Saigon Restaurant

Shane and I had just finished watching a movie at Westwood Cinema and were in the car headed home when we saw Saigon Restaurant across the street. Since we were still on a mission to find a Vietnamese restaurant that compares to our favorite Minnesota restaurant, Viet Flavor, we decided to stop and look at a menu. I ran inside to grab a to-go menu and came back to the car to look it over with Shane. The menu featured a variety of spring rolls, as well as different types of Pho that were reviewed online as the "best pho in Omaha". There was also a special running on three different types of Bahn Mi. Thinking that we might have found our new "Viet Flavor", we ventured in to Saigon Restaurant.

We were seated at a very large booth and promptly brought two glasses of ice water with a cucumber in them. The cucumber gave the water a funny aftertaste, so much so that Shane asked for a water without cucumber.

The server was very nice about getting a new water, but seemed surprised that someone would request to not have any cucumber. When it was time for us to order, I asked the server what her favorite spring roll was, which she told me was the shrimp and pork spring roll. We took her suggestion and ordered the spring roll, and also asked for one combination Bahn Mi and one pork Bahn Mi. She got a confused look on her face, went to the kitchen and came back to inform us that they did not have the right ingredients to make the combination Bahn Mi. Since we wanted to try a variety of foods, we ordered the chicken Bahn Mi instead.

The spring roll was very dry, and contained a lot of mint. There was hardly any pork in the spring roll, leaving it bland and boring to taste. Even after adding quite a bit of their homemade fish sauce and peanut sauce (which were both quite spicy), the spring rolls were still not up to par.

The chicken Bahn Mi was decent, with moist and flavorful chicken and a small amount of daikon. The menu said that each sandwich came with a liver spread, but it was undetectable in both sandwiches. There was also a homemade mayo that traditionally comes on Bahn Mi. The mayo was put on the sandwich so sparingly, that it was undetectable as well. 

Since we wanted to share the sandwiches, we asked the server for a knife. She returned with the knife and seemed slightly agitated. The pork Bahn Mi was similar to the chicken, average in flavor, lacking cilantro and jalapenos and with a minimal (unnoticeable) amount of liver spread and mayo. Since the mayo is one of our favorite parts of Bahn Mi, and since these sandwiches were lacking, we requested a side of mayo to add to our sandwiches. The server, seeming even more agitated, returned to the kitchen and came back to tell us that she could not provide a side of mayo, as they only made a certain amount and needed some leftover for future orders.

This restaurant was easily my biggest let-down in the city of Omaha. The Bahn Mi would have been much better, had they been served with jalapenos, additional mayo, and some more cilantro. We would have requested jalapenos or more cilantro, if the server had ever come back after our request for extra mayo. Overall, this restaurant had poor service, unauthentic food, and left a lot to be desired. This is easily one restaurant we will never be returning to.