Saigon Star — Restaurant in Christchurch

I would like to preface this review by acknowledging that there are cultural differences and that people have different ideas of cleanliness when it comes to serving food. I have traveled to Vietnam once so I'm not entirely ignorant and maybe if they read this review it can be a learning opportunity. So we ordered fresh spring rolls, bun cha and a chicken dish. When the spring rolls came out I noticed that there was hair on one of them, so I asked if they could change it. The waiter picked up the one piece of spring roll and removed the hair and asked if that was ok. I said no could he change it, then the waiter took it away. I proceeded to eat another piece and my partner began to eat one. She looked at it and opened up her piece only to discover another hair inside her piece of spring roll. I asked them to take it all away, which they did. Then a chef came out and asked if we wanted new ones, we declined. The mains came out which looked identical and tasted similar and when I was near the end of my dish I noticed that there was a piece of metal in my food. We stopped eating and got up to pay. They attempted to charge us for the spring rolls until we explained that we had sent them back. I was extremely disappointed with the food and that at no point did they say sorry ... people deserve better and for their business can learn from this...

Took my family to Saigon star today and the other reviews recommended the beef pho so we decided to try it out. Coming from Sydney I have tried out a lot of different noodle soups from around Australia and Asia. Specifically pho. I ordered the medium rare beef noodle soup with high hopes. When the bowl arrived the portion was on the smaller side and wasn't accompanied with the basic side dishes such as the bean sprouts, herbs or hoisin sauce. The aroma of the soup wasn't pleasant and didn't smell of authentic pho. In the few bites I had it didn't live up to the expectations and wasn't very flavourful or filling like pho should be. Along with that we had the dry noodles with spring rolls and pork which was below average. The bun was very thin and unusual. Not like real Vietnamese bun noodles. The seafood noodle soup was also very disappointing and wasn't filled with fresh seafood. Instead it was some squid, imitation crab and pre made frozen fish balls. Dishes are cheap ranging from $9-$13 for noodle soups so I guess you get what you pay for. Service was good enough and the job was done. Overall it was a very disappointing experience. There are much better Vietnamese...

We have been going to this place for years. All our overseas friends love this place too. The food and service has always been amazing. We being my hubby and I have just got home from dining there tonight. The food has surpassed itself. We started with pork and prawn summer rolls. The prawns were big and juicy. We followed this up with the seafood salad. Definitely the best salad we have ever had, fresh, crisp, full of seafood and crunchy veges. We always share every dish so I ordered the Saigon star fish with spicy sauce and hubby ordered chilli Chicken with more than enough rice to share. We took our own wine as it is a byo. The service is so efficient. Just as we had finished our entree the salad arrived. The mains followed as soon as we had finished the salad and had a sip of our wine. To Danny and his team don't change a thing! 😀 Definitely the best Vietnamese...