Ottawa's Vietnamese food scene has quietly become one of the best things about eating in this city — and after years of working with (and eating at) local restaurants across the capital, we have a clear favourite. Our pick for the best Vietnamese restaurant in Ottawa is Pho By Night, the ByWard Market institution at 309 Dalhousie Street that has been simmering its signature bone broth for more than a quarter century. In this guide we explain exactly why it earns the #1 spot, what to order, and we round out the list with three more Vietnamese restaurants across Ottawa that deserve a place in your rotation.
Ask ten Ottawans where to get the best bowl of pho and you'll start a friendly argument that lasts the whole meal. That's a good sign. Over the past two decades, Vietnamese restaurants have quietly become some of the most consistent, best-value kitchens in the capital — from Chinatown's Somerset strip to suburban plazas in Barrhaven and Nepean. In our experience, no other cuisine in Ottawa delivers this much comfort per dollar.
But when we're asked to name one place — the single bowl we'd send a first-timer to — the answer has been the same for years. It's Pho By Night in the ByWard Market. Below, we explain why it takes our #1 spot, then round out the list with three more Vietnamese restaurants across the city that are absolutely worth your time.
*Disclosure: Ottawa SEO Inc. has a working relationship with Pho By Night. The rankings and opinions below are our own.*
!Pho By Night storefront at night on Dalhousie Street in Ottawa's ByWard Market
Some restaurants chase trends. Pho By Night has spent more than 26 years perfecting one thing: authentic Vietnamese pho, served late, in the heart of the ByWard Market. It opened at 309 Dalhousie Street back in 2000, and in a neighbourhood where restaurants come and go every season, staying put for a quarter-century tells you everything, in our view.
The secret is patience. The beef bone broth simmers for a full 24 hours before it ever touches a bowl — no shortcuts, no factory concentrate. The result is a broth with real depth: clear but rich, aromatic without being heavy, the kind you keep drinking long after the noodles are gone. It's the standard we measure every other bowl in the city against.
It's also one of the most welcoming menus in Ottawa: the restaurant is halal-friendly and marks gluten-free dishes clearly — something we rarely see on Ottawa pho menus — and true to its name, it serves the Market into the evening. The room itself is pure ByWard character: paper lanterns, neon glow, and real character. They've even been featured on CTV Morning Live, and in summer they run weekend 'Pho for Breakfast' hours — a very Hanoi way to start a Saturday.
!Two bowls of pho and bun bo hue with fresh bean sprouts, basil, and lime at Pho By Night Ottawa
Start where the regulars start: the **Supreme Soup Bowl**, the house signature. It's a full tour of textures — silky rare sirloin, slow-cooked brisket, tender tendon, and house-made beef balls, all swimming in that 24-hour broth. It arrives with the classic garnish basket: bean sprouts, Thai basil, lime, and jalapeño, so you can build the bowl your way.
If you like heat, the bun bo hue-style spicy bowls are the move — lemongrass-forward, brick-red, and genuinely fiery in the best way. Both halal and gluten-free eaters will find clearly marked options across the menu, which is something we wish more Ottawa restaurants did.
Our honest advice: go hungry, order the Supreme, and don't plan anything important afterward. You'll want the food nap.
!Colourful lantern-filled dining room at Pho By Night in Ottawa's ByWard Market
Part of what makes Pho By Night the best Vietnamese restaurant in Ottawa, in our view, is that it *feels* like Ottawa's ByWard Market — colourful, unpretentious, and alive after dark. Silk lanterns hang from the ceiling, the walls glow green and violet, and and the whole room feels like the Market itself — colourful and welcoming.
A lot of great kitchens in this city serve excellent food in forgettable rooms. This one gives you both — a bowl worth crossing town for, in a space you'll remember. That combination, we'd argue, is why it has lasted 26+ years within steps of some of the most competitive restaurant real estate in the capital.
If you live in Ottawa's south end, Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant on Strandherd Drive is the neighbourhood answer to a pho craving — and it's a good one. The menu covers the Vietnamese classics, and in our experience it's become a dependable neighbourhood favourite.
They've also expanded to a second location in Findlay Creek on Shuttleworth Drive, which suggests the south end has embraced them. For families in Barrhaven, Riverside South, and Findlay Creek, this is the convenient, dependable bowl — you don't have to drive downtown to eat well.
Merivale Noodle House on Merivale Road serves Vietnamese cooking alongside Chinese and Thai dishes — a broader menu than a pure pho house, which makes it a great pick for groups that can't agree on one cuisine. They've recently settled into their location at 1463 Merivale Road.
In our experience the pho here is light and clean, and consistency is the draw — harder to pull off than it sounds. If you work along the Merivale corridor, this is the weekday lunch answer.
Chez Lam rounds out our list with one of the deeper Vietnamese menus in the city — imperial spring rolls, wrap-and-roll platters, hu tieu rice noodle soups, egg noodle soups, vermicelli bowls, sizzling plates, a full vegetarian section, and even bubble tea. If you want to explore Vietnamese cooking beyond pho, this is the menu to get lost in.
The spring rolls (cha gio) are the right way to start, and the grilled-meat-on-rice plates (com dia) are a sleeper hit for anyone who wants something other than soup. It's the kind of menu where the back pages hide the best dishes.
This list is opinion — ours, as people who live and eat in Ottawa — but it isn't random. We weighed four things: the broth (the non-negotiable heart of Vietnamese cooking), consistency across visits, how welcoming the menu is to different diets, and the overall experience of the room.
Pho By Night takes the top spot because it wins on all four at once: a genuine 24-hour broth, 26+ years in the same ByWard Market location, a halal-friendly menu with gluten-free dishes clearly marked, and a room with real character. The other three each excel in their corner of the city, and Ottawa is better for having all of them.
Disagree with our order? Good — that's what a healthy food scene looks like. Go eat at all four and make your own ranking.
Pho By Night is at **309 Dalhousie Street** in the ByWard Market — a short walk from Rideau Centre, the market square, and most downtown hotels. You can browse the menu and order online at Pho By Night, and parking is available on Dalhousie and the surrounding Market streets in the evening.
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Our pick is Pho By Night at 309 Dalhousie Street in the ByWard Market. It has been serving authentic Vietnamese pho since 2000, simmers its beef bone broth for 24 hours, offers halal-friendly and gluten-free-marked options, and keeps late hours. Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant, Merivale Noodle House, and Chez Lam round out our top four.
Pho By Night is at 309 Dalhousie Street in Ottawa's ByWard Market, a short walk from Rideau Centre and the market square. It has been in the same location since opening in 2000.
The signature dish is the Supreme Soup Bowl — rare sirloin, brisket, tendon, and house-made beef balls in a 24-hour simmered bone broth. If you like spice, try their bun bo hue-style spicy noodle soup with lemongrass.
Yes. Pho By Night is a halal-friendly restaurant and marks gluten-free dishes on its menu — one of the reasons it tops our list.
True to its name, Pho By Night serves the ByWard Market into the evening. In summer they have also run weekend 'Pho for Breakfast' hours. Check phobynight.com for current hours before you go.
Absolutely. Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant serves the south end from Strandherd Drive (with a second Findlay Creek location), Merivale Noodle House covers the Merivale corridor in Nepean, and Chez Lam offers one of the deepest Vietnamese menus in the city.