Saigon Restaurant & Bar Palmerston North — Restaurant in Palmerston North

Well me and my auncal and my dughter went there to night for our last dinner here in palmerston north as I live in Auckland and my auncal lives in Christchurch as we came down for a unvaling any way relly child friendly place and alsome stuff all around if I could rate over 5 it would be 5+++++ and the waitress was relly helpful with my Lil girl wairaka even gave her a something to keep her happy why we waited for our food I loved it for the fact ❤️ the atmosphere was so welcoming and the food well frist time I've achelly tried Vietnamese food was so yummy and my girl loved it prices are expected for good food and portions and quality if u ever come to palmerston highly recommend this place and also waitress when I asked if my dughter could have a copple more chips as my dughter was loveing also there food she went and told the chefs and yip they gave her two more on the house so 😊 very satisfied at this place in fact blessed I stumbled across this place why we were talking my lil one fpr walk and a play at the school so thank you alsomuch to the stuff that were on 30th March that nite bless yous and keep up the alsome job wish there were more places here that take pride in there job love in there food and relly good with kids and customers every were eals...

We booked for 5 people at 6:30 on SAF 30th November. This was for a birthday dinner. When we arrived, there was nobody available to greet us. We had to walk through the tables to get to somebody. When I said my name for 5 and the time the waitress looked confused and pointed us to a table that had no "reserved" or booked sign.

The waiter then took our order and struggled to understand what we were ordering. For more, we had 2 gluten free people in our party. When our orders came out, 2 of our fresh spring roll starters were wrong and we got our starters before they'd even brought out our bottle of wine we ordered. When we queried this, the waiter looked shocked and then remembered and did eventually get the bottle.

Then, we had our mains brought out and they had gotten mixed up again and brought out an extra meal that we apparently ordered but had never mentioned.

The food itself was lovely. We all commented that it was amazing. We just felt like the service was a real let down. Maybe there could be an electronic ordering system that goes directly to the chefs? That may help with not being able to clearly understand.

Would return for the food because we love Vietnamese cuisine. But, maybe takeaway and...

Took my family there on their 2nd day of opening. Sorry to say that we didn't enjoy it. We had the entree platter, shaking beef, stir fried rice noodles with chicken & grilled chicken. My daughter & her partner had vegetarian dishes.

Our verdict: waited a long time for our mains; even though we were there early & only a few customers before us. Entree was standard fare ( deep fried ). 3 small pieces of deep fried chicken. Rice noodles huge disappointment. Waitresses brought us wrong food & drinks twice. The shaking beef was ok. We were disappointed that there was nothing "Vietnamese" cuisine at all. Does every dish need to be accompanied by a small dish of sauce? Only craft beer ( expensive in my opinion ) available - I could be wrong.

They don't know what's the difference between vegetarian & gluten free.

I know it's early days for them & hopefully, they can sort out the service. I may give them a second chance...