Old Saigon Cafe — Restaurant in Houston

Ambiance: There is minimal outdoor seating just in front of the restaurant, but as it is in a strip mall, I doubt that experience would be preferable even if Houston weren't sweltering in heat. Inside, the area is relatively dimly lit compared to other Pho places; most of the lighting comes from the large windows at the front. Seating is mostly comprised of rather small, wooden tables made to seat two. Wouldn't plan to bring very large parties here, as the place is rather small to begin with. Very clean and well taken care of.

Service: The women seem to wear a watered down version of the traditional Ao Dai, and the men shirt slacks and bow tie. The servers are all very eager and efficient, the trouble is they've a bit of a hard time understanding the orders properly due to language barrier. After visiting twice, and dealing with 3 different servers, I've found this to be true of all of them. If you have some questions about the menu, they'll call over another lady who seems to be in charge and is much easier to communicate with. This doesn't pose too huge of an issue; just be sure that they've actually got down the order you wanted because I've had to send back the wrong thing.

Price: A bit pricey - Pho was $9 and Bahn Mi is $11, but for the ambiance and quality probably very justified.

Food: Old Saigon Pho: Notably, the waiter brings the pho broth separately in a pitcher and pours it steaming hot right in front of you into your bowl. The eye round steak was smooth and buttery. The brisket is thick. Much thicker than I've ever seen in pho before - reminds me of brisket steak at BBQ places rather than pho brisket. Personally, I feel the brisket is too thick/tough to be in a soup, but I can definitely see others being grateful for the generous slices. Shaken Beef Bahn Mi with a side of Fries: The fries that come on the side are fat, juicy, crinkle cut pieces of heaven. They're soft in the middle and crispy on the outside - and because they're fried in truffle oil, they've got a very lovely aroma to them. The Bahn Mi itself has generous helping of beef which are well seasoned and juicy as well. A bit too juicy - the sauce leaks from every pore and drips all over your hands but it's mostly worth it. Cilantro, jalapeno, and such are all excellent and complimentary as well. *Bonus: They give you spoons filled with just a spoonful of creme brulee with every meal as a complimentary dessert. Nothing is exceptional about this creme brulee, but it's sweet and a...

We ordered 3 items Pork Banh mi, Totu Banh mi & veggie egg rolls. Let me start by the egg rolls, those were alright, tasty, not bad & not the best. I enjoyed it. They were very small but had 6 pieces which was fine. Talking about Banh mi. First let me mention the fries. The fries were not good at all. The quantity was great but from my food industry experience, the oil that was used to fry was bad and old. Because of the old oil, the fries didn’t taste/smell fresh at all. It even looked burnt because of old oil. I tried both the Banh mi(s): pork & tofu. Let me start by tofu banh mi. It was great!!!!! In fact it was awesome. Very juicy, tender, soft and flavorful. I would highly recommend the tofu banh mi. The tofu banh mi was actually bigger than the pork banh mi. I had never had a tofu banh mi before and honestly it blew my mind. So I got really excited about the pork banh mi. However the pork banh mi was no where near how good the tofu banh mi was. 1) The meat very dry. 2) The meat was so dry that the texture got too chewy/rubbery. 3)The meat didn’t really have much flavor to it. Summary: Loved the tofu banh mi & highly recommended but the pork banh mi was a disappointment and wouldn’t recommend it.

Message to the chefs: Generally no one expects a tofu banh mi however, pork banh mi is the most common. It seems like to make the tofu banh mi popular/good tasting you guys worked really hard and achieved that. I think you guys put so much effort on the tofu banh mi that you guys completely forgot about the pork banh mi and paid so less importance to it that it doesn’t even taste good at all. I’d highly recommend you guys to please pay more attention to the pork banh mi, season your meat more and don’t make it too dry. I’m sure it’s gonna taste great!!!!!

Based on my experience, I’ll definitely visit again. If there’s an improvement, I’ll definitely update my review.

Btw, great ambiance and service. The condiments such as hot oil & picked peppers, etc were really good as well. When the server brought me my check, he also brought two spoons of fresh creme brûlée. It was good but I like mine a tiny...

I was really looking forward to trying this place, but I left so disappointed.

We went around lunch time, and there was a good amount of people there, which seemed like a good sign! We looked over the menu, and our order was eventually taken. We ordered a Vietnamese iced coffee, chicken fried rice, and 2 orders of Old Saigon pho (pho with rare beef and beef brisket.)

The coffee was alright, not as strong as I would prefer. Then our food came, the pho and rice looked good at first, but then came the tasting and further evaluation of the food.

The pho wasn't piping hot, and it didn't even have rare beef. The beef was extremely over cooked. The pho broth had a weird taste and smell that I can't exactly describe. The rice was alright.

However, the thing that totally put us off from eating was the fact that the plate that one of the pho's was sitting on top of had a dead cockroach. We weren't exactly rushing to eat any of this food, but that totally stopped us from continuing to eat and drink.

We waited a while before we could get the waitress' attention, and finally we were able to let her know what happened. She left for a bit to (I'm assuming) talk to the owner/manager. Eventually, she came back to let us know that they didn't charge for 1 pho.

We were not looking to get free food, or to screw over a small business, but we didn't eat any of our food, and it just felt like we wasted our time and money coming here. I understand that this is a small business, but I'm very disappointed that the manager/owner didn't even come to apologize for...