Saigon Fusion — Restaurant in Mount Dora

We were in town to locate our dealership for service and wanted to make a day of sightseeing and to find a Vietnamese restaurant for takeout. A quick search led us to Saigon Fusion on US Hwy 441 in Mount Dora. GPS led us to the restaurant, located in a small strip mall near Hobby Lobby. "Home of Vietnamese & Japanese Cuisine."

As soon as we opened the car doors, we could smell the aroma. We arrived shortly after noon; three people came in to pick up to go orders. One other person was eating in. We knew we wanted Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup) and were pleasantly surprised to find 16 of the soups on the menu including chicken, beef and flank, chicken egg, pork egg, wonton egg, shrimp tempura udon (thick noodles), chicken udon, pork udon, seafood udon, tofu veggie pho, veggie pho, and shrimp pho.

However, the pho was only a small part of the extensive menu which also includes hibachi dinners; combination hibachi dinners (ex: chicken and scallop/NY steak and shrimp); kid's hibachi; sides; hibachi lunch; combination hibachi lunch; sushi lunch combination (from 11-2:30); and, dinner combination.

The sushi menu takes up most of the menu with regular rolls, vegetable rolls, tempura rolls, and special rolls: 82 in all. Appetizers, sushi bar appetizers, soup and salad, rice and noodles round out the menu.

I'm glad we had an idea of what we wanted before looking at the menu and placing our order with a very nice lady. We settled on the Beef Noodle Soup (Pho Tai with sliced medium rare steak) and the Chicken Udon Noodle Soup (thick noodles). Our order was ready in ten minutes while we looked around the spacious restaurant. The kitchen was in full view; a separate area was designed for groups. The bathrooms were immaculate.

Back at home, we were impressed with the volume of both orders and their presentation. We decided to prepare the Beef Noodle Soup and keep the Chicken Udon for another day. For ease in eating, I cut up the steak into smaller pieces before putting the broth, meat, noodles and vegetables in our induction cooker. In only a few minutes, the beef was done and all ingredients cooked through. It was delicious with a little kick. The beef and noodles were tender and the broth was excellent. We had two healthy servings with enough left over for the next day.

The Chicken Udon was just as good. That broth had a delicate ginger base with thick noodles. We prepared it in our induction...

We heard how WONDERFUL this place and the food was. It was our 50th wedding anniversary yesterday, so we wanted to do take out.

The food was ready when we wanted to pick it up. HOWEVER, my hubby's shrimp was way overcooked and his scallops were way under-cooked. He dumped most of his meal out, once he got home and saw how terrible the seafood was cooked, "under-done or over-done"

My chicken teriyaki was way too dried out and didn't have any sort of teriyaki flavoring.

We both had the rice and noodles....they were just so very very salty and fatty with so much oil. After just having a few spoonfuls, we were both done with the very salty and oily noodles and rice.

We both had to take many TUMS last nite, as this meal was just way too fatty.

We were both so very disappointed, we had wanted to have had a wonderful take-out for our anniversary.

Guess that next year we might need to find a...

My girlfriend and I gave this restaurant a try and we were highly disappointed. I spent $40 plus tip and we ended up leaving most of the food on the table. No atmosphere, meaning no background music and minimal decor. Not a very comfortable scene. I could hear a microwave chime in the kitchen before our food came out. My girlfriend's chicken was very dry, and the flavor was lacking in both of our meals. The menu seemed quite small (no Banh mi?). As a connoisseur of various Asian cuisines, it's unfortunate that we will not be back.

Update.... I really needed a healthy soup to help with recovering from an illness and gave Saigon Fusion another shot to try their phó. I was pleasantly surprised and will continue to go back for the soups. I may be a little picky when it comes to Asian cuisine, having lived overseas, but the key is finding the strengths of each...