Purple Lotus – Vietnamese in New West

No, Purple Lotus has nothing to do with Barney or yoga. Instead, it’s a Vietnamese restaurant located in New West along 12th Street.  In keeping with their name, however, the interior does have many shades of purple but suffers from looking a bit dated. 

They have specials written on the wall so I wound up ordering the Lunch Special Vermicelli Lover with Pork ($9.75) without looking at the menu.  The spring roll was nicely crispy – there’s nothing I hate more than a spring roll that’s soggy.  The daikon, carrots, cucumber and shredded lettuce provided another crunchy aspect to this plate.  But the real crunchy surprise for me were the sprouts that were hidden underneath the plentiful vermicelli noodles.

I found the pork to be a bit dry.  I wound up using the hot chili sauce that’s available table-side to kick up the vermicelli but it’s powerful stuff if you use too much.  I did very much enjoy the Supreme Shrimp on Sugar Cane (Chao Tom) as the meat was juicy and I’ve always found it neat to eat this off the sugar cane.

I finished off my lunch with a glass of Hot Chocolate ($1.95) which helped to relieve the heat from the hot chili sauce.

Service here was okay at times – but there was only one person working at the time.

609 12th Street
New Westminster, BC

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