Saigon Cafe in Livermore

Review №1

2023-12-05 07:54:11

Update: 10.28.23 Tofu lemongrass rice plate was delicious, except for the rice, which tasted like fish! We are vegan, and while we understand this restaurant prepares all foods in one kitchen, shared utensils should not be used, especially between steamed rice and fish. This has never happened before, and we hope it wont happen again. Otherwise, the rice noodles & veggies in our tofu veggie pho were undercooked quite significantly, so we microwaved the soup in a large bow until properly cooked when we got home. We have eaten at Saigon Cafe since they opened, but the last few years are more hit & miss wrt quality. We still really like this place & want to support local businesses too...we hope theyll fine tune the kitchen for quality control, but well definitely give them another chance as we want to give the benefit of the doubt this time.Edit 8.18.23 My veggie pho was great, my husbands rice plate with tofu & veggies was quite undercooked. We do like veggies stir fried, but still crisp, but cabbage, broccoli, carrots were still raw, not well heated, so not sure why cook would undercook it like that. Rice was perfectly cooked. Salad on the side was fresh with a large slice of cucumber & we love the ginger dressing. Server was attentive, helpful, & polite. We didnt complain to him about the uncooked veggies, weve been coming to this place since they opened many years ago.Edit 4/19/19: Far too much salt being used, especially in the pho. Theyve always been heavy on salt, but its worse for the past few months to the point that we cant eat here anymore. Requesting easy on the salt results in bland food, no underlying spices or flavor. We all drink water for hours after eating there, hadnt really tuned into this until recently after not having eaten at Saigon Cafe for several weeks. Lowered rating to 3 stars for using so much salt instead of spices.Delicious Viet food, friendly service. Reasonably priced. Quick take out available. Point system to earn free food is quite generous. Good portions. Free street parking.

Review №2

2023-11-08 11:24:18

Odd infrastructure, the door is loud and it slams hard. Menu is simple and well sized. Tables are small. The soup is somewhat... sweet, I like that. I noticed they gave much more onions than most places. Their combo pho doesnt have meatballs though. Other than that, they do all of the element of pho very well, soup doesnt taste bland or like raw noodle water, a small and nice hole in the wall. I appreciate the above average quality noodle soup, hard to find around here. Would come again if I didnt live so far away...

Review №3

2022-12-17 18:22:39

The bún bò huê (#24 in special soups!) was absolutely amazing. It was packed with flavor, the meat was tender, the veggies were fresh, and the large WAS a large. We weren’t able to finish it and our incredibly nice server got us to-go bowls. I loved how nice everyone was, incredibly accommodating, and the food was delicious. I highly recommend coming here!!

Review №4

2023-10-01 23:35:31

The Pho here is pretty good but the restaurant is very filthy…the walls and the floors look like they never get cleaned. Not an enjoyable atmosphere to eat in.

Review №5

2018-08-12 03:55:37

Where to start?! This looks and feels like a family run restaurant, the staff are prompt, friendly and greet you warmly. Service is extremely quick, it takes approximately 10 mins from ordering to getting your food (huge bolw of pho for 10$!!!). The food is good and wholesome, I love their pho with prawns and veggies as well as their soft shrimp rolls. They also are able to accommodate different diets and are happy to swap rice for salad for those of us wjo have to watch what we eat. Their green chicken curry is a good find too. They also offer a free scoop of ice cream which is refreshing and doesnt really look like a scoop at all, more like a glass full of yumness the size of my hand. What a great place to eat.

Review №6

2018-11-05 23:07:11

Regarding my reviews on Google Maps. Since Google doesnt provide any kind of guidelines on the expectations of what a 5 star rating requires or means that makes it difficult person to person to decipher what good or great is. Let alone that one persons 3 star rating is anothers 5 star experience. That being said. I eat out a lot and at some pretty nice places. Ive recently decided to review each place I eat and add pictures. I will comment on the things that are important to me for a restaurant or other establishment to have a high rating.For me the following are important when rating a restaurant.1) Cleanliness overall including the bathrooms2) Service and staff behavior3) Food and beverage quality4) Prices (I do not put a lot of emphasis on price if all other aspects meet my expectations Im willing to pay)5) Atmosphere (this is obviously in the eye of the beholder)I hope this makes my reviews more helpful and meaningful to all users .When my family visits Livermore this is a must stop place for lunch or dinner. The broth is so tasty with whatever Pho or other soup dish you order. It meets all my criteria for a 5 star rating. The dish in the picture is the spicy beef Pho. As you can see they serve beer as well.

Review №7

2023-09-23 02:54:22

They have best pineapple fried rice. Listen to me when I say. Do yourself a favor and go try it. Its places like this that you have to appreciate.

Review №8

2018-08-11 01:27:46

Combination fried rice pretty good.Grilled shrimp Vermicelli tasteless.Beef noodle soup pretty good.

Review №9

2016-10-29 18:08:38

Great tasting soups with huge portions! The place has a homey feel despite feeling a little worn down. However, I enjoyed the astectics and the food was excellent.

Review №10

2023-12-05 02:01:58

Service was great, the pad thai wasnt the best, it was dry with not much sauce