Saigon NV — Restaurant in Malden

There was a Saigon restaurant in Brighton and the food was always delicious and well prepared. It closed in the 2000’s and I’ve never tasted Vietnamese food as good since. My son brought home Pho Tai and fresh rolls from Saigon NV in Malden and the Pho and peanut sauce reminded me Saigon in Brightons. I thought it may be the same owners, but it’s doubtful. Saigon Brighton’s food was excellent and well prepared while Saigon NV in Malden is mediocre to bad with NO ATTENTION to preparation. Rice wrappers on fresh rolls always split, so it’s a box of rice noodles and a shrimp.They give a single container of peanut sauce even for TWO ORDERS; rice noodles are just a vehicle for the sauce! BEWARE if you have food allergies! Twice I ordered A DISH with PORK and got TOFU! I have a tofu sensitivity; I won’t DIE just SUFFER gastrointestinal distress! The first time I called Saigon NV who said it’s a Grub hub order there’s nothing we can do! GH delivered it without Incident; the mistake was how they prepared it, SO it had EVERYTHING to do with them. She got mad babbled something to me, and hung up without even saying I’m sorry! Not my problem… CLICK! I stop ordering from them, but I’m moving and my son likes their Pho, so against my better judgment I did; but I CLEARLY wrote in the order notes: Please don’t rip rice wrappers and DOUBLE CHECK THE ORDER IS CORRECT! The rice wrappers were ripped but WORSE they sent me TOFU AGAIN! I called GH, who courteously refunded my money, but in the 5-6 times I ordered from Saigon NV they made mistakes; even with detailed notes. The food quality is mediocre to bad. The only good dish is the Pho, but even that was greasy tonight. People work hard to afford dining out or ordering in and getting bad food is frustrating and lame. l owned a restaurant and mistakes are made; but everything possible should be done to correct and prevent it from happening again! Serving lousy food and being rude to guests is bad enough; what offends me is their careless preparation, inattention to the ingredients they use and most egregious IGNORING NOTES about preparation, dietary issues and allergies; this is UNCONSCIONABLE! I owned two restaurants so I know that owning a restaurant comes with a duty of care to keep the public safe; most people understand the responsibility of holding a liquor license. If a person leaves a place intoxicated and the staff doesn’t make sure they’re not driving it can end in tragedy and death. Licensees are even required to have insurance coverage for this. However, most people have never heard of a Common Victualler License, which covers the proper preparation and storage of food. If food isn’t prepared and stored properly or there’s cross contamination it can result in food poisoning which far worse than any flu! Most people recover in a few days but if they have a compromised immune system, are elderly or young then food poisoning can be fatal; it’s the same with food allergies, most healthy adults get sick and recover in a few days, but some allergies are fatal. CVL doesn’t require additional insurance but it has the same duty of care because the end result of abusing that duty of care can be equally fatal. The public may not know about CVL’s but restaurant owners do, and if they don’t take the responsibility of a CVL equally as serious as the responsibility of a liquor license…THEN THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED...

I forgot to take pics this go around, so I guess you'll just have to imagine it. Or go there yourself.

Anyway, we got two appetizers — the pork skin spring rolls and chicken wings. The spring rolls were pretty good: the pork skin could've been a little crisper, but the vegetables were fresh and the dipping sauces (peanut with coarsely chopped peanuts and by the look of it, although I didn't try it myself, a sweet 'n' sour) were decent. The chicken wings, however, were dry as hell. I don't know why my friend ordered it. I told him we were going for pho and anything else that caught our eye, but he "needed more meat." Okay, whatever you say, sport. Looking back, I wish I'd stuck to my guns and pushed for more interesting choices like the crispy fried quail or Vietnamese crepe.

Anyway, we both got P2. I had already had that dish the last time. It was the bowl of pho with a lot of meat — eye round, flank, brisket, tendon and tripe. And my friend? He had no idea what he was getting into; he'd just asked them which bowl had the most meat, not realizing that a lot of food cultures outside and inside the US feature what a more discerning eater might call "off cuts." So, yeah, I thought the pho was pretty good, about what I remember it tasted like the last time. I'm not sure about him though. He definitely took a hit and slowed down when he got to the tripe. I probably should've told him in all fairness — or at least not said "no idea" when I knew damn well what he was about to put in his mouth.

Then we both finished the meal out with Vietnamese iced coffees. I don't know if it's just the condensed milk they use instead of cream, half 'n' half or milk that you'd usefully find in your average coffee or the quality of the coffee beans in general, but they're fantastic. Super addicting and very easy to drink quickly.

The only real constructive criticism I could find was that the server could've been better about refilling our waters. That being said, she was super friendly and (mostly) attentive and the overall experience and meal. And honestly, that was the only true negative that I took points off for. Like, I'm not going to be that guy who takes extra points off for being dumb and ordering generic chicken wings at a mom & pop Viet place, you know.

Look forward to coming back and maybe trying something more adventurous like the soup with pork blood,...

Surprisingly underwhelming experience.

I went here because I heard it was one of the best Viet restaurants in Malden. My party ordered their pho dac biet, bun rieu, chanh da, and soda chanh.

The pho was average - the noodles are standard, meat tender, and the broth flavor was mild but a bit too fatty. Compared to the pho in other places like Dorchester or Quincy, it’s below average.

The bun rieu was also okay but tedious to eat. The broth was also mild but definitely taste like bun rieu and the protein was fine (the meatballs were tender and tasty). The noodles were the most difficult to eat because they were so comically short. I’ve never had vermicelli be 1-4 inches long. Even though I switched to just scooping the noodles with my spoon, it was still time consuming which took away from the overall experience.

The drinks were fine, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get them.

Service was typical of a Viet restaurant.

Even though my experience was underwhelming, it taste like an average/below average experience in the Greater Boston area. There are some objectively bad Viet options in the Greater Boston area.

Overall if you need to get your Viet fix, this is an okay option if you live around the area. But if you live in Boston, just go to...