Restaurant: Saigon Cafe, Livermore
Delivery service used: DoorDash
Date ordered: 17th May, 2020
Dishes ordered:
- Pho with Rare Steak Slices (Large) – $13.00 – 7/10
- Pho with Rare Steak, Brisket, Tendon and Tripe (Large) – $13.00 – 7/10
Flavour: I mean… it’s not bad. It’s not the best pho I’ve ever had, but it’s okay. I personally find the broth too sweet and somehow a bit salty all at the same time. You can taste some other spices like star anise in there too but… I don’t know. I find it lacking, somewhat. It’s like it would have benefitted from simmering in the bones and spices for another few hours to bring out a richer, deeper flavour in the broth itself, rather than over-seasoning to supplement taste.
I ended up pouring some more hot water into the broth to dilute it a little, which worked out well because I feel like we didn’t get as much broth in proportion to the quantity of dry ingredients. In addition, I’m more of a lime-with-my-pho type of girl, but they tend to serve theirs with lemon. I do appreciate that the meat and herbs were very fresh though.
Value for money: 7.5/10
We both got the ‘large’ portions and I think it’ll be enough for another meal for both of us (though Jacky already finished most of the meat in his box – he has a bunch of noodles left).
I expected this, so I’m not wowed by their portion size. I do think they give you more noodles and probably more meat in the large, but the amount of broth given is probably the same as a regular.
I mean, the portion size is definitely not bad. I am just not wowed by it. That said, I was stuuuffed after I finished my first bowl. In my hunger, I may have overeaten, so I should take that into consideration here. HOWEVER, given that I was super hungry, I still didn’t love the taste. So 7.5 is all they’re getting here (would otherwise have been 7/10 here too).
Other: Our food arrived hot, but the broth was not hot enough to ‘cook’ the rare beef slices in our bowls. We both ended up having to give it 30 seconds in the microwave to actually cook the beef through (for me, anyways. Jacky’s still was a bit too rare for his liking but didn’t want to put it in for any longer to avoid overcooking the other meats).
Jacky said that he felt it tasted better in-store so for delivery he’d rate it 7/10 but in store it’d probably be an 8/10.
Would re-order: 6/10
I would prefer to find a better Vietnamese restaurant. This is the second time I’ve had pho from here. The good thing is that it tastes the same as last time. The bad thing is, I remember not loving it last time either and it looks like my feelings remain the same heh heh heh.