Saigon Bistro

by far the worst phở i’ve ever had. ive had a lot of phở from a lot of places. my phở didnt even come with vegetables, you pay extra. the spoons and chopsticks are disposable, cheap plastic and wooden chopsticks. so it feels very light and cheap. the broth tasted like it was cook too long with the vegetables giving it that slightly bitter vegetive taste. they seriously need to change their recipe. i would give one star but the service is very nice.

Only ate here because I noticed the banh mi on their menu $ 4 and it didn’t taste anywhere close to good tbh. I noticed these were already pre made and the cashier was just putting the meat in that we ordered; the bread was stale, the meat was fatty and chewy — we ordered pork, and there wasn’t enough vegetables or sauce. Dry sandwich, idk about the other food

This restaurant is a quick food court type place located within Uwajimaya! When I went here, it was because I was seriously craving a bowl of Bun Mang Vit (Duck Bamboo Noodle Soup) and I was really happy to see that they had it!
But all in all, the service was not particularly welcoming and the food was not particularly good. I would say that if you’re here and happen to be in the mood for Vietnamese food, it would be the right choice, but otherwise if you’ve got some time and energy to spare, there are many other good Vietnamese food options in the area.

I usually would not leave a bad review for a business, except today, I was treated very rudely by the employee at the counter today. I was grocery shopping, and my daughter was hungry and wished to have phở. We stood at the register to order. The person working the counter was cutting cucumbers away from the counter. She was saying something to me, but I couldn’t hear her. There was a loud fridge in between us, a man having a conversation to our right, and just general food court noise. She was very annoyed. When she came up to the counter to take our order, she spoke with a very rude tone, «what do you want.» I ordered a beef phở, and she said, «is that all,» but in an abusive tone. I ordered a tofu phở, and she couldn’t hear me, and barked, «what?!» It was just really unpleasant. We sat at the counter. She brought one phở, and the check and, said, very rudely, «please sign.» I was so taken aback, and wasn’t sure what to write on the tip line. I was thinking about it, and she reminded me to sign the check, but in a very rude tone. I wrote $ 3, but I wish I hadn’t put any tip. At that point, we were the only customers eating at the counter. I wondered why cutting the cucumbers was so important, over taking an order, or how they expected to have happy customers. I felt very upset, and wanted to get out of there as soon as my daughter finished eating.

Spent the afternoon at the CLINK cheering on the hawks and needed to refuel after long cold and wet game. My wife and I glanced around the small food court in Uwajimaya and noticed that there wasn’t a wait for Saigon Bistro. My wife ordered the beef phở and I ordered the bun bo hue…
An immediate red flag was raised when I noticed (and tasted) that the «phở» broth and «bun bo hue» soup were the exact same. The only difference between the two orders were the noodles and I had a side of shredded lettuce that came with my bowl. The bun bo hue had no beef shank, pork knuckle, blood cake, fish ball, anything! It was quite a big let down.
Needless to say both broths were extremely flavorless. I really regret not saying something to the staff but after 4+ hours of standing/​cheering the freezing rain, we really just wanted to get home.

If you want really fast service and great tasting Vietnamese sandwiches and fresh spring rolls, this is the place. I was looking around the area for a Vietnamese sandwich and the most famous one in the neighborhood was closed. I knew I would find something in the Uwajimaya food court. I remember Vietnamese sandwiches were less than a dollar at some spots but Saigon Bistro still had decent prices. For less than ten bucks I was able to get a sandwich, two spring rolls, and a soda.

Located inside a grocery store, Saigon bistro is one of the stalls they have in the food court area. Feeling hungry after picking up some groceries I ordered their bahn mi for $ 3.75. Nothing fancy and I had pretty low expectations for my $ 4.00 and I got exactly what I expected. The bread was the cheap grocery store kind rather than a true baguette, the meat was probably pre-​made using a cheap cut, and generally not a great bahn mi. However, since it was so cheap, I’m just happy I didn’t get sick, it fit the bill for what I was looking for and the owner was nice enough.

I used to eat here a couple of times a month and everything was great — flavorful and fresh with an assortment of herbs. But I went today for the first time in maybe three or four years and was really surprised at how much the quality has declined. We ordered a beef phở and a pork banh mi, and both were okay but nothing special. The phở broth was good, and there was a lot of beef but it was gray (you could tell they just boiled it in the broth instead of searing it first) and cut in huge, unwieldy pieces. It came with a small saucer of bean sprouts that had clearly lived a hard life, one sad little piece of Thai basil, and, hilariously, ¹⁄₁₆^th of a lime. The banh mi was less impressive, with slightly overcooked pork, one cucumber strip, one sprig of cilantro, a couple of carrot strips, no daikon, and no cha lua. And strangely, they spread mayonnaise on it.
It wasn’t terrible, just disappointing coming from a place that used to turn out some really great food.

The most mediocre vermicelli noodle bowl I’ve ever had… my modest portion of chicken was very, very dry, and came with barely any vegetables. Just a gigantic pile of noodles. All for ~$ 8. On the plus side, took like 3 minutes to prepare.
Save your money and go to Green Leaf up the street if you’re looking for Vietnamese. Or even just go buy the pre-​packaged noodle bowls from inside Uwajimaya.

