Saigon City Restaurant

Not the easiest place to notice driving by, and that's too bad, because they deliver a decent meal at a fair price. It's tucked in at an angle on Bel-Red, and you kind of have to look sharp to see it.

Once you're in, it's a quiet and welcoming dining room with a TV in the corner tuned to news or something else that's not too interruptive. The people are constantly in motion, getting ahead on sidework if nothing else.

I had the house special pho (flank, brisket, soft tendon), and it was delicious. Fairly subdued broth, definitely not oversalted. Everything in the bowl is in good shape, from noodles to condiments to sauces/pastes.

Best of all was the ginger tea. Kinda spendy (I want to say over $4 for a cup), but it had tons of freshly grated ginger in it, and it was a huge mug. Very much worth it. Great eye-opener before heading for the gym (to make up for eating a bowl of soup before a workout..what am I doing?).

In the end, this is a place I will happily visit again. The pho options in Overlake are shaping up nicely.

it has been a while since the last time I went there but i can guaranty it will probably be the last.
The service was not good. Do you know those kind of places you feel you are doing a favor to the owner going there? I don't like that feeling at all. But it is not my main disappointment.

Me and my husband ate meatballs Pho and the broth was regular but the meatballs were horrible! It was chewy, uncolored, and tasteless. I was so disappointed.

I rather drive all way to Yummy Pho in Redmond than come back to that place again. I don't recommend.

So once a month I meet my friend from Duvall in this area for lunch & thrift store shopping. We have gone to the Mandarin Buffet 3 times. This time we thought we'd try something different. Man am I sad we did. :(

Got here at about 1pm and the place was empty. That should have been a warning. Anyway sit down & look at the menu. No lunch prices. Everything was at least $8. We split an order of egg rolls. They were quite greasy. Good vinegary dipping sauce though. My friend had the tofu fried rice. It was okay but definitely needed soy sauce & chile paste. I had a noodle dish with beef, chicken & shrimp. I thought the description said vegetables too but all it had in it was cabbage. I'm not Vietnamese but I think I could have made a better noodle dish. So with tax & tip my entree was $12. Next time I'll take my hard earned money to the buffet.

This is the best place to grab a bite in this part of Bellevue.
I have been going here for years it is family operated and the food is consistently delicious!

I love the Bun here, it is perfect for a hot summer day.
Try a bubble tea with Mango & Avocado. I know, sounds weird, but they use fresh fruit and its AMAZING! :)

My friend is not a big Vietnamese food lover but I was able to persuade him to show up here.

Food was not bad but I did stay away from their pho and cold noodle salads. I ordered the Ugly Rice and was surprised that it was good. However, it was just a little too greasy for me since I can taste the oil in every bite.

Service was friendly but not too attentive. Atmosphere is so-so and would be good for lunch.

If I lived around Bellevue or Redmond area I would be willing to give this place another try.

Delicous Pho, quick seating and service, plenty of seating for large groups too. My only complaint is if you order a drink, especially a bubble tea it may take a while to get to you and sometimes doesn't show up.

Also good is the noodle and rice dishes.

I've been eating here since I was in high school, which was more than a couple years ago. Back then, there weren't very many pho restaurants in Bellevue, so our choices were very limited. Still, of the options we had, Saigon City was the one we chose most often. This place is a very typical pho joint, in that it's hot inside during the warmer months, the food comes out fast and hot, and the prices are what you'd expect. It's pretty good, and I find it a good place to grab a quick bowl of pho. You know exactly what you're going to get at this place, and they deliver in a consistent fashion.

They have bubble tea and smoothies here as well, made from real fresh fruit. It's also worth noting that the pho here has a more homemade taste than most, from what friends tell me. I haven't had real homemade pho before, so I don't know, but they're experts so I trust their input.

