Thai’s Saigon Bistro

Nice and relatively simple atmosphere. The food was excellent for the price. Would recommend.

Best service I’ve had at a phở restaurant.
The prices here are very competitive, with the large phở coming in around $ 8.50 (about a buck cheaper than other places). The salad rolls are average price, BUT they offer a shredded pork salad roll (!)
The restaurant is VERY clean, fresh, with crisp white walls, clean tables, and very comfortable seats. Had a few flatscreens on the wall with NBA playing.
The servers here speak excellent English, and they ran to refill my water. Even though we were here right at last call, they took our table and told us to take our time while eating.
Highly recommended and I will return.

Cua lua salad rolls (goi cuon A2)
Vermicelli with grilled pork and spring roll (bun thit nuong cha gio B4)
Sub with pork chicken pâté (banh mi dac biet S1)
The sub was pretty good. Crispy, not soft, but not Cap’n Crunch bread. Great snack and packaged well to eat on the go.
I didn’t like the spring roll. Too much breading and the filler wasn’t awesome.
The vermicelli was good, but not amazing.
Service is great and staff is very friendly. There was one big table and another person waiting for takeout.
$ 20 for a hefty dinner for one.
Again, I might come back, but I’m not excited about it.

Lots of Vietnamese food in Greater Vancouver and a lot of them are forgettable, but this please is just tastier and good. Consistent quality, service and clean.

good service and delicious phở! love the lemongrass pork mmmmm

I have nothing bad to say about this place. I rotate between going to Hanoi phở and this place. They also don’t use msg here and the owner is super friendly.
The menu has your usual items and prices are what you get at regular phở places. Today I felt like changing it up and getting a very healthy option so I opted for the chicken phở. It was delicious. The broth was nice and light but also very flavourful, and it came with 3 chicken meatballs and 2 pieces of poached chicken. The meatballs were very light and such a welcome change from beef balls. The poached chicken wasn’t dry and the chunks were huge. I normally get the house special with all the fixings and you can’t go wrong with that as well.
My boyfriend got the phở with beef balls and brisket and he enjoyed his as well. He also ordered a spring roll to start and there’s nothing to complain about on his end.
We’ve always had a pleasant experience here and it’s a bang for your buck. You will get full and have delicious food while you’re at it and it definitely won’t break the bank. Highly recommend trying this place out if you haven’t!

I must say my former favorites phở house has slipped noticeably. we find the broth very inconsistent, the portions of meat quite small. the service that once was excellent is very poor now. I just don’t think they’re trying anymore, too bad

Vietnamese 101.
The bustling lunch crowd would indicate the hype, but what makes this place stand out from the 100’s of Vietnamese joints?
The waiter serving us was friendly and had a sense of urgency to his work. Up beat and moving with purpose, I’d say this review is much about the service than the food.
I ordered the bun bo hue — a spicy noodle soup dish with various meats with the standard array of bean sprouts/​lime/​jalapeños.
The price was acceptable at under $ 10, but I felt it needed a bit more noodles and maybe 2 – 3 more pieces of meat. The flavours were not overtly spicy, but balanced. It was good.
A good lunch spot.

My husband and I have never had a bad experience at this restaurant. The servers are incredibly nice, the food consistent and flavourful, and the atmosphere, pleasing.
While I say I want to try something different every time I step into a phở joint, I always pick the same items because they’re too good to pass up:
Vietnamese coffee: the velvety sweetened condensed milk mixed with the think, black strong Vietnamese coffee make my tastebuds dance… then later on my whole body because of the caffeine and sugar.
Spring rolls: hot, crispy and flavourful without burning your tongue off.
House special phở: it has everything in it, so why get something else? A word of warning to the sqeamish: there’s tendon and tripe in it… just saying.
Overall, it’s a great cheap place to grab a bite.

Came here once for lunch with colleagues. It was a weekday midday, and the place was half full. All of us ordered some type of phở. It took more than 30 minutes to get out our orders, so we spoke up, but all we got were «sorry“x3 when the bill came. It was a rushed experience, phở is hard to review as it is mostly boiled soup broth with meat and some rice noodles.

I come here to get my phở fix with my boyfriend on the regular. By far my favorite phở place in North Burnaby. The portions could be a bit bigger with alittle more meat but other than that, love the food. It’s a great mom & dad owned business with awesome service, very polite :) The broth of the soup is flavourful and I never leave without getting their deep fried spring rolls!

We ordered grilled lemon chicken on broken rice with broken egg. and some spring rolls. Hot tea was promptly serve upon arrival. Food is not bad, but nothing to shout about. Price is reasonable $ 8.95 for the rice dish and $ 4 for 2 spring rolls. Nice and clean environment. Washroom is clean too.

