Saigon Grill

A good place for Vietnamese food.
I’ve been to a few places in Oakland for Vietnamese and have not found anyplace close to a good and authentic Vietnamese. This place was way better than the places I’ve been to.
Came here for a late Saturday lunch.
Parking wasn’t hard to find… surprisingly.
The place was barely empty… which made our orders come really quick and service was pretty good.
I ordered their bbq chicken noodle bowl and it was delish.
Will have to come back when I get the craving…

Decent. Really decent. Particularly considering that my friend and I really wanted dim sum, but the place around the corner closed at 3:00 and wouldn’t take us at 2:45pm.
Popped in, grabbed some banh mi and spring rolls, a couple of sodas. Really cheap. Really fast. Got ‘er done.
It’s a hole in the wall with decent, cheap Vietnamese food. If you want something else, go somewhere else. This’ll do, pig. This’ll do.

** DELIVERY REVIEW **
— we were told 45 minutes, it took 2 hours.
— the delivery guy was nice enough but I ended up being charged for an extra $ 40 meal. I called the next day and they told me that they only showed one charge. today (4 days later) both charges went through and Saigon Grill has asked that I print out my statement and bring it to them. uhh… no thanks. I now have filed a dispute with my bank, what a pain.
— oh yeah, the food was fine. nothing to write home about, a little greasy, and certainly not worth all this.
I guess this is what we get for being lazy!

I love this place. Only place I’ve known to serve Kobe Beef in a vietnamese dish. OMG yummm, nom nom and nom.
Great service, good people. You know you’ll be safe because it’s ½ block away from OPD. Or you’d probably want to stay eating inside to keep away from the Occupyers.
Either way, you will win eating at this place.

Went here for the coffee after a meal down the street. Coffee = GOOD. Also a nice staff. Enough said.

A little shocked at some of the negative reviews out there but I have personally not found any hair in my food nor have I ever encountered rude service there, and I’ve patronized this restaurant a little over a dozen times now (approximately once every 2 – 3 weeks). The owners are nice, and there are some communication glitches from time to time (more with the female owner, who clearly does not speak much English except the dish names itself), but if I know what i want and don’t need much altering of the menu item, it’s totally great.
Couple of my favorite things:
1) Bun (the dry vermicelli noodles with grilled meats, egg roll, and their special sauce) — I’m forgetting the # on the menu item although i should know it by heart ‘cuz it’s what i order the most… maybe it’s #54…or #52…anyway, it’s refreshingly delicious without being greasy and doesn’t weigh me down after i eat it mostly because of the veggies that are also tossed in with the noodles. YUM.
2) Beef Cubes (back of the menu). Um, it’s dang good. Cubes of filet mignon (the menu claims), with a heaping plate of rice, special tangy dipping sauce, and some slices of tomatoes. When I’m craving me some beef, this is typically what i crave.
3) Phở. Now– Saigon Grill does NOT have THE BEST phở around (which is why it’s not #1 on my list), but when I’m in the mood for Phở, this is where i go. They’re fast, the broth is tasty, they’re very generous with the noodles, and all-​in-​all, it’s a great combination, and piping hot (just the way i like my food). I don’t think they put MSG into the broth because i’m not grabbing at water or clinging my throat 20 min after slurping up the bowl of deliciousness.
Parking is sometimes a little annoying, but that’s not stopping me from going to Saigon Grill :)
p. s. they’ve got TV, so for guys who want to catch the game while eating, they’ve got a big screen mounted on the wall.

I AM ABOUT TO THROW UP.
I ordered some food from Saigon and picked it up. first of all, my pickup experrience was terrible. when i checked them on the price, they were RUDE. instead of offering to correct the situation, the order, etc. they just kept repeating the price over and over to me. so i gave up and paid. i came home to eat my food and after eating a few bites and feeding some to my 2 year old, i discovered a
HAIR IN MY FOOD.
when i called them to let them know. without even asking me to hold she puts me on hold and then a man picks up. i tell him theres a hair in my food and he asks me what i ordered. do some items come with a hair? why was that relevant? so i tell him the beef and he says in the most rude voice EVER «BRING IT HERE. I WANT TO SEE IT.» i ordered food to pick up because i have 2 kids, i worked a 10 hour day and I am exhausted. If i could give no stars I would.
THANKS SAIGON GRILL for one of the WORST EXPERIENCES EVER. the food is not good enough to compensate for f****d up service.

