Saigon Bistro and Grill

I see why this place closed down…
Food was ok…
I also worked here… work condition was horrendous… thought I was in a sweat factory or some thing… mean, mean owner… its an understatement… very, very high turn over. We were constantly belittled so the owner could feel superior.
(I am writing this to let people know what happened to me and many other workers).
Hasta la vista baby!

We went to eat dinner tonight and realized it was the Grand Opening. Apparently, they are under new ownership.
The interior is the same and the menu is almost the same except for one item that is going to be sorely missed… the Vietnamese Fish Sauce Chicken Wings. So sad. The phở is still good. The Thang Long Grilled Fish and the Pan Fried Wide Rice Noodles with Chicken were excellent as well.
Anyhow, other than that, it is pretty much the same. The new management and servers need to get into a groove but they should be fine after that if they keep it up.
Main suggestion… bring the Chicken Wings back.

I’ve stopped in here a few times for some pork vermicelli. My favorite. Extremely fast and efficient service and very fair pricing.
One of the more serious Vietnamese restaurants I’ve been to since I moved south so I typically stick with this joint.

I love the phở here !!! Wow this place is truly amazing. The atmosphere of this restaurant is elegant & the bar is definitely great for a casual drink. Food here is well priced & better then most expensive restaurants. I can’t wait to visit here again. Very rare that I give a five star, this one is well deserved. The nicest phở place I’ve ever been to hands down!

Weekly gathering of ladies’ lunch on Veterans day to this place was very unpleasant.
Food was pretty good. But the service was extremely poor. They were slow, rude and down right nasty. A few simple requests, like asking for utensils, were met with irritated expression. We will NOT be visiting this establishment again nor recommend to anyone.

Nothing atrocious, nothing stood out, nothing amazing.
Just regular ol’ asian food. Lacked flavor and seasoning. I really wanted vietnamese flavors, reminded me more of a chinese restaurant. Nice people. Décor is kinda fancy for a vietnamese simple restaurant.

Have you tried this place yet? Well, you should if you like Vietnamese food. You might want to come back to try other dishes because everything simply taste amazing! I like that the people there seem to care their food a lot. Everything tasted fresh and… I have to say, clean (no MSG). The clay pot rice was my favorite. Phở was delicious. Spring rolls and egg rolls were perfect. They have nice drink menus, too, including teas, which I personally appreciate so much. Their ‘ginger tea’ came with a real slice of ginger infused in the cup. Very nice touch, I love that.
Different wait stuffs took care of our table and everyone was very nice and warm, also very efficient.
The highlight of our last visit for me was the mango mouse cake… omg it was amazing! The owner (I think) explained to us that we should have the first bite with a piece of strawberries on the side. He gave me more strawberries since he saw me loving it so much. three of us shared one cake, but I could have eat the whole thing by my self!
For some reason this place is not very crowded and we get seated right away. I like that we don’t have to wait like other restaurants in the same plaza.
We will definitely be back!

Vietnamese girl that moved from San Jose to San Diego, 6 months ago.
Since I’ve been down here, I’ve been on the hunt for somewhere that makes phở ap chao don (deep fried phở). Everywhere that made it here, made it soft. Nobody made it crispy… that was until our real estate agent told us about Saigon Bistro and Grill.
Very nice, upscale Vietnamese restaurant, specializing in north Vietnamese dishes.
Very good service, and even better, great prices as well!
The phở ap chao bo was one of the best I’ve had. Perfect crispy outside, chewy center, and the meat was soft and tender.
We also ordered the bo tai chanh which had a really good flavor.
And of course, the cha ca thanh long, which was delicious as well.
We also tried one of their nem nuong cuon’s since they said they make their nem there from scratch every morning, not from frozen. It was just ok for me. Maybe if they put more meat, and had a different dipping sauce.
Overall, this is my favorite, North Vietnamese restaurant we’ve found down here. I’ll be adding this to our dinner rotation. I want to try everything else on their menu if I could just get past having to order the perfect phở ap chao every time!

