) place in awhile, so we went to Xe Lua Vietnamese Cuisine (aka Trainhead) in China Town. This is a well known place in China Town that is frequented by many UofT students who live in and around the area. There are quite a few places to grab pho in china town, but this is the spot where me and my friends usually hit up, especially since it is open until late night (open till 6 am!). The pho or beef noodle soup here is a bit more expensive than other places (Small- $4.95, Large- $6.00, X-Large, $8.00), but they are pretty consistent with giant, tasty bowls of pho and the place is pretty nice, being recently renovated in the past year. Honestly, I don't think their pho deserves to be higher priced than other places, but I still keep coming back. I usually order #106 XL- Rare Beef Tendon and Tripe Rice Noodle Soup ($8.00), and my friends got #101 XL- Special Beef Noodle Soup ($8.00), which is just a mix of different types of beef.
I often come here after chilling with freinds or playing ball at UofT (...also going to class and studying...haha). After playing ball, one of my favourite things to get is a fresh fruit smoothie ($3.50 or $4.25 with tapioca). The mango and sour sop smoothies are legit (no idea what sour sop is, but it tastes good). The key to drinking these is to eat your whole bowl of noodles first and just killing the whole smoothie in one huge gulp- the feeling of refreshment is ridiculously good.

Xe Lua (aka Trainhead) is located at 254 Spadina Ave in China Town (South of Dundas). It's also quite spacious, so very seldom do you need to wait for a table. Its not the cheapest pho place, but it fills you up and i'm satisfied every time.