Saigon Block

Crispy baked fish is fantastic if you’re there with at least 4 people. If just 2, we will get the 3 courses of beef to wrap, yum! Also instead of normal noodles substituting banh hoi makes it different and I think better. Go for the food not for the service.

Food was lackluster and wasn’t that great. Service was horrible like most people have stated and they didn’t even refill our drinks. The worst thing of all was that they ran out of nuoc mam and we had to make our own!

Food is great, the service. LACKING!
As best as they can, the dinner will be a progressive one. But once you are done or winding down. You will be left with mounds of dishes. The servers will simply be standing around looking into the distance (of what. Who knows).
So pack in some patience when you head out with your group. Lots of patience!

I come here for the delicious baked fish and I don’t even like fish (minus for sashimi and the baked fish here). It’s the best!!! The anchovies fish sauce (mam nem) is the bomb here. We also get the Saigon ba vi or trio delight-​shrimp ball, meatball, and ground beef wrapped in Hawaiian leaf, which are so delicious. These are my favorite dishes to get here. Everything else is just alright, but we also order phở for the kids. The portions are big so come with your a lot of people to share. This place is fairly inexpensive and it can hold large groups of people. Be prepare to see lots of Vietnamese families dining there too.
Tips: This is place is BYOB. Yah!!! Make sure to order a fish a head so you don’t have to wait forever. It gets really busy on the weekend (go before 7PM). Free appetizer if you checkin on Unilocal.Get the baked fish and trio delight.

This is the best place to eat whole bake catfish! It is so crispy, but moist on the inside. You can order a small, medium or large whole fish here and it comes with vermicelli noodles, fish sauce, rice paper and a whole plate of veggies. The catfish is flavored very rich, great peanut and green onions toppings. The waiter cuts out the bone for you, which is awesome! I also recommend the other side dishes to roll with: beef wrapped in basil, the shrimp on the sugarcane stick and steamed vermicelli. Other than their signature dish, everything else sucks. Phở sucks, fried rice sucks. Literally everything but the fish and anything you can roll with is good. I also suggest the small/​medium fish instead of the large because the meat in the large is disgusting and not tender enough and also have the grass smell.

Roll your own spring rolls with crispy catfish — Ca Nuong. It’s a whole catfish with the best flavor. Love this concept! Great for large groups or order to-​go for a party at your home!

In from out of town and family suggested. The fish was good however it doesn’t excuse the lack of service and being attentive to your paying customers.
My water was refilled after we finished our meal. Had to go up for check while workers stood around. I get leaving your customers alone so they can eat but at least make ONE pass-​by/​check up.
Again at least the food is good.

I love the grilled whole catfish here. It’s really the only thing I come here for and I’m pretty sure the majority of people who eat here are the same.
The 7 course beef is ok… nothing special.

Since it’s BYOB, we arrived with a sixer of Belgian Wit, thinking it would hold up to the heavily herbal and spicy cuisine and had just opened a couple when my Unilocal check-​in generated a free egg roll offer — score. We opted for the Imperial Spring Rolls, a rather large warm fried egg roll, tucked inside a spring roll wrapper along with various greenery and slices of boiled egg. Served with a thin yet chunky peanut sauce, this was good, really good, and big.
My vermicelli with beef onion and lemongrass was served with a 5 oz. pitcher of fish sauce, but it wasn’t the cheap stuff on the grocery shelf. This had an added sweetness, was palatable even by itself, and added a nice depth to the dish. The pickled vegetables included in the dish were crisp and tasty. I do wish it would have come with a little more beef, but for the price it was a bargain.
My dining companion had the Phở, and said it was awesome.
This place is known for their baked fish, but judging from the size of the ones I saw, I wouldn’t attempt to consume one with fewer than three people.
Service is professional and courteous, four stars, get some.

Food (3 Stars) + BYOB
I love my alcohol just as much as the next alcoholic arriving at a restaurant wanting to bring my own cooler of alcohol to enjoy with my buddies. Pretty much one of the best parts about Dallas… the BYOB spots.
The real BYOB Deal.
I’m not talking about your grandma’s max of one bottle of wine with $ 15 corkage fee. I’m talking about go buy a styrofoam cooler, pick up some moonshine from the shady neighbors next door and get ready to get drunk. There’s no limit or restriction on what you can drink there and it’s all free. Now that’s freedom… that’s American.

Crispy, delicious, baked catfish = winning for our group lunch! The consensus is in, the baked catfish is a total hit when you wrap it up in your very own spring roll. Be sure to order the banh hoi (fine rice vermicelli), which pairs nicely with the fish, veggies, herbs and special mam nem (fermented anchovy) dipping sauce. We also ordered the egg rolls (average), quail (a little on the dry side) and the ever-​so-​fragrant bo la lot (grilled lemongrass beef wrapped in wild betel leaf). And that café sua da (Vietnamese iced coffee) was so jam packed with caffeine & condensed milk that I was bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day!
Saigon Block is a must-​try family style dining adventure with your friends if you are ever in the DFW. The restaurant is clean, but beware, you might come home smelling of fish and fish sauce! Service is actually better than most Asian places, but perhaps my ability to communicate with the staff in our native language made the dining experience awesome!