Delicious filet mignon Phở –always very fresh and no visible fat on either the meat or the broth. Every thing I’ve had tastes wonderful (spring rolls, phở, saigon cubed filet, lemongrass chicken). The service by the owner/​chef and other staff is beyond amazing as well. There is plenty of parking in the shopping mall and the restaurant is clean and quiet.

My favorite phở restaurant. Such great Thai tea with boba — best I have ever had. Get the spring rolls with the peanut sauce! Phở soup is so good. But the service is best of all!

I live in the San Gabriel Valley (city of San Gabriel) where I am surrounded by highly rated authentic Vietnamese food, Golden Deli, being of them. I was on vacation in Rancho Bernardo & was in need of an Asian fix. So based on the Unilocal reviews, decided to give this place a try, fully didn’t expect them exceed my expectation. Boy, was I surprised.
Went on a Wed night around 7 pm with a party of 8, was promptly greeted by owner and staff. Did a family style dinner with the following dishes:
1) Vietnamese Hot Wings. Perfection. Crispy chicken wings, lightly covered in a sweet & spicy sauce. Sauce is made from pure honey. It’s a great way to start your meal.
2) chicken and shrimp egg rolls. Love it. Always enjoy eating this wrapped in lettuce and readily available fish sauce.
3) grilled tiger shrimp mango salad. I can eat this all by myself. The mango was the perfect texture in taste and firmness. Shrimp was huge and the flavors all so great
4) Thang Long Grilled Fish. Must order! Filet was cooked just right with no dryness. The veggies that come with it makes it so much better. Keeper & signature dish
5) Bo Luc Lac. Filet Magnon beef cubes. No words. Necessary. It’s good, trust me!
6) Hanoi Grilled Pork with Vermicelli in special sauce. Meat was so juicy & tasty. Love the vermicelli, not sure what’s in the secret sauce, but I am not complaining.
7) flat rice noodles with beef. Nom nom nom.
Also had 2 Lucky Buddha beers too! Bill was $ 94. Cheap And good.
Every single dish was divine. Appreciate the service attitude from everyone.
Go & try this place. I think you will be surprised and ever sooooo good.

Got take out from here for the office and everyone loved it! lots of good options and yummy food. I got the spicy beef with vermicelli noodles and at first it looked like not enough beef but. it def was… very very good and the beef is well made and tasty. Looking forward to trying again soon!

Honestly one of the best Vietnamese restaurants i’ve been to (and i’m Vietnamese so i’ve been to A LOT OF THEM haha.) I went here once a while ago and we were told that there was a change in ownership and in my opinion it was for the better! We had such excellent service the entire time we were there. Lets get down to the food though, we ordered a bunch of different dishes and all shared it family style.
1) Bun Cha Hanoi– its a vermicelli dish that’s served up a little different then the other vermicelli dishes. Its grilled pork and these delicious meatballs in their house fish sauce. This is one of my go-​to orders in a lot of Vietnamese places and they do it very well here
2) Hu Tieu Ap Chao– this one is a flat/​wide rice noodle that I believe the deep fry to a crisp and comes with stir fried veggies and your choice of meat. Not a lot of places make this so its a must try. It was good… but ive had better.
3) *Bo Luc Lac (grilled filet mignon) — A French inspired Vietnamese dish, the filet mignon is cubed and cooked at a high heat to get a nice sear and color on the outside yet keep it tender inside. One of the best places I’ve ever had this dish. The garlic butter rice was really good with it
4) *Cha Ca Thang Long– its a grilled fish dish that is served on one of those fajita plates so it comes out sizzling still. To tell you the truth, I have never cared for this anywhere I’ve ever had it ever since I was a kid. I gave it a try here and I must say it was the BEST thing I ate that night. The fish was seasoned and cooked perfectly, it was so delicious.
5) *Chicken Wings– SO GOOD, tastes almost like how we make it at home. Fried to a crisp and tossed in a slightly sweet tangy sauce
6) Calamari– I thought it was really good but my brother didn’t really care for it, but I guess that is probably biased since he is not a big fan of seafood
7) *Grilled Beef Mango Salad– it was so light and refreshing. Very different from any other Asian style salad ive ever had before. The mango was slightly sweet, slightly tart and all the ingredients played so well with each other.
SUCH A LONG REVIEW, but I hope it was helpful and you give this place a try. I starred the ones I think are the must haves. Enjoy!

