Review: Saigon Vietnamese Cafe
A large selection of food from the lunch menu
Not more than a three-minute walk from Liden & Denz Moscow is Saigon (Сайгон), a Vietnamese cafe that offers great value and decent food. Especially popular with people that work in the area, their business lunch menu offers filling, simple dishes for low prices. For a mere 270 roubles you can get a soup, a salad, a main with a side of either rice, noodles or mash (don’t ask me why mash is an option), and a drink. The mains are different on each weekday, though there is always a choice of three, whilst the à la carte menu has a wide range of meat, fish and vegetable dishes, desserts and garnishes. One particularly extravagant meal I saw being brought out was a whole fish of some sort, roasted and served with vegetables.
Pho soup and beef salad
On my trips to Saigon, I have tried the lunch menu, as it is the perfect meal to fill you up after class, before setting off to do some sightseeing in the city. I would recommend the salad with beef, as well as both the Pho and chicken soups. Tuesdays offer the most interesting selection of mains: pork cuts, battered chicken or Vietnamese spring rolls. The business lunch menu may not have the largest portions or be the most extravagant cooking, but it is tasty and quick and won’t hear complaints from me. I hope to go and try a larger range of dishes on their menu at some point, but should you beat me to it, Saigon can be found at 39 Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Ulitsa, more or less on Tishinskaya Square (Улица Большая Грузинская, Дом 39, напротив памятника «Дружба навеки» на Тишинской площади). See you there for lunch!
Visit http://cafesaigonnew.ru for more information on the menu and location.
Ellie, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz Moscow
