Saigon Deli

I have gone on occasion to get the Bun Bo Hue which is a spicy noodle soup that is just as comforting as the more known «cousin» noodle dish called Phở. Since it is pre-​made, it doesn’t take that long from order to delivery as others reviewed for their Banh Mis and such.
Only reason why I don’t go as often is that the rest of my brood would rather eat Phở. I would rather eat Their Bun Bo Hue as it is as tasty and authentic as they come.

I was driving down the road and happen to saw this deli. Wanted to see how their banh mi was and also support local family owned restaurant.
My complaints: Service is wayyyy too slow. I was the only one there around 6pm and it took forever for the bo kho to come out. I ordered the banh mi and the bread was cold and seem like it was a day old.
The vegetables were good. I also got the banh cuon and couldn’t believe they only gave me one slice of pork pattie.
I feel they are definitely holding back on the meat. I don’t know why.
The only good thing is the location. I don’t have to drive into Falls Church.
I don’t think i will come back unless i am desperately craving Vietnamese food. The service was nice, but nice doesn’t cut quality food for me.

Great small place for summer rolls (goi cuon) and banh cuon and as I try other items I’m sure the home cooking will also be very good.
Place is closed

Two and a half stars. I was excited at the prospect of a banh mi deli close enough for a lunch break. While I’ll still make the post-​work stretch to Eden Center if I’m really craving the good stuff, this was decent enough to warrant a repeat visit. Service was friendly, and while he wasn’t the most efficient one-​man assembly line, I could tell he was trying his best. At least I had mellow classical music in the background to keep me occupied.
Taro boba had a generous pour; the guy used half and half to make the smoothie extra creamy, and the drink was well-​blended. Boba were cooked through perfectly, and I mowed through them right as they were about to chill too much at the surface. It’s neat that they do fresh fruit for the other smoothies, I’ll probably try avocado next time.
Goi cuon were okay, they used a less neutral leafy vegetable and the vermicelli was a touch overcooked. The peanut sauce was a bit overblended, but the chilis were a nice touch. Not sure if it was a mistake on that batch, but these were shrimp-​only, no pork. I’d skip these out of personal taste.
The guy recommended the chicken special as soon as I started gazing at the menu boards. I was open to it but I still wanted to try the combo cuts for a baseline comparison. Chicken was slightly better, to my surprise. The daikon and cucumber were cut into thick strips, and there was enough cilantro on both to keep me content. Bread vessels were fluffy and nicely crusty. Given the sheer size of the rolls, there was more bread than fillings, but not bad overall.

Loved it. Super friendly staff, they even gave us some coupons for next time. The vegetarian dish was delish, I can’t wait to go back for some boba!

Good location. Only banh mi in Fairfax. 1 star.
Decent price. As in… the same as that in Falls Church/​Eden. 1 star.
Nice owners/​waiters. But slow. 0 stars.
Food tastes decent enough. 0.5 stars.
Round up to 3 stars.
BUT…THEY DON’T HAVE BANH MI THIT NGUOI!!!
The dac biet is okay. Almost like thit nguoi. But almost isn’t good enough.
If the owners are reading this, please add banh mi thit nguoi so I can add an extra star in my review.
Thank you.

Short and sweet. If you like Vietnamese sandwiches (banh mi), and you happen to live outside the beltway on the western side of Northern Virginia, Saigon Deli/​Café is the convenient answer to your prayers. It’s not going to be as tasty as the sandwiches in Eden Center, or Ba Le, or any of the other famous Vietnamese sandwich shops in Falls Church, but it’s the best thing you will find within a 10 – 15 minute drive when you’re craving a sandwich.
As far as the quality of these sandwiches go, they’re pretty good. Vastly improved from how this restaurant was about a year ago. Again, by comparison, you can’t beat the originators, hence the 3 star average rating. But when you’re hungry, with friends… looking for that cheap solution to your hunger pangs… then I recommend you swing by Saigon and taste the sandwiches yourself.

For banh mi, I’ll still continue my pilgrimages to Eden Center.
Their Vietnamese sandwiches are a bit dry but sport enough meat to keep you entertained[1]. More pickles would help with the dryness, for sure. As a whole, their banh mi aren’t an overwhelming size[2]. I’ve had their chicken and special combo sandwiches, and I prefer the latter.
Thankfully, prices are reasonable, and they stock more than banh mi (many items made fresh). Worth trying are their grilled pork ribs over rice, and their banh cuon (available weekends only).
Find Saigon Deli in the Fairfax Centre shopping center.
[1] Go ahead, make your jokes. I’ll wait.
[2] Done yet?

