Saigon Garden Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Howick

Visited today as a family of four (three adults and one toddler).

I had heard good reviews about this place and my family and I had decided to try it. Unfortunately I am giving this one star due to the experience we had with your waitress who I suspect lied to her manager upon questioning.

Ordered special pho, pork chop on vermicelli, vegetarian and vietnamese spring rolls.

The special pho was interesting, noodles were chewy but the additional spices in the soup broth was quite strong and didn't make it enjoyable and we couldn't finish our bowl. The pork chop on vermicelli was good and the spring rolls were also decent.

Upon ordering I had specifically asked for one set of noodles in a bowl and said it was to give to my daughter, initially she asked if I wanted this with the vermicelli and I had replied no and just for one of the special pho. When the dishes were placed I had advised her that we had only ordered one extra noodle rather than the two that was placed on our table. She replied that it was because the system hadn't allowed her to put only one and had placed it as two as we had ordered two special pho noodles. Perplexed I had accepted this and didn't want to argue any further and said no when she just said she could pack it as a take away. It's important to note that the waitress at no point apologised or offered to take the extra noodles away so I had assumed she was giving this to us for free when she asked if she wanted us to take this away - maybe as it was possibly a system failure and the restaurant itself is new.

My daughter being a toddler finished her bowl of extra noodles and we still had the additional bowl which was untouched so I had asked to get this for takeaway not wanting to waste food. My husband paid for the meal but said that to waitress once again that we did not order two extra noodles. At the time the waitress said to my husband that when she had asked which of the extra noodles we wanted we had told her it was for both of the special pho noodles. Over hearing this I had walked up to the waitress and said no I specifically said only ONE extra noodles. Suddenly the waitress was able to remove one extra noodle off our order and rather pettily went up to our table and said she was taking away the extra noodle.

Other things to highlight this when I had ordered:

She had repeated our order to us to confirm and said "two special pho noodles and A extra noodle." If I had said I needed a extra noodle for my daughter how did this make sense that you still brought us two portions?

If the waitress had just apologised and owned up to this mistake rather than lying and changing her story twice maybe our experience would have not been as bad. She had also mixed up another order for another table prior to receiving our food.

I sincerely hope the manager speaks to this waitress about her customer service skills as it's a bad reflection on a business that's trying to newly establish itself in this area.

Overall there are other better vietnamese restaurants within close proximity offering similar pricing and better proportions.

Unfortunately I would not...

i had a good experience dining here, with a vibe that's 'like home', despite being located in front of a woolies.

some high points for me:

-the tea they serve is deep, but not bitter, and soothing. I would return just for the tea. -the broth in the pho and noodle soups have an amazing depth of flavour, heightened by the chilli oil they have. -i found the produce they used to be fresh and crisp, for the most part. -the restaurant infuses the fish oil sauce with a finer blend of chilli, (rather than the chilli flakes I am used to in every other vietnamese restaurant). This really brought out the nice chilli flavour, as opposed to a harsh bite of a chunk of chilli.

it is difficult to fault the restaurant, reviewing holistically, and because taste is subjective. however, being nit-picky, I did find the cucumbers that were served to be quite dry.

other than that, the place is clean, the staff are kind, hospitable, and the price is reasonable for the portion sizes and quality.

definitely will be coming...

We ordered the special platter, braised pork on rice and a laksa.

The crispy chicken particularly was a favourite from the platter, which was served with three dipping sauces. The laksa had the perfect amount of creaminess and spice but the seafood was missing seasoning. The table did come stocked with sriracha, chilli and soy so I could have added these if I’d wanted to. My daughter loved the braised pork dish which was served with a yum chicken broth.

The iced lemon tea she ordered was really nice. The orange juice I ordered was blended orange which made for a creamy juice which I loved.

Everything was so tasty and fresh. Complimented by amazing service from the lovely ladies, we were very happy to have finally made the stop here.

Four stars for the atmosphere but only because of foot traffic from Woolworths. Which is rather strange because every time we left the supermarket we would want to stop in!

Otherwise just lovely and I’m so glad we finally came. I highly recommend coming for...