Saigón Noodle Bar — Restaurant in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

If you had told me 8 years ago that a Vietnamese noodle shop would be moving into this old space formerly occupied by La Coruña, a cafe notable, I would have said, get out! But here it is, and it's already bustling. That's good news for the city's food culture.

They've utilized the space so well, preserving much of its antique style by removing the old ceiling and exposing even more, and opening up the space below for long tables and benches. The bar is half as long as used to be and it's where much of the food prep is done. Overall, one of the more enjoyable spaces to eat in all of San Telmo.

If only the food were great. Instead, it's just OK, with all of the flavor compromises we've come to expect when introducing uncommon cuisines to Argentines. Most disappointing of all is the pho, the broth of which should be rich and unctuous and packed with aromatics. Instead it's watery and close to flavorless. It's a big bowl though, and there's real sriracha and excellent hoisin sauce on the side. Chilis? No. Limes? No. Mint? No. Basil? No. Cilantro? No. There were maybe two slices of beef? There's fish sauce for sale over the bar, but I couldn't detect its use in any of the dishes. The pho was singularly lacking in umami. So look elsewhere for your pho fix, or make your own.

The spring rolls were better, but with an odd, flat-tasting peanut sauce, but the fried rolls were not, being burnt on the edges and lacking flavor. My bo tom, which I thought would be tom xao bo but wasn't, had 6 tiny, tiny super-salty langostinos, a fair amount of noodles and lots of cucumbers (?). A welcome trace of mint and a couple cilantro leaves. But again, a big bowl.

Saigon does offer great craft beer from three breweries I've never heard of. Right now they're about 15 pesos cheaper than just about everywhere else in the barrio, but that probably won't last long. It's odd to be recommending a noodle shop mostly for its beer, but Argentine food culture is farther along that path.

I hope for the best for this place. I have fond memories of the Vietnamese joints on Chicago's northside....

I went for an early dinner on a Friday night. The staff are friendly and helpful. The menu is accessible through a qr code. There are pictures but not descriptions. The food is said to be inspired by Vietnamese food, which means they're not sure of the flavor profiles. We ordered raw tofu spring rolls, fried pork spring rolls, and fried noodles with shrimp. The pork spring rolls were great. They came with some lettuce and mint leaves for dressing and a dipping sauce. The dipping sauce needs 200% more sugar and 50% more vinegar. It did have carrot and radish relish. I asked the server for sugar, and he was very accommodating. The tofu spring rolls were nice. They came with peanut sauce and a soy dipping sauce. The peanut sauce also needs more support. The noodles were missing several flavors. I added the dipping sauces from the raw spring rolls, and it really improved the dish. It wasn't what I wanted it to be, but it wasn't bad. The lemonade was nice. It had ginger and cucumber. I would...

Yesterday I and my girlfriend went dining here. It was friggin' AMAZING. I've had some Vietnamese food before (Bánh mì sandwiches), but this was on a whole another level. Our appetizers were fried grape leaf rolls stuffed with meat (which were so good I only remembered to take the picture sheet we had already eaten three out of four), which were delicious. My main dish was Phở soup with pork meatballs, and OMG this was so, sooo good, no wonder everyone talks about it when it comes to Vietnamese food. The mix of flavors (tangy, sour, savory, spicy, with a bit of salty) felt so gorgeous in my mouth. To drink I had an IPA craft beer, which was good but could have been colder. The staff was also super nice and courteous. Overall, an exceptional...