Saigon Noodle House — Restaurant in Birmingham

Substandard would be the word to describe Saigon Noodle House. Being Vietnamese (born in the US) and having lived in places like Seattle and Houston (for most of my life) where there is quite a large Vietnamese population I have experienced good, bad and great Vietnamese food. I've been here a few times and the food is below average. It's okay in a pinch especially since there aren't many other Vietnamese restaurants in town but that's really the only thing it has going for it. If you're a novice to Vietnamese food you might like it because Vietnamese food is really trendy right now but outside of B'ham there are much better places.

Right when you walk in you can tell it's not going to be an authentic Vietnamese experience. The waiters and hostesses are not Vietnamese. When you order something in Vietnamese they look at you like you're speaking a foreign language. Instead it's better to order something by the letter and number combo like A3. Any Viet fast food place should have one thing down and that is Pho. If you can't make good pho then you don't need to open a Pho restaurant. I ordered the pho here like I always do. The broth is bland and they don't give you hardly any meat. I might have had 5 slices of meat in there. Oh and I'm pretty sure they gave me a fork set to use with my Pho. Ridiculous. I've also had their Banh mi which again was a substandard experience. They used some low cut of meat for banh mi thit nuong and again hardly had any meat in it. It was mostly bread and some veggies. The baguette (not even sure it was that) was pretty low quality too.

If you are in a pinch and need some Vietnamese food this might pass but realize you're not getting an authentic or good experience here. I'd pass on this place. There's actually a new place that opened up down the 280 by Greystone called Pho 280. When I walked in there the host was actually Vietnamese and spoke Vietnamese too. And surprise surprise the only people eating in there were Vietnamese. The pho was leagues better than Saigon Noodle House and they actually gave you a decent amount of meat. That IMO is what a Vietnamese restaurant should be like. I'd highly recommend Pho 280 if you're looking for Vietnamese food in B'ham. The only negative is the location as it's hard to spot on top the the hill. Give it a try and you'll be going there...

I have been a regular customer of this restaurant for quite a while and have always had a great lunch. Normally the pho is excellent and I have never had anything to complain about. This last time I had an issue with the side items accompanying the pho. The only reason I am writing this is because of the response I received from the waitress and the person at the checkout.

I ordered my favorite, pho dac biet, and it arrived in the normally speedy manner. Everything in the Pho was great. But when it came to the items on the accompanying dish there was an issue. The basil was rotten. Some of the basil had dry dark spots on it and some had wet dark spots of rot that, when touched, melted off onto your finger. It was gross and was actually quite obvious if you actually looked at the bunch. When I said something to the waitress, her response was not, "sorry" but "Would you like for me to get you some more?" Same with the person at the front. Besides from making me sick to my stomach from the thought of what I was about to put into my soup, I was upset because they did not even acknowledge that they should probably look at the items they are delivering to the table. There is no excuse to deliver rotten herbs that are obviously bad. It makes me wonder if they miss an obvious problem as this what else do they miss. This pictures attached are of a couple of the leaves that were bad. The one that has the larger dark portion is the one that was wet and rotten that disintegrated into a black...

During a recent lunch date with my girlfriend, we had the pleasure of trying the PHO Noodles at this Vietnamese Noodle House. My girlfriend was particularly enamored with them. I sought the waiter's recommendation for a dish that tasted like steak and, despite receiving no guidance, decided to order the Beef with rice. While the dish was well-seasoned, unfortunately, the beef itself was tough and not as tender as I had hoped. The addition of a sunny-side egg and cucumber slice were pleasant accompaniments.

Despite the minor setback with the beef, we thoroughly enjoyed the smoothies we ordered. The Coconut and Mango smoothies were both exquisite, and we appreciated the level of care that went into their preparation.

However, we did encounter some issues with the service during our visit. The waiter seemed disengaged and disinterested, which left a somewhat negative impression on our experience. While I have encountered both friendly and average service in restaurants, the service we received on this occasion was below average.

Despite the service issues, I would still consider giving this restaurant a second chance in the future. As one of the few Vietnamese Noodle Houses in the area, it is worth another visit to try different dishes and experience better service. I would recommend requesting that the beef be cooked differently if ordered again. Overall, our visit had some minor flaws but was not so bad that we...