Saigon Bistro

So this is a review purely on the service because we left without eating. We arrived for a late lunch. There were two other couples there and a slew of empty tables… every single one of which was dirty and had not been cleaned. We were told by the waitress to have a seat anywhere… at any one of the dirty tables. We took the least dirty table there was and sat there. And sat. And sat. After a while, my husband told me to order for him if the waitress came and he went to use the restroom. He came back, and we waited some more. We watched the waitress come out and pour some water for one of the other couples, didn’t come to our table. Then the other waitress came out and took a check from one of the dirty tables. Didn’t come to our table. As they sat at the counter, basically blathering about absolutely nothing with a filthy restaurant and customers who’d been waiting for 15 minutes to even SPEAK to a waitress, we got up and left.

The day’s special of spicy lemon grass chicken was very nice. The staff was very attentive.

Went for dinner here tonight for the first time and based on reviews and experience of other Asian spots in town came in with low expectations but left relatively happy. We ordered fresh shrimp spring rolls for an app. My wife ordered chicken phở and I had one of the specials, spicy lemongrass chicken. The spring rolls were okay. The quality was good but the ingredients lacking. They were mostly just the shrimp and noodles. Some julienne carrots and scallions would have went a long way to help. They were served with dark peanut sauce. I prefer sweet chili sauce and asked for some of that and it was clearly from a bottle; gelatinous goo. I mixed the two together and it was tolerable. The Phở was good but fairly dull as many have reported but was made tasty with the right combo of Sriracha, housin and the accompanying sides. My lemongrass chicken was absolutely delicious — despite the odd use of jalapenos as the pepper of choice — and the only thing bringing this to a 3 star rating and I would have given 3 ½ stars if I could. Overall, I wasn’t blown away nor did I leave disappointed, so I guess I’d go again given the limited local choices. I guess that’s a sad statement for Asian food in St. Augustine.

We like this place a lot– pretty good Phở. We have had better (in larger cities) but we definitely like coming back time and time again. We usually get either noodle bowl or the dry noodle dishes and it’s always been tasty! In the restaurant, I will say it’s always felt like the wait staff is a bit short handed, but we usually do come during rush hour — lunch. I love the dry pork noodle bowl and will probably get it next time too. In the past I’ve had the chicken and meatball soup and that was delicious too!

I was not expecting this place to be good but their phở was surprisingly good!!! I will come back here for sure!

Just ok. We ordered the shrimp spring rolls, beef phở & chicken phở. My husband liked the spring rolls, I thought they were awful, but I hate cucumber. I’ve never had a Vietnamese spring roll with cucumber and I don’t know why on earth they would do that. The beef phở was ok, good flavor but the beef wasn’t the standard beef you would get in Phở. I don’t know what it was but it was filled with fatty pieces so I wouldn’t touch it. I just ate the broth & noodles. I tried my husbands chicken Phở, the chicken tastes like thick cut deli chicken. He liked it enough.

Only Vietnamese place in Saint Augustine as mentioned in prior reviews. Came here at about 7:45 on a Monday night, they had a few tables. My group sat outside. A few of us were new to this type of food, but asked to begin with the vegetarian spring rolls that our familiar friend said she highly enjoyed. They were mighty fresh, but maybe too much mint for my liking. It overwhelmed the only other two ingredient in the roll. Peanut dipping sauce, basically unsweet creamy peanut butter. Odd to me.
I ordered chicken noodle bowl upon waitresses recommendation, maybe I was wrong in ordering that, but was disappointed when there was no broth. Not a problem, asked for some & waitress came right back. I enjoyed it; I am no expert at Vietnamese cooking, but a broth like this I know could have more depth of flavor. This was just underwhelming. Good but not great.
In addition, service was very lacking. No refills on drinks, she didn’t even ask us how the food was. Also kind of underwhelming.
May give this place another try some day.

The first time eat Vietnamese food, we ordered beef noodle soup, and chicken fried noodle soft. Beef noodle soup not bad, just feel this is rice noodle, not wheat noodle. Taste not bad, maybe have glutamate inside? I am not sure. Beef taste not so good, but soup is delicious.

Not bad, but not great either. My table ordered the Beef Phở, Beef & Meatball Phở, and the Chicken Phở. While the meat was delicious, the broth wasn’t very flavorful. We had to amp up the flavor with lime, hoisin, and sriracha. The noodles were of varying sizes too, which was odd. Service was alright.

For the only Vietnamese place in st Augustine it is underwhelming. Couldn’t even finish my phở. Noodles were hard. No flavor in broth. We stopped by because I travel with old Asian parents who crave homeland food. Otherwise shame on you for eating here while there are so many more options around.

First I will say this​.St. Augustine does not do Asian food well. at all!
Summer rolls are pretty good. Dipping sauce is outstanding.
After that was Phở with almost zero flavor and rice noodles that were mushy and of the wrong size.
Pad Thai. flavorless, large noodles (never seen that) no green onions.
The waitress had zero class and cursed around customers.
Underwhelming and typical for St. Augustine.

We first had Vietnamese food in Houston and thought man I wish there was a place by us and there is. Saigon Phở Bistro had a steady stream of people coming in for a Monday evening. The food was great and we will put it on our list of great places to go to often in St Augustine

Beef phở was very good. Vegg

I know Vietnamese food pretty well and my meal was just average. The beef phở was so so — the broth was not rich tasting, the noodles a bit too firm, and the beef a bit overdone.
The cold spring roll (goi cuon) and peanut sauce was decent.
The chicken soup with egg noodles came with a very flavorful broth but the noodles were too chewy, not soft and tender.
Maybe it was an off night for the chef. I hope so because I am a huge fan of this cuisine and would like Vietnamese restaurants to flourish.

Came here for lunch today. I ordered #26 which was a pork noodle bowl… awesome. My son got the #25 which was with beef instead. It was really good too yet not as good as the pork. My wife ordered the #28 which was with shrimp. She really liked that as well yeti still thought the pork was the best.
Prices were awesome too!
Bottom line, I’ll definitely be back to this restaurant very soon.