Bida Saigon — Restaurant in Knoxville

Bida Saigon is unassuming in it's presentation of classic vietnamese food. However, it continues to fuel my presumption that some of the best food is hidden away in strip malls, closer than you'd expect. We ordered the vermicelli bowl, beef pho, shrimp spring rolls, and a thai tea to wash it down.

The pho is always fantastic. It has a clean broth that has a lot of body in itself but they also provide toppings such as hoisin, sriracha, and chili oil to adjust to your preference. If you don't like it, it may be your fault.

The spring rolls have a great chew due to the rice paper, a nice bouncy texture, and the noodles inside act as a mop when dipping into their peanut sauce. It is a fantastic binary solution in which the roll provides substance and the sauce provides moisture and flavour.

The vermicelli bowl was something I wanted to try after seeing it online. Would definetly recommend dousing it in the provided fish sauce as it adds a sweet and savory flavour. The crushed peanuts, meat, chopped eggrolls, noodles, and pickled/fresh vegetables create an amazing texture experience. Do not sleep on this dish! It is one I would recommend everyone to try at least once.

Finally, the thai tea was fantastic. As a pakistani-american, the flavour of the tea itself reminds me of chai, but in a whole new context! Thai tea seems to have less milk, more sugar, and is served cold. It's a great contrast with hot pho and I would definetly get it again.

With that, there's only two more things I feel I need to comment on. The service and the price. The service at Bida Saigon is incredible in it's speed, efficiency, and care. I never ran out of water and we were tended to immediately as we sat down. More so, the food came out at an incredible speed! (Must have been under 5 minutes?) To top it off, the prices are fantastic. In an age where even fast food is getting more and more expensive, it begs the question why you wouldn't just come to a nice local spot like Bida Saigon and enjoy their delicious...

Pretty negative experience tonight 10/2/2020. We ordered fried egg rolls $4 and the number 20 which is Mi Hoanh Thanh shrimp pork and egg noodles.

Unfortunately, I had ONE ☝🏼 shrimp 🍤 in my Mi Hoanh Thanh. Yes. One. Two strips of pork as thin as paper and ALL NOODLES and broth. Please be advised the 2 fried egg rolls for $4 are as big as your thumb. If you are expecting Chinese type egg rolls as we were, you will be disappointed.

I called and talk to the manager and unfortunately, he over-talked me. Then we learned it was a actually the owner I was speaking with. However, he would barely let me get out what I wanted to say about my experience and how I felt taken advantage of. This is especially true because I even tipped for the pickup order!

So of course now I am at home and the owner offered for us to bring the food back for a full refund. He did apologize eventually in the conversation so I have to give him full credit for apologizing but he did not explain why there’s only one shrimp, he did not explain why there’s only two paper thin slices of pork and he did not explain to me why the fried eggrolls are as big as your thumb for $4 with tax. Disappointing consumer here.

The bottom line is authentic Vietnamese food is wonderful! However, please do not take me for an idiot and take advantage of me and take my money and give me no food.

I would not recommend this place as a first time experience tonight. The only thing I’ve been offered is bring the food back and will give you your money back. This hardly seems like the appropriate fix here.

Disappointing too, the wontons at the bottom of the soup are miniature. I am so confused by all...

Vietnamese from Nashville here who passed through Knoxville to get to Gatlinburg. I don’t think the people who own this place are Vietnamese because none of the dishes I ordered tasted anything like it. I mean, it’s okay if you’re not but at least get the taste right and not put on a facade as if you were. I feel bad for the mi Trang who think this is what authentic Vietnamese food is. It’s wild. Ordered pho, bun Bo hue, banh mi, com suon and Vietnamese iced coffee. I’m laying in bed a week later baffled and still thinking about how it says “authentic” on their sign when there was no sign of flavor or seasoning to say otherwise. The only things that tasted right were things you could buy from an Asian grocery store that was already premade and then put together on a plate, like the pickled carrots + daikon and the cha for the banh mi which is from the fridge section.The iced coffee is from this brand called G7 Trung Nguyen instaaaant coffee. How you gonna play me like that when I thought I was getting the real OG— that real slow dripping coffee with the condensed milk. The stuff that you can’t fake is the flavor of the broth, which takes hours to stew in a pot to get the flavor of real beef bones along with the seasoning of cardamom, star anise, etc. So either you fake, or you just too lazy to do it right. All in all, if you can’t get the food right, at least know the names of the dishes being served instead of being like “huh I don’t know what that is (me saying bun bo hue) and then bringing the food to the table and saying the # of it according to the...