Saigon Bistro & Grill is the Word in Vietnamese Cuisine!
This place has got to be the best Vietnamese restaurant that I have ever eaten tasty food at in Rancho Bernardo, CA and maybe in all of San Diego!
Let me explain why:
Lunch Special Price is beyond reasonable for what you get. I had the Pan Seared Fish with Vermicelli with Asian herb; this is a very healthy size portion with, fresh lettuce, vermicelli noodles, sprouts, fish sauce, and small cup of soup for $ 8. The fish is succulently seared to perfection. I want to know how they do that and what flavorings they used. It’s not breaded, but something very different that I haven’t experienced before.
I have been there over ten times with my lady friend and she absolutely loves this place. She had the same thing I had except for fish, she had shrimp. That’s saying something as she can be picky, but she votes this as her favorite as I do too! The shrimp were exceptionally large and deliciously grilled to perfection without being overcooked and tough and chewy… The Shrimp are large and huge right from the deep Ocean. Not one of those little frozen shrimp that shrivel up when you cook them and not from a Costco or whatever frozen bag of shrimp. FRESH. They taste like they have been slightly marinated in fresh lime juice. Again Perfection!
This place is clean and the service has always been spot on when we have been there… well ok… once the service was a little slow because there was only one waiter for the whole place. I guess someone called in sick that day. The waitress explained what happened and apologize for the delay. Stuff like that happens, so I waived that off, because the food still tasted flavorful as before.
Not that the tables have anything to do with how the food tastes, but the ambience of having a linen table cloth with glass covering the linen fits my style. It looks sexy and clean and allows for me not to feel bad when I happen to miss feed my mouth… as I eat with chopsticks and sometimes I miss fire my aim to my mouth. I love when Asian restaurants have the finer made chop sticks and not the ones made out of wood, a nice solid black chopstick, made for good shoveling of food in my mouth.
Their daily lunch specials menu (11:am to 3: pm) on their web page doesn’t match the current lunch specials at all. It says the price and menu items are subject to change without notice. Check out the pictures that I took of the lunch special menu to get an idea on what are the special dishes. All of the current lunch prices are $ 8 expect one is $ 7. The kind of soup that comes with the lunch changes daily and is totally random of what you can expect. I haven’t been disappointed yet on that very flavorful soup, the one that I liked the best though, was the carrot soup. It had a very smooth creamy taste with hint flavoring of carrots in it. It was white in color. Exquisite!
Seriously, this place is a great addition to the Rancho Bernardo area because if this place was in Hillcrest, Bankers Hill, Encinitas, Carlsbad, or LaJolla the prices would be more and I would imagine, it would be packed everyday. Try it for lunch if you can to sample some of the dinner items. I doubt if you will be disappointed.
I was introduced to Lucky Buddha beer there. This beer comes in a green bottle that looks like Buddha. Never heard of this before. Btw the beer is very good. Lucky Buddha Beer is owned by the Lucky Drink Company in Australia, they brewed and bottled it at the Thousand Island Lake in China fusing the finest quality malt, hops, rice and water from this pristine region delivering an Asian style lager that is truly an enlightened brew.
After looking at the bottle, I told the guys there, «Count me in I am having it.»
The waiter Anthony suggested that I could use the bottle for an incense holder, so I took the empty bottle home and unfortunately the bottle is too tall for an incense holder, but it was fun to try it. Haha! Ladies & Gentlemen, check out my pictures of that bottle. The beer claims to make you enlightened, I don’t know about that but it is an excellent tasting Asian beer.
This place has class, like Cary Grant written all over the place. They do the little things right, and I am so happy it is in my neighborhood. I highly recommend this to anyone who doubted that there aren’t some great restaurants hidden in the murky– car-​ridden shopping centers of yesteryear!
So meet the moment and check out this place!