This place is seriously just okay. If I were to look up, "mediocre" in the dictionary, it would have Saigon City listed underneath. I don't quite understand why the lunch rush is so busy, it must be the allure of one of the waiters there who rocks out with his biceps out. I just have no explanation otherwise. Parking is extremely difficult and the noise level in this place, whenever there's people, gets incredibly loud. All of this fuss over a bland bowl of pho? Yeah, I think not.

I've been here twice, both during lunch. Both times I've had to wait 5-10 minutes for a table. Both times in which I could barely have a conversation at a normal volume level with the person with me. Both times I wanted to front-end a vehicle for having a parking IQ of 10 and the decency grade of a douchebag. In any case, I ordered the chicken pho once and the house special pho the other time. The first time I tried their chicken pho, I wanted to begin writing a eulogy for all bowls of chicken pho. It was so flavorless, bland, and the broth was just water with a beige dye. This needs work.

During the second time I came in here, I figured that it was just because I had ordered chicken in my pho that it explained the tasteless broth. Not exactly. The house special pho broth was a little richer but still very lacking in everything. My friend and I both really wanted to douse the whole bowl with hoisin sauce and sriracha; however, neither of us wanted to walk out with hypertension levels high enough to give us both a stroke.

This is definitely not the place I would go for pho but sadly, it is one of the better choices in Bellevue. But come to Bellevue for anything other than Red Robin sliders and spaghetti and you'll be disappointed.

My friends and I get pho once a week for lunch. We have tried many places but had narrowed it down to this place and Pho Than Brothers, now this place is off the list as well. I'd probably give this place a 3 star for the food, but have to downgrade my review to one star due to the offensive staff.

Pho:
The Pho is good but not great. I find that the amount of meat/protein that they put in the bowl is way below Pho Than Brothers and others. Also, the size of the bowl is a third smaller than PTB but costs more. The broth *is* the pho, and the broth here is thin, light on flavor. Like they stretch their batches of broth with water. They do offer the most generous plate of basil, sprouts, lime and jalapenos however.

Service:
This is the main reason my friends and I are done with the place. First is the credit card thing. You either take them or you don't. If you don't, that's fine. But don't take Visa then bust our chops and don't allow us to split a tab with it. Probably wouldn't bug us so much if there weren't problems with the service in general.

When you go in there the staff is often sitting at one of the tables surfing the web on their laptops. The guy in particular seems to be more interested in Facebook or something than helping people out. Kind of goes to their indifferent attitude. The worse thing though is the guy who works there. He is full of himself and comes across like a smarmy slick Guido. We went in there one day with a woman from work and he was hitting on her so hard it was ridiculous. He went so far as to lean over the table, leering at her and telling her that he would be happy to "feed her the prawns one by one" and that she would love it!!!!! Completely ignoring the fact she was at the table with two guys and she had a wedding ring on. This isn't a night club slick, this is YOUR restaurant and your customers are there for lunch, not to hook up with you!

Small portions, thin broth, higher price, bust your chops about credit cards and Mr. Slick hitting on the women in your party. Can't think of a reason to go ever go there again. For no nonsense huge portions of Pho and no nonsense service, go to Pho Than Brothers down the street.

Pros: Portions. Pho is ok
Cons: Dirty restaurant. Owner(s) is a dick. This place should get 3 stars, but the service was bad.

The pho is ok, but if you are hungry, then its good. The one thing that pisses me off about this place is that the owner(s), the two young Vietnamese punks who give you dirty stares everytime you tell them that the spoons/chopsticks are dirty. This is my beef with them. I asked for a new chopsticks, cause it had some cilantro stuck to it. They gave me a dirty look the first time. When i got another one, they were even dirtier, and it had hoisin sauce on the bottom! They didn't even check the second time around!

So I ask for a new pair of chopsticks again and asked the asshole for another pair. Because the third time was like me asking the equivalent if I could have sex with his mother, he gave me this dirtier look like I was sabotaging his chopsticks, and gave me a pair of to go chopsticks that were wrapped.

Fuck this place I am never going back because of these stupid punks. Whats up with these damn Vietnamese kids and their rich parents funding them? Maybe they are related to what the pho.