Saigon Jon’s Vietnamese Kitchen

Place is bright and clean. Service was fast. Phở was quite good, massive helping served with plenty of fresh mint, lime, and bean sprouts. Some of the flank steak was a bit chewy but the broth was lovely and extremely flavourful. I’ve had Phở with bland broth at other places but not here. $ 10 for a gigantic bowl, pretty standard price. I will definitely order it again.
Pork Spring rolls were hot and crispy but a bit bland, served with plenty of, I think, Siracha mayo which was a bit different. I would have preferred some Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese fish sauce), next time I’ll ask for some.
Next time I’ll see how the Bun’ (vermicelli noodle bowl) stacks up against others I’ve had.

This is some kind of weird westernized version of something readily available in Winnipeg, at real authentic Vietnamese places.
Anyways, I had bun with the lemongrass tofu. The ingredients were fresh, the tofu was very tasty (not rubbery or chewy) and the noodles were a good temperature The spring rolls were also pretty decent, though not the best.
I also was expecting nuoc cham instead of peanut sauce. The peanut sauce was heavy, the point of bun is that it is light, fresh, airy but also filling. The sauce weighed down the dish. Better option would be nuoc cham with crushed peanuts on top of the bun (not uncommon).
I think I was expecting something more radicalized; twists on the classics, making them modern and unique. While the atmosphere was cool, the food was just «meh», and that’s not what I want in a dining experience.
In all honesty it tasted like white people trying to cook vietnamese food, when all I craved was the real deal.

Well I will give this place credit for trying to bring Vietnamese food to a more mainstream style concept. This place will likely be a bit polarizing depending on how you view this place. That is, do you expect this place to be a more westernized version of Vietnamese food or are you expecting this to be an authentic Vietnamese eatery.
For me, this place leans way more to the westernized version. I had the banh mi which I will refer to as an Asian inspired sub because it really isn’t a banh mi. The bread here is not the baguette you expect in a typical banh mi but more like a Subway style bread. The sub costs $ 6.49 (6″) and $ 9.29 (12″) so I will only value it based on what was served and I have to say Saigon Jon’s version provides a lot of protein filling so it is worth the price. You can pick from a variety of meats and you receive a lot of it. You also get to choose various aiolis/​mayo. I wish there were more pickled vegetables in there to highlight that balance of flavours that is the epitome of Vietnamese cuisine. But the pickled veggies and other toppings sort of get lost as the hot honey hoisin chicken that I chose overpowered everything else. So banh mi this is not, but it is a decent Asian Subway style sandwich.
I also tried the vermicelli noodle bowl ($ 9.49) which is also known as ‘bun’ traditionally. Now I have to commend them on the ingredients because it looked very close to the real deal filled with fresh ingredients. I chose charbroiled pork and found that the meat was good albeit a tad salty. The major disappointment I had with this dish was that they gave peanut sauce! I don’t have an issue with the peanut sauce if it was for the spring rolls but this is NOT the sauce for the vermicelli bowl! Vermicelli bowls always come with a fish sauce mixture (vinegar, sugar, hot chilly, and garlic). The sauce is then poured into the noodle bowl and mixed up (like a cold salad) and gives that sour, hot, salty and sweet balance of flavours. I really didn’t understand the peanut sauce. But from what I hear, the «sweet & sour sauce» that they offer is their version of the fish sauce. Good to know though hearing the description, sweet & sour makes one think of a different type of sauce.

We went here on opening day so they were still working out the kinks
It took forever for them to take an order as they write everything down and the process needs work
On the bright side — the food was good and two of us dined for $ 22 — Pretty good I would say as was the food