Worst restaurant experience ever! None of the staff speaks English, they were out of rice several hours before closing. The food was cold, and had a long black hair in the salad. The salad wasn’t even washed, had dirt and sand in the lettuce. Apparently they don’t even use their cash register, and of course no receipt either, guess they haven’t heard of the IRS.

This place is a joke. It’s not even deserving of one star. The food was alright, nothing to rave about. $ 3 for one of their sandwiches is alright, not great considering they don’t put a lot in them. The bread was fresh and the overall taste was satisfactory. The iced coffee for $ 2.50 was pretty good. In fact, I would’ve considered going back again if it had not been for the terrible service.
I ordered lunch to go on a weekend: 2 sandwiches, 1 order of crispy egg rolls, and 2 iced condensed milk coffees. There was no one there when I made my order. A couple came in as I was waiting and ordered for dine in. The couple spoke to the woman working behind the counter in their native language, but it did not seem like they knew each other. I will let you decide if this had a determining factor in what transpired.
First, the young girl who took my order was not familiar with the menu or ingredients. I ordered by number and she had to look at the menu to figure out what I wanted. She wasn’t able to give much of an explanation of the sandwiches when asked. The total came out to be $ 15.50. I gave her $ 20.50. She gave me $ 4 change. I explained to her what happened. She apologized and gave me $ 0.50. I had to explain to her that she still owed me $ 0.50. I’m sorry but even I’m the first to admit that I’m not good at mental calculations, but seriously? Word to the wise, count your change at this place.
But then, I proceeded to wait patiently for my order only to see the couple get served their sandwiches before me. WTF?! Even still, I continued to wait patiently thinking my sandwiches surely must be almost done if they just got theirs. Nope. They actually had the nerve to make my sandwiches right in front of me after serving the people who ordered way after me. From what I could tell there were only 3 people working there– 2 older women who did the food preparations and 1 young girl who takes your order and handles the register. It took way too long to make my order, and there is no excuse for making me wait while they served people who ordered after me. I even pointed out to the girl that the other couple ordered after me, to which all she could say was, «Sorry.» Uh huh. Well, sorry but I’m never going back here again. That’s no way to run a business and not the way to attract loyal customers.

My first banh mi sandwich (#2). A lot of sandwich for $ 3.15 and only took a couple of minutes for them to make it. I loved the roast pork bits in the sandwich. I too wish that they would replace all Subways with a banh mi shop.

So excited about this place after finding out it was close to my house but turns out it was an epic FAIL!
I went in one morning for coffee. I waited for 10 minutes and there was noone there. Finally, a guy comes in and asks me wat i wanted. He was on the phone and 10 min later still no coffee. He looked confused
Then a lady came in i guess she was the owner and made the coffee. The cups they had didnt have matching lids. My coffee ended up spilling all over and it was extremely hot so hello burnt tongue. I dont think ill ever be back

I had a vegetarian sandwich (#6) the other day. Even though there were just a few other customers there (all waiting for their food to arrive), I had to wait good 15 minutes for A SANDWICH. The staff was not smiling or friendly at all to any of the customers.
The taste was great but I found only about an ounce of vegetables in my sandwich. I’ll try to find another place to get good Vietnamese sandwiches.

It seems like I drive by this establishment all the time yet for some reason or another, never tried it. Maybe I’m an Eden Center snob, who knows? Well, one hungry day I had to to try something. I came in and ordered their #1 sandwich and an iced coffee. The other reviewers were definitely right about the place. The sandwich was excellent and perfectly prepared. The meats were fresh, the pickled vegetables were nice and crisp, and the buerre spread was very clean tasting.
However, it took them a while to make it. Nothing was pre-​made. I guess that’s actually a good thing! The iced coffee was relatively cheap for $ 2.50. It was totally refreshing and had just the right amount of bitterness to counteract the condensed milk.
The surprise of the evening was when I think the owner of the shop recommended I get the «banh beo.» That’s the little white rice pancakes topped with usually dried shrimp. What was the surprise? Well, the surprise was, for the first time ever, i had banh beo that wasn’t «fishy» from the dried shrimp. In fact, with the dried shrimp, they mixed in fresh shrimp and some deep fried pork. You can’t go wrong with that!!!
Needless to say, I was so happy with my experience, I was back within a few days. This time, the owner told me she had more «off menu» items to include the fried rice and the «bun bo hue» with fresh bean sprouts and herbs (if you don’t know what this dish is… it’s best that you don’t ask. Let’s just say it’s something that the host of «bizarre foods» would like. Anyhoo, we were really hungry, so we added an order of egg rolls and the #1 sandwich again. Everything was pretty good. The egg rolls were okay, but you should try them for yourself. I’m biased, since there’s no good egg roll except a home-​made egg roll.
It’s surprising to have such good Vietnamese food far away from Eden Center (I am a snob… I need to change…) I’ll definitely be back… if not daily… weekly!

