Saigon Vietnamese Cuisine

Good place to bring your friends and parents to get together, the owners are always nice and takes care of you or just comes and talks story. They get to know you each time you come which is nice. I like it here a lot.

I came here with an open mind because I have learned not to take other Unilocal reviews seriously. I have a high expectation of food in all aspects.
On a chilly night, phở would be the default choice but on an 88 degree day, opting for a cold dish was the better choice. I was seated promptly and waited a few minutes before someone came to take my order. The lady was looking at me, not in the eye, but either my mouth or my neck. I really thought that was peculiar so I checked to see if I had remnants of chocolate on my face. Ok, none.
I ordered bun bbq pork with spring rolls. The portion was on the small side, considering it cost $ 10. So ding a star and a half for that. Flavor wasn’t spectacular. Meat was not hot so it was probably sitting out for awhile. The noodles were really thick.
I finished and looked for the server. He came over and asked if I wanted more iced tea (no) and I asked for the check. I waited a few minutes and noticed he was sitting with the other workers at a table having lunch. Ok, I know it wasn’t busy but I did ask for the check and my used napkins were in the bowl when he offered more iced tea. I had to wave at the lunching workers that I was done. I thought I got a free lunch today! lol
I’m not so sure I will be back. I’m still in search of my go-​to Vietnamese eatery.

I stopped by this place on my trip to Hawaii and it was a great experience. The food was wonderful and the service was exceptional as well. I would highly recommend this restaurant if you are looking for authentic Vietnamese food.

I’ve been eating here for past 2 years. It’s family running business. The staffs very friendly. They already know my fav phở and coffee and making the way I like. I went at least once a week. Highly recommend it. Try their BBQ chicken or pork or lemongrass chicken also very good. I love their springrolls but once a while, I will crave for their delicious Vietnamese Crepes but it’s humongous and min with 2 persons.

One of the best phở broths we’ve ever tried. We always come to this spot in all of china town because of their phở and make-​your-​own summer roll selection. Everything is always so tasty. Also think this is one of the best places you can get a sugar cane drink! All around great place to casually dine!

Gosh I’ve been here 3 times thus far & have loved each & every meal. I love the fact that they are open SO early! I rolled in there at 8:30am and got the most delicious beef stew this morning.
If you’ve never had Vietnamese beef stew, you are missing out. It’s totally different from the good old American or local-​kine beef stew. It has so much different spices and herbs that your tongue will have tons of flavor explosions.
The darn thing was only $ 10!!! Seriously, a huge bowl of stew, a loaf of French baguette & a plate full of veggies. Unreal!
I also had…
the spicy beef with noodles-​awesome
Vermicelli noodles with spring rolls/​pork-​great
But my all time favorite has to be their beef stew! Amazing
Bön Appetite

My mom lives on Maui and has a list of Vietnamese restaurants on Oahu. This one was one of them. They make really great Bun Rieu (seafood soup with crab-​meat balls) and Bun Bo Hue (spicy beef and pork soup). Yum. They also make great phở too!
Food:
They do have a great list of goodies but I had to try the Bun Bo Hue. It was good. It had pieces of beef, cubed pork blood, and pigs feet. It was heaven. Although I’m used to my aunt’s Bun Bo Hue, and hers is spicier. This one isn’t super spicy but there are condiments on the table to spice it up.
The server was also nice but I think it’s because they know my mom and that we were Vietnamese. But he was very knowledgeable on different phrases. My mom’s Filipino boyfriend was with us and he did hit him with a «salamat» lol. very personable and great food. Oh and food came out super fast!
Oh and you know being a spoiled maui girl, some places on Oahu kind of freak me out. I thought that we were going to walk into a small restaurant with old looking tables, cramped with «stuff» and dirty walls… but the restaurant was clean and décor was nice. The outside doesn’t do it justice. :)
Definitely watch the videos on the TV. They are of actual places in Vietnam.

There are few Vietnamese restaurants where the food transports you to another place. Stepping into Saigon is lite warping from Hawaii to Ho Chi Minh. The he food is authentic and so are the people who own and run it. Everything is so delicious. My favorite phở outside of Vietnam and the sandwiches are delish.

The food is delicious and it’s made even better with the wonderful customer service! Everything tasted so fresh! It seemed like their goal as soon as we walked through the door was to make us comfortable and happy customers! First time here, I will definitely be back!

I haven’t been here in awhile. Got here menu looked different. Hmmm. Where my iced tea? Its OK maybe new owners? Some of the ladies looked familiar. I could be wrong
Get my order in. Just a basic phở tai beef outside. Guy asked me large? I looked over at another tables bowl. he says its a regular. Large it is. Get my bowl and its big. full of soup. I mix the noodles up a bit and WOW. Seriously? This thing had enough noodles to fit in those small Chinese rice bowls. Like I could’ve gone home and made a cup of noodles and had more.
I’m taking my time writing this. and taking a few spoons here and there so my mom has enough time to finish her rice plate.
LOL ya… not coming back.