Read reviews on Unilocal and headed over with a hefty appetite. Ordered ‘fried salted squid’, pork ‘bun bi’ and for gluttony’s sake, garlic noodles with prawns (I did not dine alone!!).
I was totally blown away by the «Bun Bi, Thit Nuong»!!! Rather than egg rolls mine had 2 «meat-​rolls». Yes, the filling for a roll was placed inside a lovely slice of meat =) =) The portion was huge for the price, I couldn’t finish mine =(
The squid was fresh and nicely breaded (dipping sauce was perfect) and the noodles… they will be eaten later.
The interior is nothing fancy and parking is a bitch, so public transportation or walking is a must!

So disappointing. I came here after looking for the best phở in Oakland. A few reviews said this was the place to be so I was really looking forward to see what this place had to offer.
I ordered my measuring stick phở bowl: Rare steak and tendon.
Well, the meat may have been rare at some point, but not when it came out to me. The steak was super tough and chewy. I can forgive that if the broth makes up for it. It didn’t though. It didn’t have much flavor in general, and even when I tried to doctor it up with some (then a lot of) nuoc mam, it didn’t help.
Really just a substandard bowl of phở. I don’t know if it was because I came for dinner and they were off their lunch game or what, but eating this became a chore, which is saying a lot coming from me. They may have a great phở lunch special, and value can boost a score, but at dinner time, it’s standard prices. So I’m not even getting subpar phở at a bargain price. I’m not even coming in with «the only good phở is in San Jose attitude» — 1) it’s not true, 2) I’ve had decent-​to-​good phở in Montréal, Boston, even Tokyo before.
The restaurant is pretty clean and the owners were friendly, so they get an extra star from me. But the phở just wasn’t good here.

Affordable, authentic, delicious.
You, go, now.

Wow, I’m surprised I haven’t written a review for this place yet, being that I try to come here once a week.
This is hands down my favorite phở joint in the area. I’ve tried a couple others in Chinatown and East Oakland, but they are too sweet or bland. Saigon Grill’s phở is nicely balanced.
Other deliciousness they have are the garlic noodles, fried and fresh spring rolls and bubble tea.
The price is great. My son and I share a medium bowl and spend about $ 8 including tip for two people. And we both leave full and happy.
The service is also good. Mmm. Maybe I’ll go tonight.

What the PHO??? $ 4.95 lunch MENU?!? Scoreeee!!!
My coworkers rave about this place and I can see why. As if PHO wasn’t cheap enough, the portions are pretty generous as well. To be honest, the quality and taste of the food is about PAR, but the service here is GREAT. Apparently, my coworkers come here often, so they remember special orders. It’s always nice to come to a place and get recognized.
Oh, if you feel a little fancy, throw in a Vietnamese sandwich for another $ 2.50. Yup, I get that with a side of PHO everytime! =P

Maybe this review is a little tainted because I was so happy when my friend Robert M. and I got suuuper lucky and scored a parking spot RIGHT IN FRONT of the restaurant. But I think I can confidently say this place is good!
Even though I just had Vietnamese noodles last night in San Jose (bun bo hue), I still heartily enjoyed a bowl of tai nam gau gan sach phở here (my default). I had pretty high expectations for a whole week already because Vietnamese-​food-​aficionado Robert had discovered this place last week and liked it so much he came here for 2 days in a row. Coming here tonight was by my request after hearing his and other people’s approval. But Saigon Grill delivered up to my expectations, and my stomach for phở (yes, I have an extra one, kinda like how some girls have an extra stomach for dessert?) also approved and was satisfied.
For both of us the order actually came to a few cents over $ 14, and the minimum charge to use credit card is $ 15…we were so close!
So…beef cubed steak, eh? Will have to try that next time.

Get the cube beef with rice like everyone is suggesting! You won’t regret it! It changed my life. Well, ok not, but it’s so flippin’ delicious. The little blocks of beef are marinated in some sort of sweet sauce I’d presume, then cooked perfectly with some chunks still medium rare to medium… and I’m not sure which part of the cow they used, but the meat is super soft, you can use a butter knife to cut it. of course they’re all pan seared together with some red and green bell peppers and onions that have had its stank cooked out. my type of onions. to go with all this, a side of lemon salt pepper dipping sauce. freakin’ faaaaaabulous!!!
Of course that’s not all I had. Their phở is awesome too! It’s flavorful, tons of meat! Not a whole lot of noodles, but I love my carbs, so. it’s never enough for me. And phở is sort of hard to mess up if you’re a Vietnamese restaurant, unless you’re Ao Sen.
For my second visit I had the pork chop with egg, shredded pork, and rice and my boyfriend had the cubed beef again. You can never fail with the cubed beef. The pork chop was awesome though! The marination used makes the pork chops more tender, and it’s super tasty! Shredded pork isn’t my thing though, but ze bf likes it, so that had his name all over it.
Everything I’ve had so far has not disappointed. It’s a little pricier than your usual Vietnamese restaurant, but the food is fantastic, and the place doesn’t make you want to not touch anything but your food. So you can say, it’s a little swankier? They’re open till 10pm, so if you have a hankering for some blow your mind type food, come here, because you really don’t know what you’re missing.