Quick late lunch after a good hike in RB.
Sunday at 4pm — empty as we walked in. We were the only customers for awhile.
Customer service:
Instantly greeted and they have daily specials posted up front.
Friendly fast service — Just the way I like it !
Setting:
More of an upscale restaurant. We weren’t dressed up, but this could be a potential romantic date spot. Piano music in the background was a nice touch as well.
A separate bar is available.
We opted for the dining room and got window seating which had a view of a water fountain out front.
Menu:
Vegetarian section available — WOOHOO !!!
Stir Fried Mixed Vegetables w/​Tofu and brown rice– Freshly made and still piping hot. The dish was simple and light. Flavors were not overpowering and there was a generours amount of tofu. Brown rice was cooked perfectly, but it seemed like there was a bit of a language barrier when I requested for this. It seemed like they didn’t have any, but came back out saying that only my dish can be made with brown rice. They had to confirm with the chef. I think every asian establishment should have brown rice. Come on now.
Rice in Clay Pot — Rice cooked in clay pot with chicken, Shitake mushroom, Lily flower & ginger. Nice presentation in a clay pot. Piping hot as well !! Bf loved the hot sauce provided with the dish and enjoyed it thoroughly. He liked the HEAT !
I hear they don’t cook with MSG and have vegetarian phở. Mmm. I might come back for that on a chilly day.
Nothing out of this world type experience, but still pleasant. 3.5 STARS !

Probably my favorite RB phở restaurant! Very nice décor inside. Family run pretty good all around phở place.
Every time I get good service with a smile. Good steak or vegetarian dishes. I like their bbq pork spring rolls!
Happy eating!

It’s located in a small strip mall off of Rancho Bernardo (look for the Coco’s in the plaza on your right hand side, a few lights down the freeway). The restaurant is tucked away in the armpit of the plaza away from CVS (not very visible from the lot). I’ve been here a couple of times now — one time verified by the Vietnamese mother-​in-​law, and we’ve been pleased with the food each time we came. I would best describe this as «fancy» Vietnamese dining — where most Vietnamese restaurants are your quick run in and get phở within 5 minutes and get out.
On our most recent visit, we had the opportunity to explore the menu a little better. A few of the dishes we had:
(1) Stuffed Escargot — c Nhi Lá Gng: Escargot meatballs with ginger: Tasty dish. It’s essentially a seafood meatball, presented in the escargot shell. Good sized meatballs with a light buttery flavor. You can taste the pieces of escargot minced in the mixture.
(2) Fried Calamari — Mc Rang Mui: Salt and pepper crispy squids: Very tasty and the squid wasn’t super chewy — indicating its freshness. They were long strips of calamari with a light breading, sauteed with peppers and onion. Lots of flavor and very tasty with the dipping sauce.
(3) Grilled Shrimp Mango Salad — Gi Xoài Bò hoc Tôm Nng: Grilled rib-​eye beef or shrimp with mango, green apple, basil in vinaigrette sauce: This was a refreshing salad with lots of fruit and a light vinegar based dressing. The shrimp was well seasoned and grilled. Paired nicely with the salad.
(4) Thang Long Grilled Fish — Ch Cá Thăng Long: Thang Long style sizzling fish in hot plate, flavored with baby dill, shallots & Asian herbs: I’m a huge fan of fish, and the fish in this entrée was very soft and flavorful. If you are unfamiliar with this specialty dish, you are supposed to put a little bit of the rice noodle, tear up some of greens, dress lightly with the shrimp paste (brown sauce) and add chunks of fish and onion to the mixture. The fish was super yummy~ just wish there was more of it!
(5) Grilled Filet Mignon Steak — Bò Filet Nng: 8oz. Filet Mignon steak served with buttered garlic rice & salad: Not sure if this is the correct dish listed on the menu. We ate bo luc lac (which is essentially the same but cubed filet mignon). Very tasty, especially when you dip the pieces of meat into the salt/​pepper/​lemon mixture. Good chunks of meat and lots of grilled onions.
Overall, the flavors of the dishes were there. Very tasty overall. The prices are a bit high in my opinion, but again — it’s «fancy» Vietnamese cuisine. You can definitely find the same dishes (but slightly lower quality) at other restaurants for a lower price. Definitely not in an area local to Rancho B. This somewhat justifies the cost, since quality and presentation are higher.
If I had a business lunch where Vietnamese was the preferred cuisine, this would be a good place to go. Good food, fair prices, good quality. Service was great when we were there, and they seem to accommodate larger parties (there was a neighboring group of 9 folks). Client population at the restaurant seemed representative of the are — not of the food, which usually would be a minus in my book (i.e. not a lot of Vietnamese folks eating there) but it’s understandable and excusable here.
Recommended and would likely return. Pretty tasty — definitely get the fish!

