Little Saigon Restaurant — Restaurant in Abbotsford

I very rarely give a 1 star review to a restaurant. It is really, really hard to be thar bad. However, this place deseves it for what I witnessed today.

We ordered a couple of Bahn Mi and spring rolls. The Bahn Mi bread was enormous and ruined the consistency you normally get. No one uses that kind of bread and has that kind of meat to bread ratio. No one. My chicken had end pieces on it and thus was not trimmed properly. It was not a fun surprise when I was eating it.

One of my pieces was extremely salty and the other extremely sweet. My friend had just extemely salty pieces. I have bahn mi from different places regularly. I have never had a single one even nearly this bad. This was actually worse than the worst subway sandwhich Ive had in my life. If it is going to take like 30+ minutes for some bahn mi to come out, at least make it right. That was madness. You could put your average 20 year old who is familiar with the cuisine and has tastebuds in the back and get better results. You could probably get food out at the same speed too.

The spring rolls were mediocre in taste (I've had store-bought, frozen ones have as much flavor), but they were also extremely terrible in texture and bordered on inedibly burnt on the outside. I've used chopsticks daily throughout my entire life, but because the texture was so terrible, I could barely hold them using chopsticks properly. I suppose they should probably serve this with forks or expect us to use our hands. I have quite honestly, never witnessed this.

The food took forever to come out...which is ridiculous for some spring rolls and bahn mi. The servers were also sparse. Eventually, we just went up to the front to pay as we just wanted to leave.

When you command the highest prices in the entire lower mainland for this cuisine, while being situated in Abbotsford and then serve these plates of inedible food, you're never going to get anything other than locals in Abbotsford who aren't familiar with real Vietnamese cuisine coming... Abbotsford is evolving and soon competition will increase. The great location choice may keep the doors open for now, but I advise people to stay well away. Save your money and go anywhere else. My friend and I regularly go around the entire mainland (and abroad) trying all cuisines...we resoundingly have to say, this is, without comparison, the worst "Vietnamese" food we have ever eaten in our lives. We spent the next hour after laughing in pain about our experience. We have never done that before. If this place operated anywhere with more competition, it would not have the google review rating it has.

Pros: -Location

Cons: -Insane prices -Inconsistent, inedible food -Nowhere near authentic -Slow service

I am never...

Review from guy eating his way through the Vietnamese restaurants in the Lower Mainland.

Honestly I am rarely if ever in Abbotsford and my experience with Vietnamese or Asian eating establishments in the area is limited. My friends and I were returning from Kelowna and crazing pho and Little Saigon showed up on Google. We decided to give it a try.

First impressions walking through the door was the restaurant looks modern, spacious and clean. Something else that caught my attention was no one working here this particular night was Vietnamese including the kitchen staff. I’m not saying this is an issue but it was a first time for me. As mentioned seating is comfortable with lots of tables the room is open and feels spacious.

Warning: tea is not complimentary here (also a first for me) We were charged $1.5 per person so be warned. The waitress did not mention this to us.

The menu is fairly extensive. You can get the usual pho, vermicelli bowls, rice plates and spring rolls. Other items on the menu were titled vaguely and unless you asked you would not know what they were. And I don’t mean the items having Vietnamese names. Who knows what’s Adam’s special or Jason’s? There’s no description.

So I ordered one of these vague items just to try. #31 pork patties - this ended up being nem (grilled ground pork patties) served with rice and the usual pickled carrots/daikon, lettuce, cucumber. It was ok, the flavour or spices seemed lacking compared to most other restaurants. I can’t say that it was worth the $17 menu price.

My friend ordered one of the combos (A-C) and that seemed more like a deal and more reasonably priced in the $20-21 range for the amount of food that you get. I would perhaps go for one of those to get better bang for your buck.

To conclude, I don’t usually like to use this word but the experience didn’t feel very “authentic” and the food was just ok for what I had. But perhaps this is just because there are so many fantastic options in Vancouver and it cannot be compared.

Ray’s Tips: Pros: lots of free parking, restaurant is clean. Cons: no free tea - be warned so that you’re not surprised...

I am not a big fan of Vietnamese food. I like the tangy Thai cuisine, and I am just picky. Food sensitivities leave me far less adventurous than my palate would like. WELL. I decided to walk into this restaurant a few weeks ago with my husband. I was tired & hungry after running some errands and I just didn't want to go on a trek to the restaurant we had originally intended to go to (in Chilliwack...).

AM I GLAD I DID! My husband and I needed some time to read the extensive menu. Amazing variety. I wanted to try EVERYTHING! It all looked so interesting. I chose the chicken curry bowl & the grilled prawns salad. My husband selected a lemongrass chicken salad roll. SO DELICIOUS. Not too salty, just flavorful and tasty, high quality ingredients, and I am very glad to report I didn't suffer afterwards, a major plus for me due to my sensitive tummy.

This tells me the restaurant is delivering on its promise to use the highest quality ingredients available. I appreciate that, and my tummy says THANK YOU!

What I really like about this place is that it offers such a pleasant atmosphere to eat in. Light-filled, fun decor, comfy wooden bench seating (i usually can't sit on chairs, so can't tell you about those), greenery scattered around, and a very open spacious main room. SPOTLESS floor & tables (I notice these things!).

Mike the owner is a lovely fellow, with whom I spoke for a few minutes. The lovely young woman server was helpful, friendly, and attentive in explaining the food options, taking our order, and delivering meals to every customer in the place. We went on a weeknight, rather early. I would say it's in my top five I want to go back restaurants now. And I will! This place was a pleasure to discover and will become part of my rotation of yummy treats when we are ready to eat out.

Oh and for the price, the food quantities were great: I had a great breakfast from the curry chicken leftovers, and, yeah, I am recommending this place wholeheartedly. It is fun to do something unexpected and discover such a gem of a...