Saigon Grill

Was hoping for a decent bun no nam bo. To ease my longing for genuine Viet cuisine. It was good, but not amazing and not true to its origins.

This place has many tables, no waiting line but you will playing with your phone for a while after you sit on the table. The food taste good and their napkin is unbelievable!

This is my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. I have been coming here for years. The crispy pork spring rolls are amazing. Whenever I try new places they are never as good as Saigon grill’s.
My favorite entrees are the Bo Luc Lac and the grilled lemongrass pork chop. The Bo Luc Lac are filet mignon tips that are grilled to perfection. They always come out at a perfect medium rare. As much as I love filet mignon, the lemongrass pork chops are my favorite. The flavor is great and the charcoal taste from the grill is great.
They’re always busy and it’s because it’s so good. The tea they serve the table is also great. Definitely recommend giving this place a try.

It’s been years since I’ve been to this location and now you have to cross the picket line in order to enter the restaurant. The food was as good as always although the restaurant was not nearly as busy as it has been in the past. Perhaps all of the labor issues has scared away the customers. Service was fast and efficient.
One major downside of the meal was visiting the men’s room, which smelled absolutely horrendous.

If the saying «good for what it is» ever made sense to me, it is Saigon Grill.
Come here from time to time to get a rice noodle fix. I would skip the phở here, not that good. Heck, anywhere in NYC isn’t that good for phở. Anyways, I usually get the same thing everytime which is the Bun Xao noodles (think lo mein but better). Portions are big. Family style everything basically. Good for large groups.
There are a million other things on the menu, but I imagine it all tastes the same just different veggies/​meats in them.
Solid neighborhood spot, wouldn’t take a date here.
Sharing too much: sometimes, I lose my appetite when I walk in cause you get a strong whiff of the fish sauce and it’s unpleasant. Don’t let that stuff get on your hands either.

Ahhh, the old name change game.
Flipping through our menus last evening, looking for sushi, we found SAGA Grill, which is apparently now SAIGON Grill. We did not know that. We threw away our Saigon Grill menu after the last time we ordered (See my previous review).
We called what we thought was SAGA Grill, and started ordering by number, and description, and the numbers weren’t matching up to the person on the phone’s menu, then they put someone else on who informed us that they moved and changed their name, and would send us a new menu. So she figured out what we wanted by us describing the items one at a time, and bummer, they no longer had the Kazam Roll which sounded really good (spicy tuna topped with peanut sauce).
So anyhow, we get our food, and the new menu in the bag was a Saigon Grill menu. «Oh great!», I thought, we just ordered from them a few days ago, and never bothered to eat the leftovers… The new menu has their new phone number AND SAGA Grill’s phone number on it. So yeah, we got suckered into ordering from there again.
I got a Tiger roll, and it was BLAHHHH. Not fresh at all. It had a lot going on, and the fishes were just mushy. And the rice, the thing that sushi chefs spend years perfecting, was wet and soggy. Luckily, I didn’t order another roll to replace the Kazam roll I was denied.
I also got the Com Chein Ca, which was not too bad. Actually the best thing I’ve had from there. It’s fried rice with shrimp, Chinese sausage, egg, bean sprouts, and basil. I used to get fried rice back in college to get a full belly for under $ 5, and my how inflation changed that now that the same full belly is $ 9.50. It was a great combination of flavors, especially the Chinese sausage. It was good, but not good enough to ever call back (See my previous review).

Fast delivery, decent Phở, good flavor. Nothing to scream about, but good if you are craving Phở and craving it ASAP.

I ordered delivery from here on a Friday night because I was craving Phở. Delivery was quick, but the phở was rather bland. I also ordered Vietenamese Summer Rolls and those were very tasty. I would actually order from here again but would probably order a different noodle soup or a different dish.

Love Vietnamese food. When it’s good, there’s little that’s better… California, Houston, even Denver all have it. I’m sure that NYC does, too, but it’s not here. I went before I learned about its long history of workplace labor violations. The food was mediocre, passable. The fact that it has been found guilty of mistreating is employees is a dealbreaker. No need to go back.

Ugh, eating here makes me want to book a one-​way ticket to a San Jose or Westminster Viet deli. First, everything is way too pricey — and no the portions aren’t big enough to make up for it. The thit nuong is decently marinated and the chao tom is ok if you’re willing to shell out the $$ for it. On the other hand, the banh hoi is criminally dry and the phở is turrible — little meat, bland broth, lack of fresh herbs etc. I tried the ca kho and instead of a caramel-​sauced cat fish (it really should be ca bong lau), I got a weird tomato-​y salmon. Wait what’s so salty? Oh right, it’s my tears of sadness and disappointment. Sigh.

Glad I Didn’t order any food because on the way out we saw a group of ex employees boycotting the restaurant for labor violations and age discrimination …

#78 with Chicken is my staple dish. Extra fish sauce is a must. The portions are enormous so don’t let the price tag ($ 10.50 for noodles) deter you. Consider it 2.5 meals in one.
I ordered delivery and I was amazed how quickly it arrived. They are willing to deliver pretty far up and down Manhattan and also on both the East and West side, but do have a $ 1 – 2 delivery fee depending on where/​how far you are located. Totally worth it in my opinion. They are on Seamless.
Update: Ordered the basil chicken and would NOT recommend. This dish was very greasy and overall flavorless and pretty much disgusting. Stick to the noodle dishes and Vietnamese dishes.

