Saigon Jades – Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine

Meh. Ok. Service isn’t great. Too many other options to come here again. Better food and service at Phở Mignon :)

Location is ⁹⁄₁₀
Food is ⁹⁄₁₀
Service is ²⁄₁₀
I used to go here, but not anymore. I’m going to be blunt:
I really liked the atmosphere and food, but the service wasn’t very good at all. Not very friendly toward me. I’d say «thank you» and she would never say «you’re welcome.»
One time I stopped by a half hour before closing and she turned me away. I thought that was silly because the door was wide open, no other customers were there, and I take less than 30 minutes to eat and go.
If your business states that you’re open during the week at a certain hour you should still serve them during the time you’re open.
Food is great, but I feel unwelcome.

Consistently great food, and the owner has a knack for memorizing regular customers’ orders! I don’t even have to say a thing and she’ll know exactly what to prepare. Before I had a regular choice, I explored the menu quite a bit, and have never been disappointed, but the curry steam rice plate is definitely my favorite.

so so phở… if you compare to others, this one is not as flavorful. Been here twice and I think not eager to come back. The lady (most likely the owner) who is at the cashier and serve the customer has no smile and unfriendly, I feel more welcome at other Phở places with a more delicious phở… I don’t feel like wasting my time and money here.

I love this place. Is it a bastion of culinary excellence, with fine dining and a lovely atmosphere? Absolutely not. But it is delicious, fairly priced, reliably awesome, and the Lemongrass Chicken with Soy Chicken is freaking addictive. Love.

When I was in high school, Saigon Jades was the spot where all the cool kids would hang out. I miss those days. I never came here all that often, not because I wasn’t one of the cool kids, but because the location wasn’t convenient for me. I visited the restaurant again recently just to see how it had turned out after all these years. It still has that charm, and I would gladly support a small business like this.
The first thing that really impressed me on this most recent visit to Saigon Jades was the speed. I ordered an extra large bowl of their house special phở, and it was at my table three minutes later. It probably wasn’t that difficult for them since there were no other customers at the time and they most likely had a ton of excess soup left over. But when you’re hungry and service is quick, you come to really appreciate it.
Portions were also huge for this bowl, although that was suggested by it being extra large. Nevertheless, having a ton of food in front of you when you’re starving is also appreciated. The total for all this came to $ 11.59, which is a little on the high side, but definitely still manageable, and the food is certainly worth it.

Not the best phở or the worst. I had gotten the tofu and veggie phở. The soup was a little sweeter than i’m used to. I’m not sure if it was the msg or the carrots :/
Service was fast and close to workplace, so i can’t complain.

I enjoyed and appreciated the cozy, well-​maintained atmosphere that was filled with lots of little decorations here and there. The place was well-​lit, and we’d gotten in just before the rush hour so receiving our food was no problem. The owners were engaging and friendly.
I ordered the Beef Brisket phở. It was so-​so. Some other restaurants have a way of letting their brisket be juicy and easy to separate and it melts in your mouth when you eat it — this restaurant, unfortunately, provided brisket that looked someone made a sheet of meat paper and cut it up with scissors and dumped it in, it becoming overcooked in the process. The phở broth was rather bland and I had to dump a ton of sriracha and hoisin sauce in there to make up for it.
I would like to come back simply to try the other items on the menu of this place. I suspect there may be some dish that this restaurant has a flair with and the phở wasn’t it; but given that this is a Vietnamese restaurant, which should specialize in phở (don’t you think?) I really don’t know…
Was alright, not terrible, will try again in hopes of a better dish.

Not my favorite phở I’ve ever had, but its quick, cheap and great service!

While the noodles aren’t of great quality, this restaurant is a still a solid lunch choice when I need phở and quick. I do find the portion size a bit small for the price, but we are talking about downtown Kirkland. I’ve never had a problem getting a seat either.
The smoothies do leave something to be desired though…

A Laotian friend turned us on to Saigon Jades and now we go there regularly. The broth is aromatic, and if you ask for extra sprouts or what have you, they are very accommodating. I love the meatball and rare beef, and their dish of accompaniments always has beautiful basil, flawless beansprouts and plenty of jalapeño. My S.O. sometimes gets the BBQ pork phở (which is also good, perhaps a tad heavy on the shallot for me), and sometimes the cashew veggie dish with BBQ pork. The cashew stir fry is AWESOME and has great vegetables — bok choy, carrots, celery, peppers, onions, broccoli with a light garlicky-​hoison sauce.
We’ve tried a few other phở places for comparison but the broth just doesn’t seem to have the aromatics the way Saigon Jades does. I find myself craving their phở sometimes even a day or two after I’ve had it!
As for the service, it’s not bad, but it’s a mom and pop place so if it gets a little busy the servers are sometimes more businesslike rather than social. After a few regular visits they had our preferences down pat, and now we chat with Cindy, one of the owners a little. Really one of my favourite places I look forward to eating at almost every week.
I’ve seen a few people here say that it’s average to them but I love it; it’s not too salty, they don’t use MSG in their stir-​fries (I don’t know for sure about the phở — doesn’t seem to have that MSG punch though), and I’m a soup fiend so I can tend to get very particular, but Saigon Jades really satisfies that craving in me.
UPDATE: Sept 2014: Knocked it down by one star (hopefully temporary), because the last few times I was in the broth has tasted a bit thin, and it was difficult to find a clean table to sit at. There didn’t seem to be a charge for fish sauce, you just have to ask for it, so I removed it from my original review above.

