UG student Natalie Voo knows everything about food: she comes from the culinary melting pot of Malaysia and is also the daughter of a restaurateur. Every other week she reviews Groningen’s student-friendly catering industry. This time: Pho Saigon.
You can recognize an authentic Asian restaurant by a number of things. A few examples: the service is often no-nonsense, even stiff. There is often a child sitting at the bar doing homework and there are rumors about possible tax avoidance. In the case of Pho Saigon, it was the decisions that were clearly made with a close eye on the wallet (such as the simple interior) and the staff that seemingly consists of one close-knit family.
We started our culinary adventure with vegetarian spring rolls that really stole the show. Crispy, delicious perfection. The secret seems to be in the rice wrappers, which are lighter and crispier than regular spring roll wrappers. The service was mainly efficient and although our waiter seemed extremely uncomfortable in his role, we found it endearing.
Main courses
As a main course we ordered pho with beef and a Vietnamese pancake filled with a mountain of herbs and vegetables. I initially found the pancake quite disappointing, even with the fish sauce on the side for dipping. But it’s not without reason that there are huge bottles of hoisin sauce and sriracha on the table and they changed my opinion from ‘meh’ to ‘not bad!’
Then the pho: that gets my stamp of approval. There was a generous amount of beef with not too much and not too little fat. The broth was just too watery. A little more seasoning and a bit more of that intense beef flavor would have given the dish a little more depth, but all in all it was fine. Oh, and did I mention portion size? You could feed a small village with that.
Extraction
Sometimes good food requires you to be willing to make sacrifices, and that was the case at Pho Saigon. Luckily I thought it was worth it. What was that sacrifice? Well, it seems that Pho Saigon wanted to save on exhaust in the kitchen or did away with it altogether.
Because the smells in the restaurant – wonderfully spicy, that is – linger in your clothes like sand after a walk on the beach. And maybe you don’t mind smelling like a bowl of pho and star anise – there are worse things – but just so you know.
All in all a gem of a restaurant! Pho Saigon is close to the university and offers a tempting range of authentic Vietnamese delicacies in generous portions and at prices that won’t leave you penniless. What else do you want? Well, better extraction in the kitchen perhaps, but you can’t have everything.
Pho Saigon, Oude Boteringestraat 8
An affordable, modest Vietnamese restaurant with a wide choice of authentic dishes. We only spent €42 for two people.
Final verdict
Food: 8/10
Presentation: 7/10
Service: 7/10
Atmosphere: 6.5/10
English
