TL;DR: Vietnamese street food yet again - one of my favourite bites to get. Always wholesome, the portion sizes might vary but it is never the case that you leave with an empty stomach, and something about it tastes just so fresh. I furthermore can rest my case that these little eateries can do effective business on any side of town.
Outside of the basic aspects for why someone would recommend a place to eat, the unusual aspects that sometimes pop up are really what can drive traffic towards a place. One of them is an odd locale, and whether it is rain or shine a general sense of being cosy also contributes heaps. Those two aspects are right present in Urban Saigon, hidden in the suburban streets and right across the road from the nearby state school. A small, slightly intimate square of an eatery houses budget bites that won't leave you starving - something which proves good enough in my book.
A different turn of events had occurred one week. Out of the blue, on a Wednesday of all times, my house mate felt in the mood for going out to get a bite to eat for lunch. Recently it had been mostly breakfasts and rarely anything else unless a special occasion had occurred. Guess cravings do hit out of the blue at the odd times, and this was the case.
It took a bit of thinking back and forth, going for different ideas before he rested upon getting a banh mi. At first he thought of going just up the road to one that he relied upon, yet in the back of my mind I was still persistent. Staying within the southern area, a few different approaches to search terms brought right here up - and it hit a few agreeable notes. Showed it to the house mate, and off it was for a rare kind of lunch.
The whole place is really compact, and they manage to fit a table for around a dozen people inside without it feeling to cramped. They additionally have a couple of tables outside for al fresco dining, which is great when all the elements are right.
Service is about as simple and streamlined as it could get. What happens here is that you go in, place your order at the counter, then pay. After that, they will find you. This time, it is no need for a table number - there aren't too many tables, and these guys work at highly efficient speeds. There is not really any rhyme, reasons, or structure with what is brought out when - when it is ready, it appears on the table. Through and through, the service maintains a friendly aura which will certainly attract customers back - particularly school kids during those particular hours.
They keep it so simple with the menu here, that even the design becomes simple. Think of something much lower key, with the bright pictures being the guide on the menu. That is what they are like here, even having the eclectic selection to boot. The small selection gives you a couple of noodle soups, numerous dishes consisting of meat and rice, the beloved sandwiches, a few salads, plus some sides. Getting something to drink consists of the selection from the fridge, they have a small range of ready-to-make cold beverages that include iced tea and coffee.
As per the norm, I went to get the usual combination I seek from these places. The old sandwich and coffee. Let's say the first one was able to be fulfilled, but they were out of the needed ingredient for the second one (so ein Mist!). Never the less, to replace that I went with a taro milk tea. The banh mi this time was a pork patty one, and the requested was done to get it with heaps of chilli. For my housemate, the banh mi of choice was lemongrass chicken.
With the meats, the pork patty is delicious as always in finding a way to seal in the juices and get the spices into the flesh. It has a texture a bit like a sausage, which allows it to be pretty robust. The chicken was tender, and juicy. With the choice of lemongrass, it combined some sour notes with a spicy flavour that creates a distinct taste. These go well with the combinations of the sandwiches, which is aided but baguettes which are both buttery and crusty. It all becomes possible after that from the rich sauce poured within, a little like mayonnaise, and the dark sauce as well. Why these often are affordable with pocket money, something has to be going on somewhere ensuring it - and I would be okay with that.
Each of us got an extra on the side to spruce the meal up. Whomever ordered what doesn't matter now, as enough was present to be shared around. There was the prawn rice paper rolls, and some chicken spring rolls. Both of these were tasty unto themselves - the rice paper rolls having that unique freshness that gives them their character. The prawns inside were chunky and sweet, which was aided by a handful of fresh vegetables - coriander, carrot and such. They came with a rich dipping sauce that was based on hoisin. For a few dollar a pop, these suckers were fairly thick (think of a cigar, something about that breadth) and fill you up effectively.
Now we get onto the classical spring rolls, which more often than not are fairly forgettable. Bite into them, and what is supposedly there is hard to detect if it is present. This was an exception to that rule, since I definitely detected and tasted the chicken mince inside the hot pasty. They were served with sweet chilli sauce on the side.
Getting onto the beverage, when put into a milk tea taro has this really bizarre flavor that is not like anything else to compare. Relatively sweet, yet the notes tend to be on the astringent side. The texture is often pretty smooth, and the beverage is a rare purple colour. When the weather is hot and humid outside, this is a good drink to have. It might not be the flavour that I will initially go for above others, and in saying that there is not anything against it that I have. This is merely all about having preferences.
Once upon a time, Vietnamese to me was the elusive sort of cuisine that I'd only occasionally manage to get to and thus have not much understanding or knowledge of it. Since then, I have frequented so many of them - the brunt admittedly being banh mis. As a result, it has created a bar standard that really has become similarly high to the Japanese counterpart where everything is pretty much as it should be.
That was the case with Urban Saigon. It is a small, cute little square of a shop that is fairly random where it is situated and that adds to its charm. You are very much eating at something which is no frills and aims to deliver purely based on getting as high quality food as they can. In an ironic twist of the words, these end up being more recommendable than some of the finest eateries in the said cuisine. This is exactly the way to describe Urban Saigon.
Final rating: 4.0 - it is solid enough to be given a go, having nothing that will exactly detract it from being a good eat though nothing that really elevates it so much. In the end, merely some filling grub for a decent buck.
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