Grabbed a pork banh mi on my way to an errand in Alameda. They have a handful of options listed kinda inconpicuously on the front of their menu. Open the menu too fast and you’ll miss it!
Nice soft roll maybe a little thinner and longer than most. Didn’t appear toasted with crunchy crust, but that may have been the 10 minute drive wrapped up before devouring it.
A generous helping of grilled pork. The pork was a lean cut and not dripping with marinade. It was very tasty and grilled to perfection. With it was some julienned carrots & daikon, slices of cucumber and some mayo (see my pic).
Pretty good sando, though I would have liked some jalapenos and. a little more of the veggies.

Came here with my niece and sister-​in-​law on a nice quiet Sunday evening a little after 7pm. There were only 2 other patrons in there, but my sis in law informed me it was more popular as a lunch joint. We sat down and ended up ordering the garlic noodles, the grilled chicken vermicelli with egg rolls, thai iced tea, and mango smoothie. As we got our food, more people started to show up.
The food was pretty good. The texture of the garlic noodles were good, and the flavor wasn’t overwhelmingly garlicky. The vermicelli helping was huuuge and I was able to pack some to take home afterward. Our drinks were average, but still refreshing nonetheless. Although there was only one main server, he was extremely courteous and efficient. Was good about checking up on us and everything, even when things got busier later in the night.

I decided to venture away from the usual phở order at a Vietnamese restaurant and tried the beef stew with egg noodles. Not the best I’ve ever had but decent for $ 5.95. I do like that the place is open pretty late as I’m always searching for late night munchies around Chinatown in Oakland. I’ll have to come back to try this infamous cubed beef.

Came here this time for take out –ordered BBQ boneless chicken over rice. for $ 6.95 + tax and was charged for $ 6.87 — I told them they were undercharging me and the reply was «it’s 10%off» so I was like ah. okay, Thanks.
Staff was friendly and gracious as usual.
The only downside here is parking, other than that it’s pretty good.

Saigon Grill… your cubed beef is the bomb!
So tender & juicy, accompanied by a lemon/​salt/​pepper dipping sauce, rice, & salad! The portions are really generous. Combined leftovers from jill k. and my plates = midnight snack for four people. Wow!

is the 3^rd time a winner for saigon grill at this seemingly ill-​lucked location? YES!
the first impressions one gets here is the professialism that went in producing the menu and the professional service that is provided by the
sibings, lexus and anthony, of the matron owner. they are very personalbe, speak perfect english, and are knowledgable about the food. if you can’t believe a phở eatery will provide service, come here.
you will be SHOCKED. good food, good service, good prices.
what more do you want? 10% off? ok. you got it.
this vietnamese family has been in the biz for 20 years, having operated restuarants in hawaii, san jose, and oaktown (codo on telegraph).
the interior décor isn’t totally green anymore, just half green half, orangey yellow or vice versa. the menu itself looks like any other vietnamese eatery except when you taste the food. ithe ingredients are fresh, and msg use is sparse.
sampling:
–phở tai gan (raw beef, tendon, large, 6.95) the broth was very sweet tasting and it wasn’t from the msg, it was from the onions therein. there
didn’t seem to be a lot off noodles, but there were plenty of bean sprouts, raw beef and some tendons.
–3 beans drink (1.95)not a dessert fan but lexus was so nice and persuasive … interesting mix of beans and gelatins, a sweetish drink.
4/​
–shrimp imperial roll (a5-​$ 5): came fried and i couldn’t find any shimps inside. inside very mushy. maybe they gave me a6-​fried vegetgerian rolls by mistake.
–phở ga (med-5.75) chicken & rice noodle, lots of dry white meat with noodles. broth left an aftertaste. good sized bowl.
looking forward to trying their evening fare which is their specialty…