Saigon Cafe — Restaurant in Lubbock

I'm a fan of oriental cuisine so when I found out there was another Vietnamese place near my house, I rushed over to settle my noodle fix. I didn't regret it either. The whole experience was nice (unlike the other place nearby...)

Like I said, I was really craving noodles when I went in so I was relieved when I saw that had several different kinds of noodle dishes on their menu, along with some other good stuff. The price range is about $3.25 - $20.50 for entrees and appetizers and $2.50 - $5 for drinks and extras, including the ones in the fridge near the front counter, so it's not too expensive to eat here. The place was relatively clean and tidy and the fish tank nearby was a nice little touch of atmosphere. I wasn't sure why there was a disco ball in the dining room but that's just me. The female cashier, Tammy, was really pleasant as well. I was totally comfortable with her service.

As far as food went, I went with the Hu Thieu Saigon: the clear noodle soup, with shrimp, pork, and crab. It was pretty good! The noodles were nice and tender as with the shrimp, and the crab was surprisingly delicious. They even give you a side of bean sprouts and cilantro to put in the soup. The broth was a nice, mild flavor that went well with the noodles. They'll also let you order even more noodles to put in the leftover broth, for an extra $3.75. It's little steep but the clear noodles were kinda hard for them to come by so I let it go. My only complaint was the pork. It was kinda dry...

Overall, this is a place I'd totally recommend. I'll be coming back to try something new, next time around. Just be wary as, according to Tammy, the pandemic sometimes makes hours...

The food has been great, I love the pho special over here. The broth is really pleasant and then you can adjust it with hoisin and siracha sauce if you choose to do so. Pho is my comfort food, it feels really good to eat after a long day or a bad day or even a hungover day. I’ve tried a few of the other dishes as well and thought they more mostly all pretty-to-really good. The service is excellent for what it is, but given the other “service” complaints here let me explain and clarify what seems to be going on. The 2 times I’ve come, it’s been the same 1 server handling orders, bringing food out, as well as bussing tables and cleaning. Now from what I’ve seen her work ethic is fantastic and she works hard and gets food out quickly, but she’s also doing it all entirely by herself. So my 1 suggestion for improvement is: get her some help. I feel like it’s almost unfair to her to require her to do all this work all day every day, especially during the busy days/busy hours. Now don’t get me wrong if she wants to do all this then great, but if she wants an assistant I would definitely recommend getting her an extra server or busser just to take some of the workload off and streamline the efficiency of how the restaurant runs. The server they have now is great though, and after all of this work she’s still sweet to customers and finds a way to say bye have a good day to everybody. All in all, I do really enjoy this restaurant. I recommend it to people all the time and I do believe that this is the best pho...

My wife and I wanted some brisket pho, according to reviews we were led to Saigon. We walked in and one lady was running food, cleaning tables, and taking orders. Not optimal by any means but given the current state of affairs we overlooked this and opted to stay. There was one family ahead of us and we still waited in line for more than 20 mins. Walked up to order, 2 phos, a shrimp fried rice, 3 canned drinks ($1 each) and 2 egg rolls. The lady rang up all we ordered and the total was $49, I was shocked. I told my wife this better be the best pho we have ever had. The food was delivered pretty quickly. Although in the meantime we had to listen to the lady bussing tables slamming dishes around and moving tables and chairs around like a mad woman, which was so noisy. The pho came out and looked fair at best and the shrimp fried rice had a total of 4 shrimp in it. The pho tasted as it appeared, fair. Most of the meat was very fatty and a oily layer on top of the pho led me to believe it was not fresh. I definitely will not be back for a couple reasons, number 1 is cost (we could have had a steak dinner for those prices, which aren’t posted anywhere on the menu) and number 2 was the...