Yesterday we decided to try this phở place since it was close to where we live. As soon as we entered, the host/​maybe owner wasn’t really friendly. In fact, when we walked in, she seemed surprised… she didn’t smile, but just showed us to our table, gave us our menu and walked away.
My husband and I just looked at each other and kind of shooked our heads. Anyways, he and I ordered 2 large house special phở so that we can share with our kids. The soup came out nearly 15 – 20 min, which we didn’t think it should since we were the ONLY ONE’s there, but it did…
When we finally got our noodle soup, we were asking for a pair of scissors since we wanted to cut the noodles for our kids to eat, and apparently, they don’t have scissors at all, so all she gave us was a butter knife.
Anyways, the noodle soup in itself, the broth was just «ok». the flavoring was kind of there, but we felt something was missing as far as the proportion – like the taste of some saltiness. normally, I always stay away from salt, but when I tried a spoonful of the broth prior to adding any spices, I actually had to add some salt since they don’t have fish sauce. For a large, my husband, noticed he barely had any brisket or steak, and when I gave him some of my meat, I was noticing, I didn’t have any left either, plus there were small pieces of tendons and tripe that wasn’t enough if you ordered a large.
Overall, it was a little disappointing, plus, I thought for a large or even their small size, they kind of overcharge on their prices. The «large bowl» they used looks like more of a small size and when I went up to pay, it was like almost $ 18, but it’s Kirkland. Of course, when I went up to pay, the host smiled at me… only because now she got my money.
I can’t say if the other dishes are good, but if we are desperate enough for some vietnamese food and don’t want to drive far, we may try to give this place another chance

This is one of my favorite restaurants in DT Kirkland.
Quick service, decent price and good taste for the phở.
I noticed they used nicer dinnerware and improved the food presentation lately. This is very smart move. Also adding soy chicken and other healthy food option is great. I saw more ladies or single diners eating there than any other place

This a very serviceable phở spot with a full menu on the east side of downtown Kirkland. It’s tucked in the back of Park Place, in the quietest corner. You can always get a table.
The menu isn’t the biggest of any Vietnamese place in town, but it holds its end up. They have a coterie of vermicelli bowls, some rolls and other apps, and a few other entrees, along with a good half page of phở options.
The dining room is definitely not aiming to break the budget – nor inflate your cost. Simple plastic tables and chairs with vinyl seat covers. It’s clean and brightly colored. There’s a ~23″ CRT TV above the cash register – they had the NBA Finals on during my visit.
The phở itself is fairly ho-​hum. A little on the tangy side, but thankfully not funky. The meat’s in good shape, the noodles are alright, nothing remarkable from top to bottom with the exception of the basil. The basil here is sharp and pungent.
The service is frazzled, and that might be the biggest demerit for the joint. Nervous, put-​upon, and stressed out. That might not be how it is all the time, though. We all have bad days.

Meh is my official review. Not the worst Phở I’ve ever had, but certainly not the best. The broth wasn’t that tasty, the noodles had a weird texture and the meat had a rubbery texture. However, they give you a ton of veggies, which is one of my bigger complaint with other places (why would you skimp on bean sprouts?) and my husband LOVED his skewers. We wanted to try the pork, but they were out so we got the chicken skewers and a chicken bahn, my husband was pleased.
So, while this isn’t the place I’d go to for Phở, it’s certainly good for their other menu items and it’d do in a Phở pinch.

This is one of my favorite places to eat Phở… I also love their grilled pork chops.
I have to say I am guilty of eating here atleast once a week!

I went here so excited to try a new Phở place and it was just okay. They were very nice, the food came out fast but the Phở Tai was just so so. I probably won’t be back even though it’s the closes Phở to my work.

The phở here always comes out phast and delicious.

Great prices, great food… or at least I love their eggroll bun.
If you love meat, their other chicken/​beef bun bowls are pretty awesome too.
Hard to find location tucked behind some trees.
Pretty fast service, although sometimes they can get packed with customers.
*** I tried a new dish!
House special friend rice with Shrimp/​Eggroll/​Choice meat.
Tastey! I love the light friend rice, and having a tidbit of the meats and eggroll is pretty awesome. It’s probably my new favorite dish. I’ve had the eggroll bun so much, I’m getting burnt out on it.

I have my Unilocal bakery conquest in hand, but I do have a second mission to find the best Vietnamese phở place on the Eastside. Thus far, I am seeing that most places are about the same. No place seems to stand out. The next place on my list to try was Saigon Jades at Kirkland Parkplace.
Parking is decent, though it may seem crowded and full. The location itself is kind of hidden off to the side. It is next to Starbucks, but away from the main row of shops. Perhaps that is why it was not as crowded or hectic as the last couple places I tried.
Anyway, the prices here are pretty similar, but maybe a pinch higher compared to the other places in Kirkland and Redmond I have tried. I went for the vermicelli special ($ 8.25) which consists of a pork egg roll, a shrimp skewer and a choice of a chicken or pork skewer. The wait here was not as long as the other places. It was under 10 minutes before it was ready which is quick.
The vermicelli was good, though it could have been a little warmer. The serving size was large which I liked. Everything tasted fine and good, but not outstanding in particular. Kind of ho hum. It is a bit farther away from work than Yummy Phở, that I would probably would only go here if I was in close proximity. Still, I would recommend Saigon Jades for a predictably good meal in downtown Kirkland.
Oh and one note that there is an additional surcharge of $.50 if the meal total is under $ 10. Didn’t use credit, so not sure how stringent on this they are.