Restaurant review
Shrimp spring rolls, savory phở, outstanding coffee: See you at Saigon Baguette | Restaurant review
By Lyn Dowling • 15 March 2024
Not a lot has been said about Saigon Baguette since it opened seven months ago, and that’s a shame because the place deserves its share of attention.
It is small and unpretentious, fast-casual, with chairs and bench seating along one of its walls. The menu is what you would expect: bánh mi, phở, dumplings, croissants, spring rolls and so forth, plus a slew of beverage choices and three cases of desserts and Vietnamese specialties. You order and the food comes quickly, with great congeniality.
We selected a little bit of most of it: spring rolls ($7.95), chicken phở ($13.95), dumplings ($8.95), pork bánh mi and grilled chicken bao buns ($11.95).
Best first: The shrimp spring rolls excelled in every way in flavor and texture. The wrapper was tender; the vegetables, crisp; and the shrimp, fresh, solid and sizeable in comparison to some others we’ve had. At no point were the individual flavors lost, and together they were terrific. The rolls alone are worth the visit.
This is not to say that anything else about the meal was poor. Steamed dumplings were as they should be and of the right size, with none of that too-frequent aftertaste. You also didn’t have to guess about the filling, minced chicken.
Food writer Lyn Dowling, on Saigon Baguette: “Best first: The shrimp spring rolls excelled in every way in flavor and texture.”
Food writer Lyn Dowling says that dumplings at Saigon Baguette, during a recent visit, were “as they should be and of the right size, with none of that too-frequent aftertaste”
You pretty much know what you’ll get when you order phở: a gigantic bowl of broth, noodles meat and vegetables with cilantro, bean sprouts and other delights to be added.
My dining companion gets it every time, and he proclaimed this, like the spring rolls, the best of the lot. The noodles clearly were newly made, the broth was fragrant and clear and full of chicken flavor, possibly because of the amount of fowl it contained. Everything about it was grand, a dish that was at once substantial and delicate.
If we found anything about the meal lacking, it was the bao, the meat in which was spicily delicious. The buns, on the other hand, seemed a bit drier than the norm. Perhaps they’d been left out too long? Nothing certain there but based on the quality of the rest of the meal, we’d bet that was not the norm.
If you dine at a Vietnamese restaurant, you must try a couple of specialty beverages, and my dining companion had mango passionfruit tea with boba ($8.55) and loved it. Sweet? Yes. Refreshing? Oh, yeah.
The sandwich may have provided the biggest surprise because the dining companion who ordered it didn’t realize she liked Vietnamese food before she ordered it. The baguette was superior, with a crisp exterior and soft inside, proof that Saigon Baguette is well-named. These people operate one fine bakery.
Said roll was stuffed full of layers of far more sliced, marinated pork than expected and more of those lovely vegetables, which added up to a slightly crunchy, slightly savory (but not terribly spicy) sandwich. Yes, the pork could have been a little hotter, but overall, it proved a revelation. She who ordered it is among the converted.
Food writer Lyn Dowling, on the phở at Saigon Baguette: “Everything about it was grand, a dish that was at once substantial and delicate.Everything about it was grand, a dish that was at once substantial and delicate.”
Saigon Baguette is at 765 N. Wickham Road, Melbourne.
I, on the other hand, ordered Vietnamese iced coffee ($6), and it was truly outstanding, with good strong coffee, enough condensed milk to make it sweet and a lot of ice. I downed it. The brain freeze was my fault, but there are few better ways to get it.
Problems? None, really, though it would be grand had not boxes been stacked on the way to the restrooms, a bête noire of one of my dining companions.
That’s it. I’ll be back for the spring rolls and a gallon or two of coffee. See you at Saigon Baguette.