Inside uwajimaya. $ 3.50 for a” banh mi”. I put that in quotes because this is not your typical banh mi.
Meat portion is tiny, bread is not toasted, and the worst part is that the vegetables are raw onion (raw??), 2 jalapeños and thicker cut carrots that are not the typically julienned tart and crisp carrots. There was no parsley, no sauce, no daikon, no cucumber… This place does not do banh mi’s the right way.
There are soooo many better banh mis out there for the same price. Only reason I picked food up here is out of convenience.
The shrimp salad rolls are skimpy too. $ 3.50 for 4 small pieces of shrimp, tons noodles and a piece of lettuce.
The trend here is no vegetables and little meat.

Tasty bahn mi, tasty phở broth (the beef was as rubbery as a plastic potholder). Super fast and efficient service. Everything was fresh. Everything was ultra-​affordable too. Definitely a cold day comfort food lunch spot.

My girlfriend and I really like this place. This is our favorite phở place to eat together in Chinatown. The server doesn’t care about you or pay attention to you as he is busy watching stuff on his laptop, but that doesn’t change the fact that the food is good and is offered for a reasonable price. The food is well prepared and served quickly. I really like this place because it is a nice place to talk with someone closely while enjoying the food. Conversations can’t go wrong when you’re eating a bowl of phở. The location is great because my girlfriend and I don’t have to go too far for a nice restaurant after shopping at Kinokuniya and Uwajimaya. A great place that you should try.

Found my new place to eat when I go eat in the international district. Their noodles are nice. The beef is super tasty! And the little sauce you get on the side is SO GOOD!!!

Would not go back.
We got pork sandwich, egg rolls, and grilled chicken with rice.
Pork sandwich was mostly bun, very little inside, and my gf was disappointed it wasn’t combination pork — as she says, «it’s like going to mcdonalds and not being able to order a burger».
Egg rolls were bland and hard.
Grilled chicken was tough.
On the plus side, the cashier was quite friendly and repeated my order to make sure he got it right. The food came in a reasonable time. The sandwiches were hella cheap, $ 3.50 or so, no wonder there was nothing in the bun.

Had the bun with grilled pork and spring rolls! Fresh tasting and crispy lettuce carrots. Nicly BBQ flavored grilled pork. And nice crispy springrolls.. Friendly quick service and attentiveness.
Eat inside with 9 stools. To get out of the food court section.
All for $ 8.50!

After walking around Uwajimaya and looking at all the other food options, I decided to eat Vietnamese food.
I ordered the chicken over steamed rice with salad. For about $ 7 (I believe), the food was good. It came out in less than 5 minutes. The food was fresh and tasty and portion size was right. They also didn’t skimp out on the meat. And the guy at the register (I’m assuming the owner) was very friendly.
You can sit at the tables in the general food court area, or at their own counter seating.
Overall, definitely a good place to grab a quick bite to eat.

Simply excellent and cheap.
I’ve eaten here off and on for some 5 – 10 years. (I don’t actually remember when I started, but for as long as I’ve worked in the ID, I’ve gone there.)
The food is uniformly fresh, well-​prepared, and wonderful. I’ve had the various sandwiches (usually the banh mi) as well as various types of phở. All just wonderful.
Of all the Vietnamese restaurants, though, their Vietnamese coffee is the best I’ve tasted. It’s like a drink for your lunch as well as a dessert for after.

This will be a super short review as I really didn’t get too much stuff from here to try. But I could tell just by the shrimp+pork roll I got how the place is.
They skimped on giving you the main food, shrimp and pork in this case, and just stuffed a lot of vermicelli in there.
I only got one tiny shrimp sliced in half in that roll with some sorry-​stinky broiled pork in there.
$ 3.85 each, not bad but definitely will not return. And I know you are supposed to eat with your hands, but throw in a fork in there.

The beef phở cost $ 6.99 plus tax. It was worth about half that. The noodles were cooked well but the serving size was equivalent to what other places call their ‘kid’s phở.” There were about 4 pieces of meat in the entire bowl and no matter how much Iooked, I couldn’t find more. The lack of noodles also left me still hungry after my nearly $ 10 meal (after tip). The broth was okay but definitely nothing special.
I work downtown so I’m used to things being a bit more expensive. I just expect to get what I pay for, which is not what I got here.

When I’m at Uwajimaya and hunger strikes, I’ll either grab one of the varieties of bao from their steam table or hit one of the places in the food court. Out of all of them, this is my favourite if I’m craving cheap fast Vietnamese.
Their salad rolls are always fresh and yummy. And their cha giò is always crisp never greasy. I like their warm peanut sauce and their noodles seem to be a hit with my companions. I usually get one of their meat + lettuce items paired with some of their salad rolls. And my belly is teh happy.
There is limited counter seating for three or four people, five if you sit really close. I’d suggest just taking your noms to the food court and people watch as you nosh.