Since I’m a regular customer, I would like to share my thought to some of the other posts which say this place is more expensive than other Viet places.
Yes, portion and meat is less than other Vietnamese places, it’s no harm if they give me more meat. Or I would prefer they increase price to $ 1 more but give me a more satisfying feeling.
However, I would not say this place is less valuable. I definitely choose this place over other Viet places.
The star element of phở is the BROTH, and it’s also the most expensive element of a bowl of phở. I know how to cook Phở and I’m sensitive to MSG, I am convinced that I can have a say here. Yes, every Asian place uses MSG in their cooking, but at Thai’s Saigon Bistro, their broth is made from long time beef/​pork bone simmering, with little/​moderate MSG. Most of other Viet places, they use instant power/​mix with tons of MSG; so of course they put more meat in — such a bowl of phở looks better, but does not taste better and absolutely less quality.
I’m not saying this is the best Phở in Greater Vancouver, but it is a «legitimate» phở, in perception of a Vietnamese.
Hope this post makes sense, somehow, to you.

In the years since I moved to North Burnaby in 1988, that building has taunted me to go in during the days it was called The Gilmore Restaurant. I went in for the first time as Saigon Bistro only because it was it was one of the few places in my neck of the woods that was open on a Sunday evening. I did Lemongrass Chicken and my mother (whom I just picked up from her weekly mahjong) had seafood phở. Our entrees were deceptively small; they didn’t look like a lot but we could barely finish them. Good décor and eager service made it a good dinner out. The one problem was the springroll… it was small. Phở Lan in Richmond was a nice size… Think of an Oh Henry bar. In Saigon Bistro, it was a Tootsie Roll. But it was all still good.

Great food and atmosphere. Beef stew on rice noodle is the best (Mr on the menu). We travel all the way from New west to enjoy John’s wife home cooking.

We came here for dinner after doing a quick search on Unilocal.We had just finished doing a small hike but I had worked up a big appetite. We were greeted by the owner (very friendly!) and gave us the option of sitting at a booth or a table by window. Water arrived promptly and was refilled frequently throughout the night.
I typically order beef phở, but had a sudden craving for bun bo hue, a favourite of mine ever since visiting Vietnam earlier this year. It hit the spot perfectly. It had a spicy kick but wasn’t overwhelmingly spicy, and the broth was flavourful and tasted home made. There were types of meat– pock hock, cha lua (Vietnamese pork sausage) and beef flank and I also ordered the spring rolls (2 for $ 3.50) and they were hot and crisp. Everyone at our table seemed to enjoy their dishes. Prices were very affordable, and service was attentive and courteous. I have to take away one star though because there quite a few flies in the restaurant. It was strange because it’s definitely one of the more cleaner Vietnamese joints I’ve been to, but having to swat away flies when you’re trying to enjoy your meal, added with the occasional sound of the electric fly zapper, doesn’t make for a very appetizing experience.

I came here twice in the last week. What I like about Thai’s Saigon Bistro is that it’s a mom and pop restaurant and the service is very friendly. The food is homey and I enjoy the fact that it’s not a whole lot of salt and MSG for taste in the dishes. Much appreciated. I can’t believe how much flavour is in the bun bo hue. I would definitely recommend it.
I hate to rate this place 3 stars instead of 4 but the reason for this is the portion size. The bowl of phở I had didn’t have enough meat in it. Other restaurants give much more meat for around similar price points. I also had a banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich) and while the bread was good, the bread to filling ratio was not good. Instead, each bite I took I was getting a whole lot of bread, making it quite dry to eat.
I think I still like this place as the service is great and it’s convenient if I’m in the area. But the portions could be larger, and if they have to increase the price by a bit to do that then that’s OK too.

Just another phở restaurant. Nothing particularly special about Saigon Bistro. They have all the standard Vietnamese dishes that you would expect. The quantity and quality of the meat in my bowl of phở was average. The banh mi sandwiches look hearty at first glance but end up with a low meat to bun ratio. If you’re looking for a low price, average phở meal this isn’t a bad spot. I’m a bigger fan of the modern style phở across the street at Broken Rice.

The restaurant itself has a nice ambiance. Bright lighting and a TV at the back of the restaurant. It was also very clean and looked well kept which I like.
Food was good. Phở portions were reasonable. It could have a bit more meat but good amount nonetheless. Broth was flavourful and a bit on the salty side. Grilled pork and spring rolls on vermicelli was good. Found the grilled pork a touch on the drier side/​over cooked. Spring rolls were great! Generous amount of filling and deep fried nicely. Chicken wings were huge and the lemon and pepper sauce it came with tasted really good with the wings. The wings looked like it was cut up in house as there were extra bone from the other part of the wing tip. Good to be resourceful and cost effective.
Service was fast and efficient. Staff was working hard to clear tables, refill tea and check up on customers. I would recommend this place to anyone.

When I heard that the old Gilmore was turning into yet another Vietnamese place, I honestly thought it was going to be bad. Not the case at all!
Parking is available in front on Hasting, as well on the side streets and mini-​lots around the area.
They really renovated the inside here — nice bright white walls and tables. Makes the place look way more upscale than the previous tenants. The place is family run as well.
Having no idea what to order, I tried the wings. They were nice and battered, with a certain lemon-​pepper sauce reminiscent of Phnom Penh. Unfortunately, PP wins, as these wings were missing a certain kick. A for effort though.
Beef steak and beef ball phở — nice clear broth (one of the better ones in recent memory). Nice gristle-​free beef balls. Really fragrant. Special mention here.
I didn’t try the spring rolls, so hopefully someone else can chime in.
Overall it’s decent, and I will be back, but I gotta say — skip the wings.