Saigon - Ottawa, Ontario

Run to this place!! We stumbled upon Saigon, went in for a drink and we were thoroughly impressed. We were greeted by a personable bar twnder who is a competitive mixologist and specializes in unique infusions that you wont fund anywhere else. We had the cresanthemum tea cocktail which was ... so light and refreshing. We alsi had the Old Fashion but this no ordinary old fashioned. It has essence of star anise and cinnamon, garnised with mint and orange - It does not disappoint. The bartender happily made me a drink, off the menu, which is the photo attached. It was possibly the best drink I've ever had and the drizzle design is dual purpose for a wonderfully beautiful scent and umami flavor with every sip - fantastic! The design of the bar and green velvet stools are nice. The front of the establishment has a glass opening wall, perfect for nice weather people watching! We did not eat but several people around us were and the food looked incredible accompanied by glowing reviews from those eating. The Fairmont sent patrons there with the message Saigon IS THE PLACE for a great cocktail and it's an accurate recommendation that I'd make to anyone. The cocktails are pricey but you get what you're paying for and you realize this as you watch the detail and different quality, unique ingredients going into each creation. Just go 😉 Read more

Food was tasty. Portion is too little for the price. The soup was not too hot but delicious. Washroom is clean but they can improve more on hiding unwanted clutter in the store to be able to achieve complete experience. Service is good but since they are understaff, the food came late.

I've ordered takeout from this place a few times. The food usually tastes ok but... They forget the fish sauce 75% of time time with your vermicelli bowl, rendering it bland and tasteless but also very difficult to get a refund or credit for because it's just one component but a ... very crucial one that makes the dish taste good. It's like if you ordered pizza and there was no sauce, doesn't taste right but impossible to get a refund for cuz "sir we delivered you a pizza" type of logic. Tried phoning, no one answers. Last time they wrapped my salad rolls in cellophane and just pulling them apart practically destroyed them both because they were basically glued together. Decent food ruined by minor mistakes Read more

Used to be my favorite place. The food quality dropped since our last visit. The beef was chewy, hard. Used to melt im your mouth and the sauce was incredible..... Not the same. But the big let down was the tartare. Weird texture, color and taste. Looks like cat food! Sorry but just ... not like it used to be. Read more

Served warm water but immediately was given big cup of ice when asked. There were no line up during dinner hour which was nice since we were seated immediately. The food came out one at a time, with 15-20 minutes in between eat dish which made it awkward for people ... eating as one person would finish eating their meal before the others even started to eat. We ended up just sharing everything instead so that no one felt left out. I feel like they are catering too much to the Western population by not adding traditional aromatics and spices, they kind of missed the authentic Vietnamese flavours and spices in my opinion. They’re not prepared for big groups, they put so much effort in the presentation that performance is hindered once a big group orders. The table beside us got a drink for free since the wait was so long; that was incredibly nice of restaurant to do that. It was obvious that tables around us were getting restless though from the repetitive apologies and long waits. For the tartar, the shrimp cracker was under fried and the beef didn’t taste the freshest as it had a sour aftertaste. The seasoning was nice though, was a very subtle seasoning. The papaya salad did not have enough papaya but mainly being pickled carrots and mango. The pickling was not traditional flavouring, but more a strong vinegar taste. The Shrimp was nicely flavoured and cooked, really sweet and savoury. Biggest complaint was that there were no traditional spices such as shallots, peppers, and cilantro. They added mint instead of basil which was disappointing. The chicken wings took a total of 45 minutes to come out and I think it’s because they left it in the fryer and forgot about it. It was difficult to chew and swallow because of how dry and over cooked it was. Both sauces were incredibly delicious though, and I would buy this in bulk if it was cooked correctly. The taco pork belly was awesome and the veggies were a perfect match for the salty/savoury meat. The beef taco had similar flavour but cooked a lot more poorly, it was dry and the burnt end of the beef was difficult to chew. We all agreed that the braised pork belly on rice was the best. It actually tasted authentic but it was not braised though, more just cooked and reduced in its own sauce on high heat. Would come back just for this dish though. A big thanks to our wonderful waitresses, Breanna and Alyssa, they made it such a great experience and were incredibly helpful. Read more