Advertises $ 3 sandwiches, but there are a couple (#4−5) that are more which is not listed on their board as such. The woman there admits that some of the foods in the display case have MSG (for those who are concerned about such things), but the sandwiches do not.
Also agree with the other reviewers when they say that they are slow at making these sandwiches.
BUT despite those slight misgivings, for a cheap tasty sandwich, it’s an alright place to go.

This is a fast food Vietnamese deli. I had the chicken sub sandwich and some fried spring rolls. The deli is not the most attractive place but the food was tasty and under $ 10.

Let me first say that if I could wave my hand and perform just one act as culinary god I would replace every Subway restaurant with a Bahn Mi shop. There are far too few Vietnamese delis in the area and the bahn mi is criminally under appreciated.
I typically order the number two sandwich. All sandwiches are served on french bread crisped in a toaster oven. In this small shop I believe they simply use the same toaster oven you might have in your home. They then add your choice of meat with various vegetables, including cucumber, onion, carrot and herbs like lemongrass and cilantro. You are best off just ordering the number two combination sandwich for the meats. The combination has marinated pork, a tofu like bit, and a pâté like concotion. You can also just order the meats you want, but I have found doing that leaves you a bit light on the meat. The sandwiches are fresh, flavorful and everyone, including my office mates (for whom Chipotle is ethnic), loves them.
The star must have item though is not the bahn mi. Their marinated pork rolls are just amazing. They are wrapped in cellophane rice paper with vermicelli and something that is like pork moving halfway to bacon. They then insert some grassy herb and a light crunchy stick in the middle of the roll. There is a dark sauce for dipping and they are just heavenly. As good as the sandwiches are it is the rolls I get asked for at work.
Now for the bad. This is a very small place. Calling it mom and pop overstates the workforce they have available. They are not quick and don’t make the mistake I did. I called ahead and ordered seven sandwiches and four orders of rolls for the office thinking I would pick them up in ten minutes. It was at least 45 minutes, if not an hour until they were ready. They answer their phone only intermittently and ther answering machine message is an old man muttering in Vietnamese.
Still, they are rarely busy and I recommend them highly as the only vietnamese sandwich option I know of in that area.

Really great banh mi.
I didn’t know that there was actually a place over here, and I went there looking for Phở, but I had been talking to my friend about how I had been experimenting with making banh mi. The woman who was working there was very polite and friendly, and I was honestly surprised considering the service at most Vietnamese delis.
Some random customer that was there told us to order the «#1, because it’s that number for a reason», and it was the grilled chicken one. At 3 bucks a pop, I will be coming back here for more!!!

** 3.5 stars **
I’ve been reading other Unilocal reviews where folks swear by and rave about Vietnamese Deli subs — so today I thought I’d give it a try.
Saigon Deli is located in the little retail complex called «Fairfax Centre» off of Lee Highway (U.S. 29) just outside the City of Fairfax — just west of Jermantown Road.
I went in about noon-​ish. The place was empty except for one man eating in. There are about 6 tables or so in the place if you want to dine in.
I ordered the #4 — a sub with marinated grilled pork, plus a bottle of water — to go. The sandwich is served on a very good sub roll, with slivers of carrot, cucumber, and parsley springs, plus a couple of slices of jalapeño on the side. I inserted the jalapenos into the sandwich.
It was pretty tasty I must say. I would have preferred a bit more meat in the sandwich — but overall — a positive experience!

It was a warm day and I was drawn to the Neon sign that said Smoothies. It sounded very refreshing so I walked into the Saigon café to buy one. Turns out they make the Asian-​style smoothies like the kind with ice and red beans. Nothing like the Jamba-​Juice kind I was looking for. In the end I bought 3 spring rolls for $ 4, usually the vietnamese sandwich places are cheap but this one is expensive!