Saigon Saigon

Fantastic! Went for dinner here on Friday night, we had booked, and also requested a table outside the front. The friendly waiting staff happily recommended which dishes to try, which was tasted superb! Really good experience eating Vietnamese for the first time in the UK. 

Don't get me wrong , by judging on the food and service alone this place would have got a more generous rating -- authentic ( a waay overused word by the way!) food, good service blah blah blah!

BUT!

What is it with these sorts of restaurants and this so called 'ambiance' or 'ombeonce' as it pronounced by these so called 'foodies' (lol!!!! you mean you like to eat food? really????!!!!)...these places make you feel like you're about to have a job interview or something....i wouldn't be surprised if most of the bookings for this place are for after-work meetings - or what do they call it? NETWORKING!!!!

Anyway, on paper this place is great and has a lot going for it - but LOOSEN UP a little for heavens sake!!!!!

Perhaps so aromatherapy oils burning would help!

 

I had a problem with the seating here too! We did not book, however the restaurant looked completely empty, so we asked for a table. There were many seats near the front of the restaurant, where it was light and pleasant. Alternatively there were seats outside which would have been lovely. I did ask for a table somewhere near the front or outside, but we were instead shoved to a back table in a pokey corner with no light. For no reason! Why?!

Despite this, I found the food to be pretty decent. Nothing groundbreaking, but I do like fresh Vietnamese noodles and clear spring rolls so much that I soon forgot about the very strangely Fascist seating policy to which we had fallen foul.

We tried this restaurant over two months ago when we were looking for a place to have dinner and a couple in the street recommended Saigon Saigon.

The restaurant decor is very nice but the staff are less than welcoming and friendly. We did not have a reservation and I felt like they were doing us a favour to allow us to have dinner and would only give us a table for 1:30 minutes. If they had any level of common sense, they would have noticed that we had two kids with us (one being very little) and it was unlikely that we would stay for more than 1:30 minutes...

The food is just ok, nothing great really. The restaurant is pretty and that's the main selling point but food was average, quite greasy as someone else said and service was probably delivered by people who used to work in the army and are still to discover the concept of paying customers.

Food did come out quickly and we were out in about 1 hour.

I don't think we are going to go back there too soon.

I'd never had a proper Vietnamese dining experience before eating here last week. The mini bowls at each place setting that you fill from the variety of dishes you order is such a friendly, communal experience...I wish I'd been on the boat before now! The zing of the fresh herbs and cold noodles with hot sizzling meats is a real delight, and everything we ordered was amazing. The highlight for me was the "Lemon Grass Chicken" but the pho soups and sizzling fish dishes were also top notch.
This restaurant is beautifully lit with really attentive waiting staff and it is a pleasure to relax in. I love this place! It's no wonder that this restaurant is always full when others around have just a few customers languishing in them. The Vietnamese way of eating really appeals to me and I will be heading back here often.

I visited with a crowd of friends last night. The restaurant is beautifully decorated - a vision of French colonial Vietnam: dark wood furniture; bamboo screens; ceiling fans and French Deco typography. The menu is interesting and wide-ranging; our party delegated ordering to the friend who brought us there; a Saigon-Saigon regular and major fan. I am too now; I'm eager to go back and explore the menu some more.

Our food arrived quickly - it was very fresh and flavourful. Service was brisk and efficient - our waitress even knew all the best angles for photography!

The restaurant was very good about us bringing our own birthday cake and served it with maximum fuss for the birthday girl. They also gave her a glass of her favourite liqueur on the house.

Many of us were surprised by the tab at the end - this was a very reasonable and excellent value for money night out.

Superb!

Really interesting menu, every dish we had was bursting with flavour... subtle: not over-powering!

Will definitely return for another banquet.

Not that this place needs a hard sell - there's on street parking, right outside in the evening.

Hmmmmmmm....I have eaten here a few times and on each occasion have fallen foul of the very strange seating protocol which seems to dictate whether or not you're allowed to eat here as a single.

It's a big restaurant, seating up to 150 and yet they are almost dictatorial re seating even on two occasions with an empty restaurant, which for a single woman with with book seeking a fortifying Pho with spicy mango salad is generally either by the front door, away from the actual restaurant or in a corner so dark it's impossible to read or on one occasion on a shared table. I was interested to note that the guy in the review above also had a problem with seating as did my freinds when they went. The food...is just okay....I found the Pho to be greasy and heavy not the heavenly aromatic liquor I was seeking and also pricey.

We have walked by this restaurant a number of times and commented that its a shame it doesn’t have a lunch time menu to attract customers during business hours. Lo and behold they have just recently introduced a new set lunch deal (about 6 options ranging from £6.95 up to £9.50.)

It was clear that this new menu is a current hit because when we went today its really the first time we’ve seen that many customers in there at lunch.

Nice food (grilled pork and grilled chicken are finger licking good), friendly staff and fairly reasonable prices make this a nice venue for Vietnamese on the West side.

Excellent place. When I phoned on a hot Friday evening to book one of the tables next to massive front windows that open onto the street, I was told they were all gone and i couldn’t pre-book at all. Not a great start. However the place is wonderful: 1) The food is very high quality and quite reasonably priced: Vietnameese is the best parts of Chineese, indian and thai but far more subtle and somehow prepared with more care. Lots of fish and interesting vegetables, 2) the decor is 1930s Saigon: from dark bamboo to slow turning ceiling fans which somehow works 3) The place is a little quirky:an odd mini nightclub downstairs, laminatd menus mix with fine linen tablecloths (?!) and excellent freindly staff.