Saigon Pho — Restaurant in London

Update no.2: It's been a couple of months, and we thought that we would give Saigon another try. Its our local Vietnamese and we want it to be great.

The pho broth was much improved, it was good. We got both a regular pho and a spicy pho. I would recommend that if you want a spicy pho, that you just add a spoonful of your own Loganma crispy chilli oil to the regular.

The pork and rice was good, it came with a good amount of sauce and chopped peanuts have been added. Well done.

The fried dishes like dumplings and spring rolls are still on the heavy deep fried side for our liking. The fresh summer rolls were amazing as before.

We have improved our rating. A Vietnamese is only as good as its broth, like other reviewers have commenting on it being a bit hit and miss, it has improved from our last experience and we hope it keeps getting better & better. Maybe the Butchery can help with the bones here?

Update: The review response from Saigon Cafe was excellent. Offering a free do over (we didn't take this up) and investigating the cause of the problem. Bravo for finding that a member of staff made a mistake with the broth recipe. 5* customer service, cannot be faulted.

Original Review (2*) We know that Saigon Cafe is getting rave reviews on google, that’s why we tried it. Maybe our expectations were too high, maybe it was a bad day in the kitchen. We were disappointed.

The pho broth was almost flavourless and any flavour there was might be described as sour. Not the deep rich broth you would like.

The pork and rice was okay. Some additional sauce and some chopped peanuts with the takeaway version would be a welcome addition here.

The tempura batter was too thick and heavy unfortunately. Not the light crisp batter that was being aimed for.

The summer rolls were great. We love those things... who doesn’t?..

A Vietnamese is only as good as its broth. We hope it improves, we really do!

So far, no one in the SE23 area has been able to get close to the authenticity and quality of Mama Pho and Cafe East in Surrey Quays. We hope someone does because it’s too far to travel regularly and we love...

Let me start by saying that I really want this place to be successful since we don’t have many Vietnamese on our doorstep. This is only from an eat in perspective as well. I have been a few times and I’ve got to say the place is missing the English guy who was taking orders before, as he is super friendly and welcoming - he was there in the beginning and I haven’t seen him in a while and it makes a difference. I think it would be nice to have some low volume music in the background (traditional or otherwise) to help with the atmosphere which can be a little flat sometimes. I tend to have the vermicelli noodles with pork and pork spring rolls. Now the pork itself I find to be really tasty, flavoursome and works well with the rest of the dish. The spring rolls, however, don’t really taste of anything and are super bland. I think it would be good to have some soy sauce on the table rather than just sriracha and hoisin. The bubble tea is decent as are the other drinks on offer. Just my two...

It's fantastic to have an authentic pho and bahn mi spot in the area!!! Ordered a takeaway yesterday and both were fantastic- the pho broth was wonderful and had a generous amount of meat, spring onions, beansporuts etc- so fresh!!! The bahn mi I ordered (with roast pork and pate) was without a doubt one of the best I've ever had- it's clear the owners really care about their ingredients, flavours and preparation. I'm very excited to sample the rest of the menu! My only piece of constructive criticism would be to use proper soup containers for their pho deliveries instead of the shallow plastic ones. PLUS it's incredibly reasonably priced!

Edit: Thank you so, so much to the owners for your thoughtful response, I really appreciate it!!! :) Regarding the pho containers, it may be worth considering using a cardboard soup container for the noodles and garnishes and then the plastic containers that you're currently using for the broth- from prior experience, this combo generally...