Saigon Cafe — Restaurant in Livermore

Update: 10.28.23 Tofu lemongrass rice plate was delicious, except for the rice, which tasted like fish! We are vegan, and while we understand this restaurant prepares all foods in one kitchen, shared utensils should not be used, especially between steamed rice and fish. This has never happened before, and we hope it won't happen again. Otherwise, the rice noodles & veggies in our tofu veggie pho were undercooked quite significantly, so we microwaved the soup in a large bowl until properly cooked when we got home. We have eaten at Saigon Cafe since they opened, but the last few years are more hit & miss wrt quality. We still really like this place & want to support local businesses too...we hope they'll fine tune the kitchen for quality control, but we'll definitely give them another chance as we want to give the benefit of the doubt this time.

Edit 8.18.23 My veggie pho was great, my husband's rice plate with tofu & veggies was quite undercooked. We do like veggies stir fried, but still crisp, but cabbage, broccoli, carrots were still raw, not well heated, so not sure why cook would undercook it like that. Rice was perfectly cooked. Salad on the side was fresh with a large slice of cucumber & we love the ginger dressing. Server was attentive, helpful, & polite. We didn't complain to him about the uncooked veggies, we've been coming to this place since they opened many years ago.

Edit 4/19/19: Far too much salt being used, especially in the pho. They've always been heavy on salt, but it's worse for the past few months to the point that we can't eat here anymore. Requesting easy on the salt results in bland food, no underlying spices or flavor. We all drink water for hours after eating there, hadn't really tuned into this until recently after not having eaten at Saigon Cafe for several weeks. Lowered rating to 3 stars for using so much salt instead of spices.

Delicious Viet food, friendly service. Reasonably priced. Quick take out available. Point system to earn free food is quite generous. Good portions. Free...

This is one of those restaurants that I don't want to write up reviews on because I want it to be my own best kept secret. But they deserve every star out there in this world, so here I am :) Rock solid. Just rock solid. Don't expect a Michelin star cuisine or service but this place is just damn rock solid. Perhaps the best egg roll (or "Imperial Roll") I've had in my life! Like burn your tongue it's so hot and fresh kinda good. Oh and did I tell you about their best kept secret, beef cube steak with french rice? Oh gawd. Just order it, it's so good. Best part about this place is that it's just so affordable. It's so hard to find these tasty, affordable places to eat out in the Bay Area anymore. Between the two of us, we ordered 1 appetizer to share (3 huge pieces of Imperial Roll), 2 entrees and a soda and the total came out to be less than $50+tip. I hope there are more places like Saigon where they offer good food at affordable places. Thank you...

I had the 49A.. It is grilled sliced pork, served on a bed of fluffy white rice. Served with a small but crisp and fresh salad with a delightful sesame dressing. The small bowl of soup was light but satisfying. The Nouc Cham sauce ...( yes, it's a fish sauce... but so addicting!!! ) it is very light but I enjoyed it. I think they calm it down for the uninitiated. It's ussually a perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty. With garlic and chillies not in it , it winds up being very mild. I will be a regular customer. They should wipe dowm the chile paste bottles before bringing them to the tables. Also the bottles of soy sauce and fish sauce that are on the tables need wipe downs between customers. The waitress were very courteous and serve me with...