Straight Outta Saigon — Restaurant in Melbourne

ORDERED: Baby got Banq set menu ($55.00pp) 🐟  Salmon Ca Tai Chanh: Vietnamese style salmon sashimi, fresh raddish, yellow daikon, green chilli-herb dressings 🥖  Crispy Spring Roll: Hanoi style vegetarian spring rolls, nuoc mam dipping sauce 🥙  Saigon Baos: Fried soft shell crab, kimchi, sriracha mayo 🍢  Sichuan Lamb Skewers: Chargilled spicy lamb skewers, creamy mint sauce

🐟  Whole market fish: Crispy barramundi, sweet chilli sauce, bean sprouts 🥣  Vietnamese curry: Rich coconut curry, eggplant, coriander, spring onion 🥗 Viet Style Salad: Lemongrass beef, vermicelli noodles, shredded wombok, mint 🥦 Wok-tossed Broccoli: Crispy pork belly, chinese broccoli, fresh garlic, viet-style sauce 🍚  Sides: Coconut rice and vermicelli noodles

It was $55.83pp which includes the card surcharge.

REVIEW: Let's start off with the favourites at Straight Outta Saigon! 💖  Loved the crispy spring rolls. Even though they were vegetarian, they were packed full of flavour and were very crispy. The netting they used instead of the typical wheat spring roll wrap lets oil and air into the crevices, creating the ultimate CRUNCH. Delicious! 💥 💖  The kimchi in the saigon baos added a deeper flavour of fermentation, slightly sour taste that gives more dimension to an otherwise light and fried soft shell crab and bao (which tastes like nothing). It's really the best addition, and so creative! 🤯 💖  I also really appreciated the unlimited number of coconut rice, which was more dressed up than your normal steam rice. Very generous to provide an unlimited amount. Overall, the food portion was filling!

The not so greats: ❌  1. The salmon as part of the "Salmon Ca Tai Chanh" wasn't my favourite. It wasn't fishy, but it lacked the fresh creaminess and slight sweetness you would get in higher grade salmon sashimi... even when it's got dressing on it. ❌  2. The Sichuan lamb skewers were missing more impact. I'm talking about a creamy mint sauce that wasn't minty enough and the promised "spicy" that wasn't even registering on my hot radar. The lamb really came through strong, creating a heavy meatiness that I disliked. ❌  3. When serving the barramundi, they made an incision behind the gill. I wish they cut up the whole barramundi because it is such a pain to slice it up into even portions to share between friends. ❌  4. I wish the lemongrass beef was more cut up. It cooked too well, so the big chunks really made the whole texture too chewy.

Sitting outside was ok. Just one of the heaters kept going out.  🥶 There's an umbrella to shield you from light rain, but I don't think it'll stand up against harsher weather. ⚡ Another point to note is that there are cars driving past that were a little annoying because you hear the...

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (4/5) Came here tonight to celebrate my birthday (even though it was on the 4th, we made the booking for tonight!) and I have to say, Straight Outta Saigon absolutely blew us away! From start to finish, it was one of the best dining experiences we've had. We kicked things off with the spicy salmon sashimi, which was an incredible start to the meal. The salmon was so fresh, and the combination of spice and the smooth texture was just perfect—really set the tone for the rest of the evening. Next, we tried the fried chicken baos, and wow. These were some of the juiciest, most flavorful baos I’ve ever had. The crispy exterior paired with the tender chicken inside was a knockout. Definitely one of the best dishes of the night. Then, we had their mini signature bánh mì—the prawn version, in particular, was amazing. Big chunks of marinated prawn with kewpie mayo and a great mix of other flavors. That bánh mì was definitely the star of the evening, though the soft shell crab version was decent but didn’t stand out quite as much. For mains, we had the crispy prawn fried rice, which was hands down the best prawn fried rice I've ever had. Coming from a Thai background, that’s saying a lot! The wok flavor, the umami, and the perfectly cooked prawns made it a dish I’ll definitely come back for. The Saigon shaking beef was the second best of the night—tender, juicy beef with amazing flavor, served with jasmine rice. Another winner for sure. We also ordered the Hanoi Highball cocktail, which was delicious—strong, fruity, and refreshing. One was plenty for us, but it was the perfect way to toast to the evening. If I had one criticism, it would be that the whole place inside felt way too congested. You can’t really move around at all, and it seemed like all the tables were practically bumping into each other. It made the space feel a bit cramped, which did take away from the atmosphere for us. The loudness was bearable, but the tight layout made things a little less comfortable. Still, overall, we left extremely pleased, full, happy, and satisfied. Straight Outta Saigon has fantastic food, great vibes, and a lively energy. Despite the crowded space, it was a memorable birthday dinner, and we’d happily come back again. Highly recommend giving it a try if you’re in...

I barely leave bad reviews, but I'm not sure what happened to this place. I've been there many times, was always happy to go back and take all my friends there as the shared menu is such a great value and staff are always super easy with splitting bills etc. This time, unfortunately, had a bad experience and won't be back again. We were a group of 7, all ordered drinks and 'feed me' menus. There was a mistunderstanding with our cocktails, so there was a bit of delay with serving missing drinks. My friend was in a rush to catch a plane, so she wanted to have a drink and dinner, and head to the airport. When we wanted to get attention from one of the staff members to follow up on her drink, he had more important things to do with umbreallas at each table and advised us to wait until he's done with his task. We just wanted to follow up on the drink situation as we were waiting for quite a while, but apparently the umbreallas which were open for the most of the time couldn't wait any longer to be closed. Salmon sashimi was extremely badly served, all covered in water. This looked suspicious, as every single time when I'm there, I order the sashimi and it never looked so bad. Mistakes happen, that's fine as long as they are fixed. We got a new serving of sashimi and complimentary shots as an apology. Thank you for that. Crab wasn't properly cleaned before serving it, but we didn't want to be annoying, so we just let it go as we had so much food coming anyways. The worst part was when my friends got up to say goodbye to the rest of our group, their FULL plates of food were taken away because the waitress thought (?) all of us are leaving. This is absolutely unacceptable, because they barely started eating it! Sorry to leave a bad review, but I am very disappointed with this place this time, as I loved it a lot. None of us was happy after this visit, especially when our full plates of food...