This restaurant is a hidden gem. I only came across this place when searching for Vietnamese food on Unilocal around Rancho PQ/​Rancho bernardo area.
This is a great place to go on a date, catch up with friends, or take your family out for dinner. They are never too packed so seats are always available. Big for small or big groups.
The food quality here is better than your average Vietnamese restaurant.
Always made fresh, always hot, and always great presentation.
FOOD:
Pan Fried Flat Rice Noodles w/​Shrimp, Beef, Chicken & Veggie (Crispy or Soft)
HTiu Áp Cho Thp Cm (Dòn hoc Mm) 11.95÷10.95
My absolute favorite dish here ! I love the crispy noodles and the flavorful but light creamy sauce they pour over it. Goes really well with the meats and veggies.
Pan Seared Cubed Filet Mignon & Butter Garlic Rice — Cm Bò Lúc Lc 12.95
Another great dish. The filet mignon cubes are super tender and melt in your mouth. The garlic butter rice comes with tons of flavor and goes well together.
Overall, they offer all the varieties of great vietnamese cuisine.

So me and a couple friends stopped by here last night after attempting mount Woodson. I saw this place on Unilocal and saw that they had Thang Long grilled fish and I knew I just had to try it. There’s this place in Santana that had this on the menu and they make it really well over there so I just had to come check this place out and see if it’s just as good. It’s a bit pricy: 14.95 but it’s understandable. The fish came out, sizzling and smelling good but the size of the fish wasn’t that great. They cut it into pieces but I feel like there should have been more compared to the other place. The onions were a bit too thick. However, the taste was amazing. It tasted just like the place in Santana.
Unfortunately, when I had asked for vermicelli noodles, the waiter told me it was going to cost me $ 1.50 more and I was put off by that. They barely gave me any noodles in the first place.
This restaurant is a bit pricy and the portions are kind of small.
The location is kind of hidden so you may take a while finding this place. When we first looked inside, no one was in there which was a bit surprising.
Overall, if you’re going to come here, understand that you may be paying for something you could get cheaper somewhere else.

Very tasty, I must say!
I had the Vietnamese shaken beef with broken rice (com bo luc lac) while my friend had the current special, egg noodle in a satay sauce with rare steak. The shaken beef was very succulent and tender. Served on a large helping of rice and veggies, I inhaled the entire dish.
We came on a holiday and I will admit that the service was slower than normal. The wait staff were apologetic, but made sure our waters were never empty. The prices are very fair, despite it’s more luxurious interior. It’s more of a family restaurant with a variety of dishes rather than your average phở restaurant.