Breakfast Menu "Saigon Cafe" Livermore
Pan-Asian noodle house doling up Vietnamese soups, plus Thai & Chinese fare in a relaxed setting.
Saigon Cafe, 2011 Second St, Livermore, CA 94550
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Edit 8.18.23 My veggie pho was great, my husband's 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 didn't complain to him about the uncooked veggies, we've 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. They've always been heavy on salt, but it's worse for the past few months to the point that we can't eat here anymore. While most Viet restaurants use lots of salt, much of the flavor comes from salt... Especially the vegetarian dishes.Requesting easy on the salt results in bland food, no underlying spices or flavor. We all drink water for hours after eating there, hadn't 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.
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!!
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 doesn't 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.
Regarding my reviews on Google Maps. Since Google doesn't 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 another's 5 star experience. That being said. I eat out a lot and at some pretty nice places. I've 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 bathrooms 2) Service and staff behavior 3) Food and beverage quality 4) Prices (I do not put a lot of emphasis on price if all other aspects meet my expectations I'm 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.
This is our comfort food once every 2 weeks. Extremely consistent and great tasting food. Not only their Pho, but the noodles/rice and curries are great too.
The garlic shrimp was very good and I'll be back as the weather changes for a big soup
Best vegetarian pho I had in a very long time (and they even have a dedicated vegetarian menu!)
Combination fried rice pretty good. Grilled shrimp Vermicelli tasteless. Beef noodle soup pretty good.