Saigon Cafe — Restaurant in Temple

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I'm normally not for these kinds of reviews but it is very frustrating when you're insulted by management. Read below for explanation.

It started off with high expectations due to the amount of reviews. Upon arriving I found it was a huge menu selection from different cultural regions. This normally throws a red flag for me because most places that have this many items and cooking styles on the menu can't seem to do the majority of them correctly. Despite my gut instinct I choose to eat here because of the amount of hype through the review section.

I glimpsed the menu and I found one of my favorite dishes Canh Chua which is a Vietnamese sweet and sour soup which is indigenous to the Mekong Delta region of Southern Vietnam. Making this a special find and I was excited!

I also got the standard shrimp spring rolls as much of the other offerings didn't appeal to me.

Then I ordered a Vietnamese coffee. Everything sounds simple and delicious right! Read on!

Problems:

My coffee came out the server immediately told me that the coffee was done and all I have to do is just stir it. Already this was a problem because typically these coffees come still steeping and can take upwards to 5 minutes to brew. I took the steeper off of the cup to see what was going on. First thing I noticed was this dirty light brown liquid in the cup with grounds everywhere. Then upon inspection of the device I noticed all the grounds washed out and the tension wasn't set for proper steeping. I went ahead and took a sip of the coffee. It was just as horrible as it looked. It tasted of sink water with what I assume to be a hint of condensed milk if that was actually it. The coffee had the old stale Folgers taste lingering in there and coupled with the sink water you really couldn't tell what it was.

The spring rolls arrive!! Excited until I saw them. Right from the start I was already disappointed. One bite into them and I was completely let down. Spring rolls are these bright fresh delights normally stuffed with green/red leaf lettuce, shallot, scallion, pickled carrot/parsnips, chives, mint, Cilantro, cucumber, shrimp, chicken, beef or pork in any combination making these things live up to their name "Spring" Roll, fresh and bright as a spring day. These however were not and were some of the worst ones I have ever had. All they were was Rice paper, iceberg lettuce, noodle and shrimp. Blan, dry and lacking just like chewing on a head of iceberg.

The Canh arrived hoping this was the saving grace it was not. It was as bad if not worse than the rest of the items I had. The soup tasted and looked of dish water. The smell was so far off I didn't even want to touch it. But I had to try it. The celery was uncooked and still stringing together. The fish was in chunks and way over cooked it had slices of what appears to be very old tomatoes. The pineapple that was in it tasted of can and the broth was not even close to being similar to anything I have ever encountered over the years through my travels and friends. It was so far left field it would have been considered a foul ball but instead it was...

🤢🤮

For a place that is call Saigon Cafe, I was expecting two things. 1) Decent Vietnamese food 2) Vietnamese coffee. This restaurant was unable to give me either. When we ordered our drinks, I asked our waitress if they did proper Vietnamese Slow Drip Coffee (any proper Vietnamese restaurant would have it). She said yes and I ordered. My family ordered Fresh Coconut Juice, Thai Tea and a water. Our drinks came out shortly. Right away I knew it wasn’t proper Vietnamese Coffee. It didn’t come out in a slow drip and it was already made. Vietnamese Coffee is a delicacy, like Cuban coffee. It’s must be done a certain way to get the strong flavor. It usually takes a good 10 minutes to make, that is why it’s usually arrives at the table still in the slow drip. I took one sip and it was watered down and tasted burnt. I asked for more condensed milk (never arrived). Then I asked to return my drink and my waitress took it. We ordered 2 Pho (1 Specialty and 1 with meat/meatballs) and 1 Vermicelli Noodles with Egg roll, grilled shrimp and grilled pork. The herb came out first. It was wilted and turning brown (we received 2 plates of that). I understand that some special Asians herbs are hard to come by. So, I will bypass the Thai basil looking sad. However, there was no excuse for our cilantro to arrive wilted and turning brown (you can get that anywhere). This tells me they didn’t store the herbs properly. Which makes me think of a few things: Did they even bother to clean it (or other food items), what other corners are they cutting and allowing you to eat? Our main dishes: The pho was bland (missing the proper flavor for pho), I’m not surprised if they used a powder instead of properly cooking down beef bone for the broth. My family had to drown the pho in hoisin sauce to have some flavor. Even then we were not able to finish this sad excuse for a bowl of pho. The Vermicelli noodle was undercooked and old. Fresh and properly cooked/stored vermicelli should not be curly and almost crunchy. Grilled pork was dry and egg rolls was soggy. I was unable to eat the noodles and wouldn’t dare to eat any veggies (afraid it was unclean and will rendered me too sick to drive the rest of the road trip home). Once we asked for the check, I asked the waitress why was the coffee still on my ticket? She said it’s because I took a sip out of it. I explained that I took exactly one sip and returned because: it was not slow drip (like I was informed), tasted disgusting and I never received my condensed milk (like I requested). She rolled her eyes at me and walked off.

We paid the corrected ticket and got the HECK out of there. We were sad that La Dalat was not open, because I’m sure we would have gotten better food there. We love to support “Mom and Pop” restaurants…especially during such a hard time. But this visit had poor customer service and...

Let me start off by saying that as far as Asian food goes I will almost always go to a Buffet over a non-buffet restaurant unless the food is consistently exceptional…. Well, may I introduce the only non-buffet Asian food restaurant I frequent. Everything I’ve tried off the menu has just blown me away. the quality of ingredients and the care taken in preparing those ingredients elevates their food to another level. My absolute favorite thing on the menu is their hot and sour soup. The flavor is far better than any other hot and sour soup I have had. Tonight I had rice noodles sautéed in curry sauce with a combination of meats. It was just the right amount of spicy to feel the heat but not for it to burn or linger between bites. The flavor was amazing. I had a bowl of hot and sour soup as an appetizer and also ordered a large to-go hot and sour soup for a midnight snack 🙂. The atmosphere is the only thing that leaves a little to be desired. This restaurant is in an older building and it shows. The restaurant is however visually clean inside and the few glimpses I got back into the kitchen area showed what appeared to be a clean and well maintained kitchen. If you haven’t been here it’s well worth stopping by. The menu is massive so there should be something for everyone. The prices are very reasonable with most entrees hovering around $10. Some premium and seafood dishes get up there in price but that’s to be expected with high cost ingredients. For three people to eat with appetizers the cost was around $45 before tip which in todays economy isn’t bad at all. Service was fast and pleasant, no drinks sat empty...