Saigon Rose

Location: 86 Victoria Street, Richmond

We got ourselves better organised this week, by looking up cheap eats, to make a booking. It’s a pity Morgan wrote down the incorrect address and we were half an hour late.

In choosing a restaurant this week we decided to go with Vietnamese. Victoria St in Richmond is the place to go for good Vietnamese food, so we chose a popular restaurant called Saigon Rose. The adults and the children had very different opinions about the food which is why we’ve given this one two ratings – children and adults.

Service
On a Saturday night Saigon Rose was packed and noisy. To get mum’s attention Lauren had to yell across the table. The service was slow at the start but sped up after the entree, which was a relief.


Food
Our entrees got off to a disappointing start with the classic Vietnamese pancakes. At our favorite Marrickville restaurant, the pancakes are crisp and full of crunchy bean sprouts and a generous serving of chicken and prawns. These were floppy and the filling was not generous and generally tired. Things then picked up with our second entrée – chicken satay. We all agreed this was the most delicious chicken satay we’d ever eaten with just the right balance of flavor, spice and peanuts.

For our first main meal we had combination egg noodles, which Morgan, Lauren and Tori thought were great. Mark and Melinda weren’t as keen on this dish though we all agreed it was tasty and succulent.

Our next dish was a salt and pepper squid which was satisfying but not extremely delicious. The large chunks of fried squid were tender with a hint of chilli.

For our last dish we got roast duck with plum sauce, even though Melinda wanted the pork belly (Morgan’s favorite food is duck and if its on the menu the odds are we will be ordering it). The duck was tasty, heavily flavoured with star anise and cinnamon. The skin was deliciously crunchy and the sauce went well with it.

Value for money
This restaurant was great value at around $20 per head. We would give this one another go.

Rating

Kids 8/10
Adults 6.5/10