Saigon Kitchen

I've been coming here recently when I work in Nanaimo, Ver authentic Vietnamese cuisine. The food is good here and portion sizes are decent. The people who work here are friendly. 10/10 would come again.

An absolute gem in Nanaimo!

upon the recommendation of a very good buddy, on my way to tofino, i passed by nanaimo for a hearty lunch in this family owned Vietnamese restaurant.

Staff and owner very hospitable and welcoming! never in my wildest imagination did i expect to find excellent Vietnamese food the city of Nanaimo.

this restaurant puts many Vancouver restaurants to shame. Their level of dedication to their craft is admirable and impressive.

For appys...We started with fried wontons and the beef roll. My on my, the wontons were crispy-liciously goood! They were not your typical chinese fried wontons...the wrapper is paper thin and had a yellowish colour. And its because they used the spring roll wrapper to make
It, making it super extra crispy.
The pork filling was hot and juicy. Seasoned perfextly
With a touch of cumin. One bite, and you will be in wonton heaven.

the beef roll was truly a unique masterpiece. Whoever thought of putting a friend spring roll inside a salad roll and enveloping it with grill beef is a total genius!! You get a plethora of different textures and flavour profiles.

With every bite, you get crunchiness of the spring roll, smokiness of the grilled beef, green leafy vegetables, and juiciness of the pork filling...all rolled into 1 roll! How could you possibly go wrong? Its a masterpiece like that of the mona lisa!

We also tried the beef curry. Succulent pieces of beef slowly simmered rich thai curry sauce, Complimented by soft jasmine rice. Not a vietnamese dish, but executed with perfection.
Curry was rich and robust. Quality coconut
Milk and curry paste was used.

Now..unto the pho!!! the ultimate test of an excellent Vietnamese restaurant is the PHO. More specifically, the PHO Broth! the PHo here is nothing short of spectacular! You can tell bec of 3 important factors. One, the aroma. Two, the clarity of the soup ( aka i how clear is it). And three, the taste! ( how deep the beef essence is!) This place exceeded expectations and passed with full flying colours! One sip of the broth, reminded me of vietnam. It was absolutely amazing! Head and shoulders above many restaurants in vancouver. Plus, no msg was used. We never felt
Thirsty or craving tea. I could tell there was a lot of time, labour, and love invested into making the broth. No shortcuts! Just sheer excellence from chef.

I feel very blessed to have been a patron of such fine vietnamese cuisine. Definitely a must try when in the city of Nanaimo.

Service was quick and efficient.

Will i repeat? As many times as i can! ;)

Cheers! Happy eating!

Jay and Linda have grown a faithful clientele by providing fantastic service and awesome food. Highly recommend the crepe. Pho is delicious all the time.

I ordered a banh xeo and it was quite a disappointment. It was gigantic but was 80% bean sprouts with little sprinkles of chicken. The prawns were only placed on one half of the pancake leaving the other side empty. This is definitely not worth $19, considering a bowl of vermicelli with a lemon grass chicken and springroll costs less.

Best pho broth in the city of Nanaimo habds down. Quality food and quality service where they actually care for the customer. Look no further.

When my colleagues and I were first trying to decide where to go eat, we received high recommendations about Saigon Kitchen. I was surprised to see that they had a 5 star rating, and I knew I had to see for myself how good this place was.

Oh. My. Goodness. I have not laughed this hard while interacting with staff at a restaurant in a very long time! The staff and chefs there were absolutely wonderful, not to mention funny and considerate.

Customer Service: One of my colleagues had been peering into the kitchen to watch the chefs cook when one of them approached him and offered their chef hat to him and asked if he wanted to go back there -- and if he did, he'd have to cook.

After some lighthearted bantering, the hat was returned, but what cracked us up was how observant the staff there was, as a few of the hosts and waiters approached my colleague and said "hi chef" to him. It was brilliant, to say the least.

Food: we ordered the Seafood Caramel, Seafood Hot Pot, Vegetarian Salad Roll, and the Vegetarian Chow Mein. Everything was absolutely delicious!

The peanut sauce that came with the salad roll contained meat products, and the waitress mentioned it to me so we were able to swap it out for a sweet plum sauce. I really appreciated that, as I would not have enjoyed getting sick.

My colleagues who ordered seafood dishes both enjoyed their dinner. We definitely understand why Saigon Kitchen has a 5/5 star rating.

Things to note: if you're from out of town and you're driving over, the street to turn onto from the highway is literally right after you cross the intersection, so heads up and don't be surprised if you miss it at first turn. The restaurant can get very busy, so if you know you'll be going there for dinner, I highly recommend you call in advance to book a reservation so you can be guaranteed a table -- many of their regulars do this.

I'd definitely come back again!

Popular spot. Tables were all full. Traditional Vietnamese food. Went for Pho takeout and wasn't disappointed.

It was close to our hotel so we were able to walk which was a bonus. Lucky we had mapquest since it is tucked away. Friendly staff, the food was tasty and hot. We had beef roll, the beef stew and the chicken with caramel sauce.

The best, most authentic pho in town. The spring rolls are also incredible. Saigon Kitchen is one of my absolute favourite restaurants in Nanaimo!

Thanks a bunch Ray!! What an awesome meal and experience :) Ray absolutely spoiled us! My kids (Dilynn and Riley) said it should be given 10 stars and we agree! Portions were great and flavour was amazing with every dish. Maybe one day we will move to the island but for now we will definitely recommend EVERYONE we know to stop and eat here. The deep fried wontons and deep fried bananas with ice cream is to die for! Best Vietnamese food we've had by far!!