Saigon Garden — Restaurant in North Pole

This has been bothering me for awhile, I am an avid fan of Pho noodle soup, it’s my favorite meal and I was excited to go here, since the Pho house closed down in Fairbanks and I have not visited this restaurant yet. I ordered Pho and my Husband ordered some beef noodle dish.. my pho came out first and it came with out the sprouts and Thai basil/jalapeños plate, (you know the plate I’m talking about, if you’ve had pho before) the one that always come with a pho bowl, so I thought maybe it would come with my husbands dish when his came out … it didn’t and struck me as so strange, how can pho be your main advertisement and not bring out what is supposed to come out with it? Was it laziness on the waiters part? Or did we look like we didn’t know how pho is supposed to be served, so they took advantage of our supposed naivety, I hate confrontation, so I didn’t say anything to our waiter, but I felt like my family’s good nature was taken advantage of as if we were dumb tourists who didn’t know any better. Then to top it off, my husband found, I am guessing is part of a steel wool scrubby in his rice dish as he is almost finished with his dish. I get it sometimes there are mistakes in the restaurant industry, but two negatives in one visit? Wow, I was/am extremely disappointed how our restaurant experience went and for such a high price for our food bill to have such poor quality. I am embarrassed I didn’t say anything during our visit. I am hoping this review allows Saigon Garden to better their service to...

I was excited to try this place since this is the only Vietnamese restaurant in the area and there are none in Fairbanks. The food was good but the service could have been much better.

The beef combination pho was about $30 and it was just okay. I was expecting something nicer for the price. My partner ordered a banh mi and the waiter recommended pho to go along with it, so he gave in and decided to try it (even though really he only wanted the sandwich). Waiter brought out everything but the sandwich and did not visit our table again until we were nearly done eating. We were left waiting for a while. We got the banh mi to-go and it was quite small, like half the size of a regular banh mi I would get in the lower 48 but it was $15 here. :(

The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice but I thought the lighting was very dim. Upon walking in, I thought the restaurant was closed because the lobby was so dark.

Even though the food was good, I don't think I will return since the prices were quite high and the service was very slow...

Tonight was our first try with Saigon Garden.

The wife ordered the pork banh mi, while I ordered the spicy beef noodles. We shared the spring rolls as a starter.

My wife really enjoyed her sandwich. I tried a piece of the pork and the flavor was amazing! The spring rolls were also really good.

I was a little confused as to my spicy beef noodles. I had imagined something akin to stir fry based on the description, but what I received was much closer to pho. I think a little clarification could help.

My other gripe was that the spicy beef noodles weren’t spicy at all. Give me a little spice folks!

Our waiter was overall attentive and kind. He did miss some small things like my ordering of a Coca Cola (no soda arrived, but I also wasn’t charged for one… so I guess it’s a wash).

Overall I think this restaurant has a lot of potential… especially in the vacuum of North Pole. Once the waitstaff polishes their routine a bit, and with some menu edits… I think they can really shine!

We will definitely be back for...