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A Taste of Saigon Restaurant Review

About 2 years ago, our family doctor took a sabbatical and moved to Vancouver with her daughter. Last month, I got a call from her office advising that she is back and would like to know if we wanted to be her patients again.

Well of course I didn't hesitate considering it is so hard to find a great family doctor in Calgary. The only thing is her new office is on the opposite side of town. When we went for our first meet & greet meeting, we ended up finding this Vietnamese restaurant and decided to give it a go.

We have been back for a second doctor's appointment since and made sure we lunched again at this place since the food was really good.

On our first visit, Jesse was actually fighting off the remnants of a nasty cold (which I eventually ended up getting). Because of this, he wanted soup to sooth his scratchy throat and clear up his nostrils. He decided to go with the Satay Beef Pho.

I find that there are 2 kinds of Satay Beef Pho that you get in Calgary. One that looks to be flavoured with a red chilli garlic or sriracha type sauce then sprinkled with crushed peanuts.

The other is flavoured with a browner, thicker peanut / hot pepper paste that can sometimes collect at the bottom of the soup bowl.

I prefer the first type but I'm not averse to the other. For Jess' sake I was hoping Saigon would have the first type since the second type tends to make your throat very scratchy because of the paste.

Luckily, when his pho came, it was the first type. The broth was delicious, with just enough spice to round out the flavour. It came with the standard side plate of thai basil, lime, & sprouts.

I decided to go with their Satay Beef Com (Rice) Combination with a fried egg and chopped vegetables. It was a HUGE plate!!! I could only finish about half and took the other half home for dinner.

The meat was very tender and full of flavour. I'm pretty sure it was marinated before cooking. The chopped veggies were mixed with some pickled carrots which had a very mild tangy flavour. I found the egg slightly over cooked. I prefer over easy but to their defense, I did not specify how I liked my fried egg when I ordered.

Jesse absolutely loved the spring rolls at this place. He said it was the best he's had so far in from a Viet resto in Calgary. I must agree. There's something different about their spring rolls which gave it a very interesting, delicious flavour. I haven't figured out what it is yet but I think it may be taro root since the filling had a slight tinge of purple.

The second time we went, Jess decided to go with something new that he's never had before, Curry Noodle Soup. It was made with yellow curry and served with a more eggy noodle / pasta as oppose to the clear, opaque, rice noodles.

I went with the Satay Chicken & Beef Bun (noodles) with spring rolls. Again, I was amazed at how big the serving was. The dish was overflowing with thinly sliced, marinated, spicy meat that was very delectable.

A Taste of Saigon would definitely be my Viet resto of choice anytime I have a craving, if it wasn't so far from where I live. I would definitely stop here anytime I'm in the Country Hills area as the food is one of the best Viet I've had in Calgary.