KG Saigon

When I asked about good places in Winnipeg for Vietnamese food, this place actually was recommended to me as a place to avoid solely on the basis of customer service. After having eaten here, I just want to say that although the staffs focus on customer service is not what we Westerners might consider comparable with other establishments, it is not at all evidence of a business that doesn’t care about its patrons or its product. The food was excellent and I never felt like they did not care if I left feeling unsatisfied. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone with a hunger for good Vietnamese food.

my experiences here are on par with the first reviewer
i generally see how viet restaurants rank by their broth. my bowl of preference is bun bo hue. and the first time i ate at kg, i noticed the same thing about the broth being reused since the person i ate with had phở. their bun bo hue is merely phở broth with added chili oil to make it spicy. it’s not a horrible broth but it certainly is not on par with genuine vietnamese bowls. if you’re not an avid viet food person, it probably won’t matter much
i’ve also had the spring rolls. these are totally not right. they put way too much noodles in there, which i assume is to plump up the rolls. why not use real meat to plump up the size? not worth it
the good thing about them is that although not on the menu, you can order fried shrimp
overall, this is a dinky dinky place. the staff is friendly as it’s family owned but imo the only reason to come to this place is to merely fill your stomach

Anytime I try a new Vietnamese restaurant, my first order is always a bowl of «phở tai» which is phở with the rare beef that’s cooked in the soup and an iced coffee. Phở is the quintessential dish in Vietnamese cuisine so if a place serves bad phở, I can’t give them a second chance.
So the phở tai is $ 5.99 (#32), there’s only one size unlike other Vietnamese restaurants that provide a choice of small, medium or large. The bowl was about the size of a medium but content wise the noodle and beef portions were closer to what would be served in a small bowl. Portion size critiques aside, phở comes down to the broth. If the broth sucks and there’s no balance and depth of flavours, than it’s just crappy beef soup. I love phở so I was sooo disappointed with this one that I barely finished it. That’s a rare occurrence! It was a one note broth… no depth, no dimension of flavours. The vegetable platter that usually comes with phở was pretty sparse and not complete. There were some bean sprouts, a few Thai basils and a wedge of lime but I didn’t get any of those tiny super spicy chili peppers that usually appears on the plate.
I also tried the «bun bo hue» $ 5.99 (#35). So going from bad to worse, this was probably the worst version of bun bo hue that I have ever tasted. I don’t like to trash places but these are dishes that no real Vietnamese restaurant should fail in. But this one I guarantee was served with the same broth from the phở but with the added chili oil to make it spicy. Um, no, that is not bun bo hue! The real deal is made from a separate broth!!! I can tell it’s made from the same broth as the phở because it tastes exactly like the phở, the only difference is the spice level and the noodles used. Bun bo hue should NOT taste like phở — they are two difference dishes! For people who don’t eat Vietnamese food very often, you might not notice the nuances but for those who like authentic Vietnamese food with no shortcuts, I suggest you go elsewhere.
But I will give this place something. The iced coffee was really good — very strong coffee that had the perfect portion of condensed milk to mix with. The ice coffee was the one saving grace that swayed me from giving this place 1 star.
Décor is very sparse and basic. Service was nice. This place serves Vietnamese and Chinese food so maybe the Chinese dishes fare better? But if you’re a fan of phở, go elsewhere as there are many amazing Vietnamese places that serve great phở in the 2 km radius from this place.