Phở Ta, Bang Xeo and Spring Roll all expertly prepared and delivered with heaps of fresh veggies and herbs. Restaurant is very clean and staff was pleasant and helpful. A perfect lunch after a walk through the Chinatown markets.

This place is pretty authentic and right in the heart of Chinatown. I had the Vermecilli noodles with BBQ pork and sugarcane fishcake. My Bro had the rare steak phở and we shared an order of Spring rolls. This place is the bomb! Phở broth here is amazing! They also have sugar cane juice here which was delish! The only down point to coming here is having to find parking in Chinatown and/​or park in one of the garages and needing to pay for parking. Other than that this place is worth going to! Service was good too!

Very tasty Vietnamese place. The other reviews might seem to suggest that the phở is the best dish to get here, but it seems that is often forgotten that there is more to Vietnamese cuisine than phở.
I quite enjoyed trying the banh hoi and the banh mi here. Though, I think that the banh mi was the tastier of the two dishes. The sandwich bread was nice and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The pork in the sandwich was nice and flavorful. Service was prompt and my waiter was very helpful when I struggled with wrapping the banh mi.
The only reason that I am not going to give this place a 5 star rating is that as good as the meal was, it was a bit salty.

Fresh Clean Atmosphere. Good Service.
The food is fresh and most people order the Phở.
I tried the Lemongrass Chicken and wished I was at Phở Thinh instead.

Hmmm… What’s a great way to celebrate your first year anniversary at work? Keep the Phở Wednesdays tradition going — a carry over tradition from my previous job for 4 years!
My coworker and I started this quest of looking for a good Phở place to eat in… From Fort Street we started walking, talking, and Unilocaling our way to Chinatown for a good place. *yelping, Unilocaling, Unilocaling*. oohhh «wanna try this place?». «sure». We actually were Unilocaling for a different place but since Saigon Vietnamese Cuisine is 1) two doors before the other one, 2) looks bigger of a place than the other one, and 3) the two people in front of us went in here, we decided to go here and we did not make a mistake.
«Do not judge the book by its cover». Although it was along N. King and there was a construction on the road just outside it, the inside is clean and the tables are all spaced out well. Just watch out, the floor is elevated above the street level. The whole time we were there, people coming in get tripped or something on the two-​step stairs.
I had the regular phở with beef balls, meat, tripe, and tendon. oh boy, the serving is big! $ 8.45 spent well. The broth is good and they serve generous amounts of fresh veggies. I didn’t get to finish it since I was also talking most of the time. o-​O
Service is good, quick and they roam around to see who needs what.
Will be back for sure! :)
Phở#1/365

In keeping with my coworkers tradition of Phở Wednesday, we went on a quest to try a new phở place for the new year. There are a bunch of Vietnamese places in chinatown and downtown also with «Saigon» in the name, but I think this one is going to the top of the list.
The place is roomy (in comparison to some other cramped noisy phở places where your elbows bang the table behind you while you eat), air conditioning, and is elevated above the street level. I have no idea the purpose of this, but it’s interesting.
The phở broth was delicious and not too heavy on the cardamom or overpowered by cinnamon like some places and they gave a heaping pile of super fresh veggies. I love fresh basil and some places give you one or two stalks and here we got a huge handful. Wow, generous.
I ordered the regular with everything (tripe, raw beef, meatball, tendon) which was about 7.50 and there is also a large size on the menu for a dollar more. It was a lot of noodles and goodies inside. I was surprised I was so full and not finished!
I’d say this is one of my new favorites. I’m ready to go back and it’s only Thursday.
Phở Wednesday Review #1

My favorite phở to date!
I work in Iwilei, so Chinatown is pretty convenient for an hour lunch break. I’ve tried a few places in Chinatown for phở, but nothing beats this place!!!
The phở broth is DELICIOUS! Rich and salty with tons of finely chopped green onions, slices of regular onions, and of course you can add mint leaves, saw leaves (I don’t know what the correct name for these are), and beansprouts, all which give the phở a great complementary crunch. They also give lots of noodles and good pieces of meat/​chicken. I usually get chicken phở but if you do get meat, I recommend getting it «outside» aka raw. It’s delicious dipping each piece individually and cooking it in the broth to a medium/​medium-​rare doneness! With the delicious broth and the variety and quality of ingredients they put into the phở, it’s probably my favorite bowl of phở ever! Sizes are good too: they have a regular and a large = both pretty sizable!
Phở Ga (chicken):
I know most phở places use MSG and this place is no different (I think). About 50% of the time I get a headache about an hour after eating the phở. If you’re sensitive to MSG beware, BUT for me, the phở is soooo good I usually just suck it up, haha.
The servers are all really friendly, the tables are always clean (and not that wet rag smell), my water glass is always asked to be refilled before its empty, and they offer complimentary iced tea! I don’t come here THAT often but they still remember me! Only thing is it sometimes can be pretty busy during lunchtime but somehow there always seems to be at least one table open/​opening up.
Being located in Chinatown, parking can be a real pain. We usually just park in the municipal parking lot fronting Nimitz on the corner of Nimitz/​River. Only need about 1 – 1.5 hours since the service and phở in general is a pretty fast meal.
**Tip: They only accept credit cards if the bill is over $ 10!

