The Saigonville Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

This is a newly opened Vietnamese restaurant that took the place of an older one that was here before. First off I want to say that this isn’t going to be your usual Vietnamese restaurant. There is a bit of a twist to their flavours that can be appreciated by many or surprised by some.

Food Quality - We ordered a great deal of food items from their menu. The pho is the highlighted strength among the items that we ordered. Even the vegan pho broth had a good flavour to it which I generally have fairly low expectation for vegan anything. The vegan pho broth reminded me of the pork bone soup you usually get at other Vietnamese restaurants when you order a rice and pork chop or lemon grass chicken dish. We ordered their 8oz steak bite dish which is at the end of the menu. The peppercorn sauce was yummy. It was a nice sauce to dip the crispy potatoes that it was served with. The steak itself was a bit on the chewier end. The tuna dish was an example of something you wouldn’t normally expect from a pho restaurant. But if you mix it all together with the chips and vermecilli noodles it comes with, it’s quite yummy. The last dish that is a bit out of the norm was the rigatoni dish. Although the kids did enjoy it and I was okay with the flavours. I can see how someone maybe a bit caught off guard by the taste as it’s not something you’d think about having at a Vietnamese restaurant. All said and done though, the food all tasted good for what it was. We also ordered their 2 drink options (crème brulee coffee & oolong machiato milk tea) both were yummy.

Service - the girl who served my family was named Natalie. Unfortunately did not get the name of the male who helped her as well. Both were accommodating, attentive and friendly. Natalie did a nice job of engaging and asking question. Showing genuine care for wanting to know how they could do better as a new restaurant. The only constructive feedback I would have is to practice mastering the knowledge of the menu so they can articulate it better. I know it’s a new restaurant so I may sound critical but i know how much of a difference this would make for enhancing the overall Customer experience for others.

Cleanliness - the restaurant is new so everything is very clean still. I hope it stays this way as I know many Asian restaurants tend not to put too much effort in this area of business. The decor is of a simplicity design which I can appreciate. Those who may have been here at the old restaurant may miss the numerous amount off decorations that use to be on the wall (subjective opinion)

Summary, I would recommend people passing by to give this place a shot. I will certainly be back to try their lunch menu as there are some items there I’d...

My wife and i were delighted to be seated only waiting about 10 minutes. We told that they were fully booked and reservations were needed. The owner made it happen. We sat down after 10 minutes or so.

We took a look at the menu after we sat down. It was a small booklet with great descriptions of different apples and main courses.

Tamarind with coffee Jelly - amazing. Loved the balance of sweet and sour taste. Very refreshing. The peanuts that was sprinkled on top made it unique.

Next was the truffle soft shell crab spring roll. It was amazing. Perfectly deep fried. The truffle sweet sauce was superb.

Mango Papaya salad - Found the shrimp paste overwhelming. The dish smelled pungent and not as fresh as a salad should be. The dressing should be more sweet and sour to.compensate for the salty seafood taste of the shrimp paste.

Chili Soft Shell Crab - overall really good. The crab was perfectly deep fried and the crunch was incredible the sauce was not spicy at all and found it was too salty. The buttered croutons/baguette were too deep fried and should have been a fresh baked baguette so it van counter the saltiness of the dish.

Octopus Sate Skewers - the baby octopus were grilled and garnished with some rau rum. Dipped in the green chili sauce, it will make you beg for more.

Last but not the least, the cheese salted egg muscles. Again - the buttered croutons/baguette that came with the meal was too deep fried and didn't dip well in the sauce. Found the sauce a little salty.

Final thoughts

We had a delightful experience at The Saigonville Restaurant. The service was exceptional - attentive, friendly and genuinely welcoming. The ambiance created a warm and inviting atmosphere, perfect for a relaxing meal. However, we found the food had some room for improvement. We believe, with a few tweaks and small changes, this place has the potential to become an outstanding restaurant in Vancouver. We look forward to seeing how The Saigonville Restaurant evolves and hope to...

We wanted to order the special pork broth pho but were told it was sold out when we were ordering...okay, no big deal, we'll just get the beef one instead.

The pho took ~45 minutes to come and that's not an exaggeration. Looking at some of the other reviews, other people have experienced the same thing so it's obviously a continuous issue.

Unfortunately, the taste of the pho was also super underwhelming. The broth was super oily (see photo) and salty, and lacked the beef flavor that you usually get with pho. The slices of beef were also very tough and hard to chew.

We also ordered the crispy chicken rice and that was even worse than the pho. The presentation looked nice but the rice was salty while the chicken was dry, bland, and flavorless. Sorry, but even the chicken legs from the cooked section at T&T tastes better.

Lastly, we got the beef skewers, which like the chicken rice, looked great, but tasted horrible - and by horrible, I mean they're super salty....to the point where you can feel your kidneys dying with every bite. Why are they so salty?? Were they marinated in salt for two weeks?? It's a mystery...

The meal costed us over $50, which is way too high for what we got. There are much better pho places out there.

TLDR; Pho took 45 minutes to come, fried chicken rice was bland and flavorless, beef skewers were a salty nightmare. Would not recommend.

EDIT: Bumping the review to three-stars as the owner was very responsive and swift at addressing our issues. We may give it another try in the...