NVM Review

By Warren Rojas

Even those who think they’ve sampled the full scope of Vietnamese dining are likely to find at least a few uncovered gems at Saigon Café, a neighborhood retreat specializing in central Vietnamese cuisine.

Co-owners Phuc Le and Tien Nguyen relocated directly across from the area’s de facto Vietnamese shopping and dining mecca, Eden Center, in 2007, after building up a devoted client base in western Fairfax. Their updated restaurant is modestly decorated (decorative bamboo dividers, rattan light fixtures, plain wooden tables) but perfectly inviting.

The crowd appears to tilt heavily toward native speakers—were it not for the youngish Asian couple chatting away in English about their favorite films, every word I heard during one trip would have been Vietnamese—and Le assured me that they see new faces all the time.

The menu is stocked with dishes from the Hue province, including delicacies like mixed seafood salads, steamed rice cakes and exotic pates. The restaurant also offers two-, four- and six-person family-style meals for those who enjoy sharing plates and sampling freely with everyone else around the table.

Le suggested that first-time guests acclimate themselves to the central Vietnamese palate by starting with their signature rice cakes (doughy coins usually sprinkled with shrimp flakes), crispy mixed-protein rolls (bite-sized wraps stuffed with minced pork, sausage, assorted seafood), jackfruit salads (greens and meats mixed with the tropical, sweetish fruit) or grape leaf-wrapped ground beef.

Meanwhile, he recommended that seasoned gourmands indulge in familiar “shaken” beef (peppery cubes of fish sauce-soaked meat), a caramelized catfish creation—“It has been very well received,” he said of their clay-pot offering—or their papaya-and-shrimp salad (substantial yet refreshing).

Would that some of the overly suspicious servers were as obliging.

During one visit, a server actively campaigned against our ordering certain traditional dishes—“You Americans, you eat Mexican food and think it’s spicy. You not like this,” the well-meaning but misguided server warned—before we finally convinced him that our motley crew did, in fact, know what we were getting ourselves into (we didn’t, but experimentation is certainly the customer’s prerogative).

House rice cakes are paired with any number of culinary curiosities, including pressed shrimp patties (obligatory “safe” option), pickled ham rolls (zesty from start to finish) and peppered pork (well-spiced swine). Otherwise blasé ground-beef wraps are propped up by a thick, peanut-driven sauce.

A combination salad built around crunchy lotus root (tuber-like flesh fills every forkful) is as fresh as a spring morning, showcasing shaved carrots, basil, crushed nuts, sliced pork and shrimp doused in a sweet chili-lime sauce.

Grilled shrimp skewered on sugar cane are par for the course; grilled pork kebabs and specialty pork balls are better.