Thang Long

I don’t know if it’s just me but when I tried their Phở broth, there was no flavour whatsoever, worse than Xic-​lo (shocker). I didn’t even finish the bowl. I don’t know — I couldn’t stand eating any more.
This restaurant isn’t really meant to be a family-​oriented restaurant as next door is a Vietnamese billiards (Saigon billiards) — where the regulars there go next door to the restaurant.
Poor re-​branding indeed. It’s pretty much the same thing as Bac Lieu — just changed their name.

New Vietnamese restaurant in town.
Thang Long replaces the old Bac Lieu restaurant on the corner of Crawford and Wyandotte. The place remains relatively unchanged, as even the décor stayed pretty much intact. The staff have changed around a bit from what I remember, though I didn’t frequent Bac Lieu like I had previously. The menu looks to be different but still offers up your standard Vietnamese fare. The service was wonderful there and deserved 5 stars alone.
For appetizers, we tried the Vietnamese Fresh Rolls. The rolls were stuffed with lettuce, cold rice vermicelli noodles, and shrimp. An order comes with three, and they were very good. I’ve had this stuff growing up and I thought this place really does it justice. The rolls really did seem fresh, though the wrap was a bit cold. It comes with a side of peanut sauce that made it that much better. The sauce is a bit sweet which I enjoy with a bit of sriracha.
For our actual meals, we tried the Phở and the Special Rice Dish that was offered at the time (since it had just opened as well, we received 20% off for being students). A large phở was only about $ 7.50 and the Special Rice Dish is only about $ 8. The bowl of Phở was great. Phở broth always smells intoxicating, and this one was no different. The broth tasted wonderful though it had much more of a sour taste compared to others in the area. Not an indictment as it didn’t disrupt the meal at all. The meats were bountiful and the noodles were very filling.
The rice dish was a bit of a disappointment though. The portion size of the steamed rice was no issue, as there was plenty of it. However, the meats were pretty thin, dry, and there just wasn’t a great portion of it. You are able to pick out 3 of a possible 5 options and I chose the carnivore selections of beef, pork, and chicken. (The other 2 options are a fried spring roll or fried egg in case anyone was wondering). The beef, though flavorful, was cut very thin and there were only 2 slices of it. The pork was pretty dry which was also disappointing considering how tasty the morsels were. The chicken was the most delectable item on the plate, but even then, it was a bit dry. I know they’re all grilled, but it was odd to see how dry the meat was.
Overall, I couldn’t stretch this place out to a 4 star despite the stellar service. Our waiter was great and was really trying to make us feel at home. Service alone was 5 stars, but the food needs to be improved upon in order to justify a longer stay in this harsh city of Windsor (restaurants seem to close quite frequently). There are other Vietnamese restaurants in the vicinity so they have their work cut out for them. Hopefully, they will improve as it was just their Grand Opening a couple weeks back. Best of Luck!