Saigon Hustle | Spring Branch — Restaurant in Houston

Saigon Hustle is a cute, trendy Vietnamese fast food spot that offers a decent introduction to Vietnamese cuisine for those who are new and unfamiliar with Vietnamese flavors. However, to those like my Vietnamese family who grew up with Vietnamese food all of our lives, if you are coming here to look for a piece of home or authenticity, you’ll be a bit disappointed as we were. The service was very friendly and extremely knowledgable of the menu (feel free to ask them for their recommendations). The restaurant space reminds me of an old 50’s diner (super cute and retro) with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. Parking is plentiful and easy to navigate.

Onto the food, definitely stick to the banh mi. The pork banh mi was very flavorful and fresh, and the Hustle special banh mi was also delicious with a nice twist of fried egg roll wraps for an extra crunch. Keep in mind though that, while the banh mi was delicious and flavorful, I did not taste a lot of egg mayo or pate. I would also recommend getting a bowl of the Beef Alphabet Soup (basically pho broth but with alphabet pasta and ground beef); it was a nice side to sip on with the banh mi. Check out the Lemongrass Fried Tofu as well - packed full of flavor! The cinnamon Vietnamese coffee was also delicious and has the strong flavor you need for ca phe sua da.

However, if you regularly eat pho and vermicelli bowls, you’ll be a bit disappointed. The pho is simple and has the basic components of pho, but not as herbal or aromatic as you’d expect to come from pho. It’s not bad; passable, but not stellar enough to go out of your way for. As for the vermicelli, this was the most disappointing dish. It all lies in the nuoc mam (fish sauce); it was far too sour and lacked any salt or heat. We theorize that the restaurant cut back on the fish sauce and added extra lime or lemon juice instead to combat the smell of nuoc mam (to make it more appealing for those who are unfamiliar or dislike the smell of fish sauce). As a result, the vermicelli bowl lacked all salt, spice, and authentic flavor. We imagine they use the same “fish sauce” for the com tam (broken rice) as well, so keep that in mind as you make your order. The che thai (tri colored dessert) was also unremarkable for those who are used to their aunties who make it at home. The tofu spring rolls were also unmemorable (definitely would recommend just getting the tofu on the side as a snack).

In total, we paid around $113 (including tip) for two banh mi sammies, a bowl of pho, vermicelli, spring rolls, che thai, vietnamese coffee and two sides. I would only recommend Saigon Hustle to people who 1) have little to no experience with Vietnamese cuisine, and 2) live in the area and cannot/will not drive out to Bellaire. For those who love Vietnamese food, I think Saigon Hustle is a great place to get delicious banh mi & ca phe sua da to-go on a midday lunch break, but definitely look else where if you crave a bowl of pho, vermicelli, or rice like you had when you...

Hi, hello, your fellow big back here. First time ever trying this place. Ordered through UE. I love Vietnamese food and yes I did cheat on the usual family owned restaurant and I’m not mad about it but I’d definitely still choose my usual place. So I wanted to try a bit of everything, I got a 2pc order of the pork and shrimp spring rolls and let me just say I was HUNGRY but after just one spring roll I was good. The peanut sauce just wasn’t what I’m usually used to I think so it definitely didn’t hit. But the spring rolls are BIG. I got a large passion fruit green tea which was great. I got an order of the 2pcs veggie rolls… I ordered these on accident as a Texas girly you know we don’t do veggie… it was kinda sweet but still good. I was going for the regular egg rolls but I’m not mad at it. My entree was the pork vermicelli, I added chicken and wings … I know big backing … like I said I ordered when I was hungry… the wings were good and crunchy, the vermicelli it’s self was good the chicken was not dry which is awesome the pork was over cooked like really charred but still good. I think the only thing I really didn’t like were the sauces and anyone who eats Vietnamese food knows that the sauces have to be good for the food to be good and I don’t know. I just didn’t like the “fish sauce” it didn’t taste like fish sauce it tastes more like garlic which I am not mad because I LOVE garlic but I wish It would have had a bit more of the fish sauce flavor and the peanut sauce was just not it … it was okay but way too thick and lonely had like a spec of the chili or Sriracha. My total was 54.27, which for the amount of food I got and the quantity I think is fair it easily could fill two normal people or 1 fatass but I have lunch for tomorrow. Overall I would try it again but definitely need some work...

Me and my husband came for their opening on 10/11 because we saw $5 banh mi on Instagram being advertised (chicken or pork only). We ordered: -1 pork banh mi : 8/10 ($7 added egg) personally I did like this banh mi, the pork was flavorful and portion was big, either the bread was too dry but it would not hold the banh mi, just fell apart. -1 chicken banh mi : 2/10 ($7 added egg) Me and my husband absolutely hated this one. We just threw it away. The chicken had no flavor?? Which is wild to me. And it just didn’t taste good at all. -4 eggrolls :10/10 ($10) The eggrolls came with fish sauce for dipping, I think they have either veggie or pork eggrolls and we got the pork. It’s FANTASTIC. They were super crispy, hot, super tasteful. -6 extra spicy wings: 3/10 ($10, 50 cents for extra spicy) It wasn’t spicy. I was given options yet it was sweet? So I’m just confused because what’s the point of the options when we were given basically some sweet heat wings. 4/6 of the wings had broken bones, so that also made them hard to eat, we were just spitting out shards of bones.

-2 fountain drinks ($3.50 each for a small fountain drink)

-1 Taiwan lychee beer $9 Truly a great beer. HOWEVER, on the menu right above the counter it stated $6.95, when I asked why it was not the price on the menu above the cashier said “it’s an imported beer so those are $9 and the regular beers are $7”… which I do understand but still that’s annoying for one price to be shown but charged another. So I would recommend changing that.

Overall: food ig is kinda a hit or miss. Like I said, the pork banh mi, eggrolls, and beer was great.

It was my first and will be my last time trying this Vietnamese place. I spent over $50 for super mid food. If you’re wanting to know a better Vietnamese restaurant I would recommend Com Tam #9,...