Little Saigon Restaurant

I am an expert in Vietnamese cooking and VIetnamese Food Tasting (I am Vietnamese who've traveled the US and have eaten in almost 100 Vietnamese restaurants).

Order #1 (Khai Vi - Appetizer Dish) - Grilled pork meatballs were extremely dry and did not have that charbroiled taste. Almost bland. Beef in grape leaves were tiny, lacked any meat, dried, and did not have the peanuts and scallion oil flavoring that it should have. Portion size was extremely small. For $12, Extremely Disappointed.



Order #2 (Tofu Seafood Soup) - For $11, we only got a small portion not even satisfactory for 2 people. Tofu chunks were too big to eat, soup was lukewarm & lacked any good flavoring. Not much seafood for $11.

Order #3 (Mi Xao Do Bien - Crispy fried noodle and seafood) - $14.50. Dish was too wet, the sauce dominated everything (bad). There was hardly any seafood (very small and miniature size shrimp and squid. The dish portion was very small and salty. Lacked any good amount of seafood. They were even cheap on the noodles. Extremely disappointed.

Order #4 (Ca Kho To) - $12. They used small chunks of salmon about 4 inches by 1.5 inches. The portion size was extremely disappointing. The sauce should have been carmelized but it was actually too watery. Lacked any taste and almost bland. Extremely disappointing for $12.

Order #5 (Fried Tofu) - $5. The tofu was very bland. This dish was just plain tasteless, even for $5. They didn't even put any effort into this effortless dish.

Order #6 (Bo Luc Lac or Country Beef Cubs) - $12. The beef was too tough and chewy. There was too much brown sauce it looked like "Alpo". Bo Luc Lac (Nem Phuong in Philadelphia makes this really good). This dish should have been very tender and dry - should only be dripping with the beef juices, with a side order of water cress, and a side dipping of a mixture of salt, pepper, and lime juice - if done the right way. This restaurant had it all wrong. Too much saucy, no lime flavor, no grilling flavor, hard to chew beef. Total disappointment. Even the water was pretty gross. The decor was nothing special. Run down outside building. Total overall Grade = D-