I wish I could select negative five stars for this place! Have you guys ever found a caterpillar in your salad before? Yes, I have! And it was alive, wrapped around my chopstick, waving its tiny, spongy legs at me, showing me how fresh my salad was.
Thank god my rice wrap broke and this disgusting thing fell on my plate. Just imaging having half of its body in the mouth, and seeing the other half twitching in the roll…
I was still calm and asked my waiter what they would do about this caterpillar. The answer I got was «our Boss is not here, we will give you ten percent off»…Really? Guess its no big deal for your guys. Guess its pretty normal for customera to find/​eat caterpillars at your restaurant.
I am warning you guys: please be careful. Check your salad before you wrap it.

Giving 4 stars just for the taste of the baked fish. It is delicious! So crispy and catfish is cooked to perfection!
As for the lousy service, 2 stars! Love that you could call ahead and order!
Not once was our water refilled or anyone walked by to asked how we doing.
Do not order the fried rice it was stir fried with sesame oil… ewwwww and long grained rice was not jasmine rice.

Although everyone come here for their famous fish wrap dish, I come here for their imperial roll. It’s their delicious fried eggroll… Wait for it… Wrapped with their fresh spring roll rolled with broiled eggs. Sounds a little weird I know. But it’s super tasty and satisfying because even though you feel like you are eating healthy, you get the crunch from the fried eggroll inside. It’s also served with a light peanut sauce, which I usually don’t like but they don’t make theirs too thick.
Their other dishes and appetizers are also good. Their charbroiled sliced pork is nicely seasoned and grilled. Their fried chicken wings seems to be marinated with fish sauce and wok seared with garlic.
Their service is usually good and quick. You can make it even quicker by making reservations and tell them how many fish you want and what sizes. When you get seated, you don’t have to wait more than 5 – 10 mins for your fish wrap to be served.

Came on a Sunday afternoon and it was pretty empty. The inside of the restaurant is decorated very modernly and very spacious with tons of seating.
We came mainly to try their fried catfish with spring rolls. The fish was huge and cooked perfectly. Their portion size is huge. We got an order of the catfish and 2 other dish and it left our party of 10 fully satisfied. The fish was cooked really well. It was very tender and fell apart as soon as you touched it. The skin was crispy and paired well with the meat. I’ve had plenty of spring rolls before but never with fish and it was quite tasty.
The only factor is the distance. It is too far for Vietnamese food when Arlington is only 15 minutes away. Will I come back? Only if I’m in the area.

This is the only place in dallas we go for baked catfish. Family style dinner. It is a large fish but the head takes up most of it. We also got bo la lot which is seasoned lemon grass beef wrapped in leaves. Also used the Unilocal checkin offer for free appetizers (shrimp paste on sugar cane). So if you want to ear with your hands then try this since you can wrap with rice paper or just lettuce for healthier option. Be warned that the dipping sauce can né strong so bring a breath mint.

It’s pretty good. It’s our first time. Of course, we ordered the baked cat fish. A little bland, it looks like it would be more flavorful, but it’s totally lacking in flavor. And It’s way too large, you need like 10 ppl to share it.

Redeemed the Unilocal check-​in offer and got a free appetizer.
I ordered #2 Spring rolls and #71 Chicken wings with garlic and onions.
I really liked their flavors. The spring rolls’ pork was seasoned when cooked so it added additional flavor to the spring rolls. I would say this is one of the better spring rolls I’ve had in DFW area. The spring rolls comes in 2 and it is decently sized. You could definitely share. The chicken wings were freshly fried and it wasn’t too greasy or salty. It came with salt, pepper, and lemon on the side so you can add more salt depending on your taste buds. They give you around 10 wings. It was a little too much for me, but it’s a good plate to share.
But I would like to say that their prices are a little bit higher than other Vietnamese restaurants around but I think for its quality, it is worth it.
The service was fast and quick. The restaurant was clean and welcoming.
The other items on the menu seemed really great for big groups. And there are many tables available for large groups. I would definitely want to come here with my friends sooner or later.
Overall, I give 5 stars because: the menu accommodates both small and large groups, they have great flavor, good restaurant ambiance, and menu items seem appetizing enough to make me wanting to come back again.
In addition, they have a lot of parking spaces and they do have guest wifi but you need a password.

When dining in a large group, we mainly come for the whole baked catfish. This dish is not only delicious but healthy-​er compared to others in my opinion. We eat this in spring roll style. I usually call in advance to have the fish prepped and ready when we arrive. They do take reservations and it’s also BYOB which makes it even better. Must order a refreshing coconut drink while you’re here. Really addicting! Their crawfish fried rice isn’t bad either.
Service is always great here. I love how clean they maintain the place. Must check this place out if in the area.

Nice modernized interior as oppose to the typical exterior store front design. The atmosphere is your usual Vietnamese «fish market like» noisy atmosphere, then again perhaps it was because we came here on a busy night.
As for food recommendations:
Definitely get the baked catfish! Love the outer crispy skin layer and extra soft inner fish meat! Only upsetting part regarding my experience with this dish was they never bothered to bring us our rice sheets and noodles to wrap the fish with. Instead we had to personally hunt down a waiter and remind him to bring them out for us.
Other than that, the other rice and noodle dishes were your normal dishes that didn’t really stand out from any other Vietnamese places. The beef salad was pretty cool though.
Collectively, the place is great if you’re in the mood for some good Vietnamese baked catfish spring rolls! And if your friends feel differently then a good number of Vietnamese dish assortments to select from as well. Everything was reasonably priced. Only complaint was the lazy workers.