I can only say the raving reviews eludes me… Sure the waiter arrives with a ear to ear smile, interior is a soothing baby blue, walls nicely decorated with hints of Halloween and there is a reassuring echo of Vietnamese in the background but guess being overcharged for my Phở probably negated all those great little things that everyone 5’starred about.
Ordered a regular sized Phở with raw meat and beef balls. Volume was perfect to the T and my choice of going for a regular vs a large was justified but I just couldn’t find the magic fellow Phở lovers were talking about.
Broth was salty, raw beef was rubbery, beef balls were just chewy balls, noodles were standard and well… I left with no thoughts of bringing my friends here.
Perhaps I will revisit this review once I have tried a few other things on the menu but as for the Phở its really not worth the trek to go out of your way for Saigon.

I think I found the best Vietnamese restaurant on the island… thanks to my majah!
I’ve been to Saigon Vietnamese twice and both times have been for breakfast. Weird, right?! Also, both times have been with my Mom after she dragged me around and about Chinatown with an armful of groceries. Way to work up an appetite! It is kinda off the main drag of Chinatown and I would not expect a Vietnamese restaurant this spectacular here! Head down King Street Ewa side until you pretty much reached the end, across from Chun’s Meat Market.
The spring rolls here are excellent and they are very generous. You get eight pieces with vermicelli noodles, mint, and lettuce. The phở is great too! For about $ 9, you get a huge bowl of phở. The broth is flavorful and they give a lot of veggies. The meat is fresh too! One of the best phở around.
However, the one item I love was the banh hoi… which is what I think it’s called according to the Unilocal reviews. It’s the make-​your-​own summer rolls. We ordered the BBQ shrimp one for about $ 13.50. It came with 12 rice wrappers, about 8 pieces of perfectly cooked jumbo shrimp, vermicelli noodles, cucumbers, pickled veggies, and lettuce with fish sauce for dipping. This was sooooo good and it was pretty healthy too! After awhile, I decided to wrap the fillings in the lettuce and wrap the lettuce with the rice paper. It kept everything from falling out.
Sorry, the banh hoi looks a lot better but my mom and I started picking at it by the time I remembered to take a picture lol.
Service is amazing! Everyone is so friendly! I can see why she loves it here because the workers remember her and knows what she likes. My mom is kinda paranoid about eating raw veggies so she gets a bowl of water to rinse the veggies out. They always bring her a bowl of water without her having to ask. Impressive! The place is clean too which is always a plus. Unfortunately, it’s not handicap friendly has there are steps to get up to the dining area.
If there is a crowd by 9AM, you know this place is good! I highly recommend checking this place out if you’re in the area. If my mom ever wanna drag me out of bed before 9AM on my day off to eat here, I will gladly accept because I can’t wait to eat those summer rolls again *wipes drool*

I am not a big fan of Vietnamese cuisine, don’t ask me why. The ingredients they use just don’t turn me on, and although I’m a fan of practically any kind of noodle (e.g. saimin, ramen, chow mein/​fun), I cannot stand phở. So when a friend invited me to lunch at Saigon Vietnamese Cuisine, I was not leaping for joy.
However, I must tell you that my friend and his family are the real deal when it comes to everything Vietnamese … his mom is the master at cooking Vietnamese food. So, when he told me that his mom is the one who brought him to this place, because they offer this one dish that no other Vietnamese restaurant on the island offers, I did get a little excited.
My friend did all the ordering for us, and when I asked both him and the wait staff for the name of what we ordered, all they could do was show me pictures in the menu of what we ordered, so I can’t tell you what it is. I can only describe it for you.
To start off the meal we had their won ton soup. I normally don’t like won tons in soup (I prefer the deep fried, crunchy kind), but these were awesome. The soup had a nice flavor to it too. A must try.
Then came the main course (this is the course that you can’t find anywhere else on the island). They brought us a plate rice papers, a bowl of hot water, and a large plate filled with veggies (lettuce, pickled veggies, mint leaves), meats (mini spring rolls, vietnamese sausage, bbq beef, bbq shrimp, and this shrimp thing filled with a large piece of sugar cane), and rice noodles. Time to eat!
So it’s basically a DYI summer roll dish. You put the rice paper in the warm water and then place it on your plate. Add your veggies, meats, roll, dip in the fish sauce, and take a bite. OMG, it was fantastic. I must have eaten at least 7 summer rolls, and would have eaten more had we not run out of the fillings!
Tip — use the bathroom somewhere else before you come here — my friend used it and she said it was pretty nasty.