Saigon Fusion — Restaurant in Boston

If you want an averagely good bowl of pho and not prepared to wait TWO HOURS for it, don’t come to this place!!

First off, I came to the restaurant at 12:30, and it was completely full. No one greeted me at the door, said nothing about waiting times, and there wasn’t even empty chairs you could sit on to wait with. The place is painfully understaffed, with only one person doing everything, cleaning, accounting, etc. I only got a seat at around 1. Then it was another 15 minutes before I even got a cup of water. I placed my order at around 1:20, and I wasn’t served until 2:00. Mind you, I ordered a regular pho dish. This isn’t some fancy upend French fine dining that took their time. If the restaurant had started growing the bean sprouts when I placed the order, then the wait time would have been reasonable.

Then, the quality of the food is completely not worth the wait. The pho was good, garnished nicely, but then again, this is PHO. It’s not omakase. It was also 16 dollars for the regular sized pho, and the meat is at least three times less than what I’ve gotten in other Vietnamese restaurants’ pho for the same price. I could probably have eaten all the meat in one regular sized bite. The ribs were an extra add on.

In summary, it was expensive, extremely slow in serving, and VERY MUCH NOT WORTH IT. The restaurant is cute and well decorated, and the one person working there was doing a lot. But the understaffing isn’t a consumer’s problem. I would highly not recommend this place and definitely personally never...

I try to be pretty fair/patient so I do feel bad writing this… the service here was friendly but VERY slow. We were a party of 2 coming in at 11:45 am, shortly after opening when there weren’t many people yet. It took 20 min to get our order taken and then another 20 to get water for the table. At least 3 parties who arrived after us (also groups of 2/3), had their orders taken and food arrived before us.

We ordered 2 ice coffees, banh mi, and one kid size pho. The food arrived at around 1:00 PM. Nothing to complain about flavor wise, the banh mi was good and pho broth was light. Banh mi was on the small side, especially for the price, if anything. I like that they offer a “kid” size pho as I usually can’t finish a regular portion, but it was much smaller than the regular size and not that much cheaper. The Vietnamese coffee + coffee jelly combo was great.

They were very apologetic and friendly but it’s obvious that they’re either under-staffed and/or don’t have a great process set up. More and more people kept coming in but there was just a bottleneck somewhere.

Food is good but not enough to justify the wait. In that time, you could get on the T and hop over to Allston for a better/faster experience. I’m really sad because I was so excited to try this place. You can see I’m definitely a bit critical but waiting an hour or so for your order will do that.

I could see myself coming back here ONLY for a takeout coffee and only if I happened to be passing by in the area on...

Update review :

Last time I ate here was in January 2021. The reason is because I was refused to be served the dish I request the last 4 times I went there after my last dine in. I was told 2 times a big order is ahead of me and it will take close to an hour to make this dish for me: Egg Banh Mi. I didnt buy it after the 4th time. I literally stomped out of the restaurant because this refusal is too many times too many excuses not to serve me what I asked for. Is it they simply dont have enough staff? Not a good reason to repeatedly refuse making a dish that is on the menu. I was really disappointed bc I really thought I'd became a regular in this restaurant. I'm changing my review from 4 to 1 star. This is simply unprofessional.

Previous review:

There is 6 feet spacing between tables with chairs to barrier in between ☆☆.. using about 5 tables but the place is still small. I would feel more comfortable if its limited to 4 tables as groups are up to 4 people each. But, there is seating outside.

I am vegetarian and vegetarian banh mi with egg and avocado is my favorite thing to order there, as well as the vegetarian summer roll. The drinks are a bit on the expensive side. Tea is not free like other Asian restaurants but they have a collection of cute mugs and the chamomile tea comes with cube sugar on the side with a spoon ☆

The atmosphere is "real plants!" Yes! I cannot stand places with the fake plants.. this is where it makes...