Saigon Bistro

This review is normalized to Columbia, MO. I’m mostly just grateful to have had a phở place at all in town. However, last Friday at 6 PM, it was closed, and I can’t get anyone to answer the phone. I’m not sure if this means they’re shuttered forever.
The food is OK, but they always seem to be out of half of the items on the menu. I guess they don’t have enough customers to stay fully stocked. The phở broth is decent sometimes, but bland other times, and they’re quite stingy with the vegetables on the side. Service is prompt, but I’ve never seen more than 3 tables there at a time when I’ve been there for dinner. If this restaurant were located in San Francisco or LA, I’d give them 2 stars. That said, if Saigon Bistro opened in San Francisco, it would be out of business within a month.

Love this place! Special suggest spring rolls with shrimps. Fried Calamari is also awesome! Always wanna go back!

Good spring rolls.
The spicy egg plant was well cooked. Came with rice. I substituted rice with rice vermicelli, was not the best choice.

Very good phở but it’s a small bowl. For $ 7.99 plus tax I would like more phở especially broth. It didn’t fill me up.

Recently their hours are confusing. They must be having problems because they close and open whenever they want. Went last night at 8:20 and was confused if they were closed or open so we were about to leave but the owner from outside rushed us in. While seated I asked when they closed and they said 9. We felt bad so tried to order and eat fast. By 9:09 we were out. We had phở with three types of beef, it was not bad but I prefer the one at Ichiban sushi bar. Had the simmered fish which we really liked and mongolian steak which was also good. Food was good overall.
Service was not on the good side. At a point my mouth was on fire and the waitress never refilled my water. When we were done she came to ask us how the food was, but not while eating. We were not even close to being done and she rushed bringing us the check. I know we came a little late but we also tried to eat fast and not be those customers who linger forever and chat till 1 hour after it’s closed. Maybe we’ll give it another try.

Why is it that every time I try to eat here they are closed! =(It’s like I can never get their hours right– or I just tend to want to eat here when they are closed.
I was on the hunt for a good bowl of phở and was pleased to find that the folks here at Saigon Bistro make a decent bowl of phở. Coming from a large Vietnamese community in Orlando, Florida I wasn’t expecting to get a whole lot from Columbia, Missouri. I ordered the Chef’s Bowl (I think that’s what it was called) with beef tendon, tripe, and beef meatballs. The broth is what really makes the phở– and well it was okay. I ended up having to doctor it up with some lemon (because they don’t have limes there), hoisin, and sriracha. I also ordered the pork and shrimp summer rolls which were also pretty tasty. They were cold and sticky so I immediately knew that they were pre-​made and taken out the refrigerator =\ I mean they were good– but still, they could be «fresher». And on the topic of «fresh», the bean sprouts and Thai basil looked a bit rough. There were a lot of holes and blackened ends so I was a bit hesitant to even use the good parts. Eeek!
The service was a bit funny. I think all the servers were brand new so they had no idea what I was asking for when I said «hoisin» or «sriracha». The owner came out and was kind enough to help them out.
I’d come back again! I saw someone order the beef vermicelli bowl and am hoping to try that soon!

It used to be a great place until the owner has changed. Everything is so slow and the waiter forgot to bring our chopsticks that I have to go and get it by myself. We ordered fried chicken wings, which was still bleeding inside. Everything tastes different in a worse way.

I have visited this place 4 times before. I live 2 hours away. So I’m very upset to get home and only half container of Phở broth. NOT COOL! The quality is going down. I will have to find another spot.

I can not figure out why this place has such a low rating!?! I have had the vermicelli dish many times and across the country and this was so good! I was a bit worried about the sauce at first because it looked different than usual, but I quickly figured out it was actually chili sauce in it that added the perfect amount of heat to the dish! Very good meal & I’d come here again when in Columbia!

We’re huge fans of Saigon Bistro — quite a fun change from the regular far in Columbia. The staff is a little quiet/​distant, but portions are good and always yummy. The soups are really great on a rainy day.

Great little Vietnamese restaurant in the district. If you are looking for something different this is the place to go, many pictures to help you experience new food in a nice, clean, inviting place.

Excellent
We ordered three different dishes
And they were incredible!
Shrimp Pad Tai
Crispy Tifu w Vegetables
#5 Lemongrass Tofu
They are half the price of the Thai
Restaurant 3 doors away and carry many
Thai dishes.
We’ll come back

I live in socal where there are plenty of excellent Vietnamese restaurants. I came here to visit my mom and she suggested we try this place. She said it’s under new ownership and the food is now good so I skeptically agreed.
I’m very glad we went there.
I had the fried quail in butter and the wonton noodle soup — both excellent.
Mom had the beef phở and said it was good, but not good as phở in California (which is hard to beat).
Stepdad said he usually gets the egg fried rice which he likes but wanted to try something new. He ordered some mushroom and vegetable plate and didn’t like it (he didn’t realize they would use shiitake mushrooms which were a little bitter to him).
5 stars for the Viet food being on par with some of my Socal places.
–1 star for the dislike of the shiitake mushrooms.
5 star service.
Hope this helps.

One server on duty on a Friday night. I understand that you can make more money if you maintain low operating costs, but this was absurd. $ 4 for 4 very meager, cream cheese based crab rangoon. Our food came out about 5 minutes after we ordered and was lukewarm. Lukewarm beef noodle soup is not my thing. By the way, the «beef» was a very suspicious looking cut. My soup lacked flavor. I had to add Sriracha and soy sauce. Service was painfully slow. My mouth was on fire for a good 20 minutes before I got a water refill. The worst part? Our server was unapologetic about the service! What tops it all off, we watched her spill sweet and sour into a woman’s purse and walk away without saying anything! A couple minutes passed until the woman noticed and the server acted surprised and got her napkins. We watched her spill it and look at the mess she made and intentionally ignore it! This place is a train wreck!

I’ve been to this place quite a few times and never been disappointed. The Phở is solid. Don’t skip this place just because you live in Missouri and have never had Vietnamese food before.

It’s good Vietnemese cuisine. I always come here to get my phở (noodle soup) or bun (noodle bowl) fix in, when I’m in COMO.

The owner has changed. We ordered three dishes, and waited for 20 minutes for the first dish to come up. And then it took another 30 minutes for the second one (not until we asked for it). I ordered Phở, but came up a really weird noodle. And the third dish never came. The waitress was so unaware of what she’s doing. She didn’t know what dish was what, and which table ordered what. This was such a bad experience. The ex-​owner operated the restaurant much better.

The food is a bit unique from my usual Vietnamese restaurant back at home in Florida but is outstanding. I highly recommend this if you like Vietnamese and southeast Asian cuisine.

The food is good especially bun bo hue. Being a Vietnamese, I’m a huge fan of bun bo hue and I am very impressed by the quality of their Vietnamese food in the middle of Missouri. Definitely check it our if you want good Vietnamese food in CoMo.

This place is pretty good for Missouri. I am from Cali and have tried different Vietnamese places. This place was good and satisfied my craving for phở. I was happy. :) I need to go back!