I’ve just had dinner here once. The place is fairly large, seems quite popular, and is very reasonably priced. Service was efficient.
Food was a bit bland for my taste, but perhaps I should have looked for something spicy on the menu. Or maybe is just a personal preference.
Over all it was fine, good neighborhood spot, but nothing to rave about.

Very solid Viet food, but they offer much more than just Vietnamese fare. They are Asian fusion, Chinese, dim sum, sushi, Japanese & more. Their La Sa Tom is very delicious and the prices are great as well. I really liked how they offer both a smaller and larger portion with different prices.
The Shrimp summer rolls are pretty good, but their «peanut sauce» isn’t the ordinary peanut sauce, it tastes like Chinese hoisin sauce and they sprinkle some crushed peanuts on top. Definitely liked the flavor compliment with their sweetened fish sauce instead.
Service is very in-​n-​out, they don’t want to address you much until they know you are ready to order/​pay.

Usually when we head to Manhattan we have a pretty good idea of where we are going to eat but this time, as we had some time to kill before a meeting, we dashed into Saigon Grill on a whim and a push by the Unilocal app.
For a quick lunch we had many vegetarian lunch specials from which to choose and for the price we got a lot of tasty food. We started with their fresh rolls which were just AOK. Nothing bad, nothing great just sufficient enough to silence the grumblings in our bellies. The portion was three rolls cut in half served with two small portions of sauces on the side, a peanut and a sweet and sour. I do not think either was made in house.
For my main, I ordered the Basil Vegetables with coconut sticky rice. The veggies were plentiful and had some exotics in there including lotus root, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. I enjoyed the various mushrooms and while my choice of rice did not complement my meal it was still enjoyable. So much so I could not finish their generously sized portion.
Their tea was nothing great and was lukewarm as was the harried service. But with my husband’s curried vegetable dish, our fast and furious repast set us back a mere $ 22. Worth trying once but probably not somewhere we would go back to again.

The other couple we went with swears by this place and was ecstatic to eat here. For me, it’s been consistently average to good, though I’m not sure I’d say it’s been earth shattering.
On our last visit we went with the Mi Xao Don which is pan fried noodles, vegetables and beef as well as the Curry Bo which is beef with eggplant, string beans, onions and bell peppers, of course served in a curry sauce. Both dishes were pretty good and the portions were quite big. It came to about $ 28 or so for the 2 mains.
I have to mention, I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but there seems to be some crazy labor dispute between the workers and management. Some irate delivery guys are always screaming and chanting right outside the front door (at least when I pass by). It can be a bit of an unpleasant distraction for customers.

We went with a party of 12. Saigon Grill seems to be designed for larger parties with all the large round dinner tables.
Appetizer: Fish and Shrimp Canh Chua
[Hot & sour soup with misc veggies]
This was the ugliest presentation I have ever seen, The soup was swirled around the bowl so there was not one clean spot without chili oil on it. The plate also had spilled soup all over it in a puddle that the bowl was sitting in. Tasted good.
Entrée: Beef Bun Xao
[Stir fried rice noodles w. shredded vegetables, egg & crushed peanut, served w. nuoc cham sauce on the side]
Good but I felt like I needed 2 lil saucers of the Nuoc Cham sauce to make it better.
Basil Beef
[Sauteed sliced beef with tomato, snow peas, lotus, mushroom, squash, napa cabbage, bean curd & basil in our chef’s spicy sauce]
Pretty Tasty Dish
The prices were not bad for the city, the food was good. Service, eh. I’d go again.

*Warning this review contains severe Phở elitism*
I wasn’t expecting to love Saigon Grill, after being told a few times that it is not very authentic. But, I did think they could provide good Phở. The Phở here is brought out only mildly hot, not piping with that huge puff of steam. Second, Id prefer a lime to a lemon. Third, its a shame you can only get Phở Bo, no other beef options. Fourth, The broth isn’t too flavorful and lacks scallions and other herbs like cilantro.
The Phở here is passable. It’s not really the best city for good authentic vietnamese food.
Despite all this, i suspect I will be back in dire Phở craving emergencies. I would more likely return to try their other fare, more specifically pork chops or shaking beef.

man, why so many bad reviews? well, maybe because people keep ordering the phở. DON’T ORDER THE PHO HERE. that being said, there are ALL SORTS of delicious dishes here for a great price! my favorites are:
— the grilled porkchop. so succulent. HUGE portions — 3 good sized chops
— bun xiao. i prefer it with the shrimp. rice noodles with veggies and the signature sweet fish sauce on top
— whole crispy sea bass. kind of decadent, but WORTH IT
— bo luc lac. the meat quality is good, but what i really order it for is the fresh taro chips that come with it. yum!
know what to order when you come here and you won’t be disappointed! :) two locations — the one near union square has much nicer décor, but smaller portions.

It’s ok