Le Saigon has opened in the old premise of Louis Sergeant on Featherston Street. It has been there for about six months. I never really had a want to try this place as I thought it would be relatively expensive for the food you get as Vietnamese food in Wellington can be found rather cheap and of good quality. However, it was Momma Bear’s birthday and she suggested we go there as she had heard good things and saw they had a good rating on Google. The decor is really nice and really no surprise for the menu except that it is actually well priced for Vietnamese food.
Homemade Pate/Bahn Mi Pate
Breadstick Smoothered with Homemade Pate
I was excited about this. As I love pate and I especially love when pate is in a Bahn mi, so I had to order it. I was surprised when it arrived. The bread was obviously housemade and was warm and crisp and there was a good amount of pate in there. Overall a really good starter and I loved the savoury flavours of the pate and freshness of the bread.
Patter for 2
Signature Spring Rolls, Saigon Rolls and Skewers
This looked amazing when it came to the table. We went with the spring rolls filled with meat and they were really nice. The skins were light and crisp, the flavours of the filling were fantastic and the dipping sauce with it was amazing. The Saigon rolls were freshly made and we went for the prawn and chicken. Loved how they were packed with fresh ingredients of carrot and lettuce. Adding the dipping sauce and you have another winner. With the skewers, we went with beef. Loved the thick pieces of red and green pepper and the onions. The beef was nice but wasn’t as tender as it could be, but loved the grill flavour of the skewer.
Spicy Beef Noodles/Bun Bo Hue
Robust Soup containing Rive Vermicelli, Vietnamese Pork Ham, and Beef with a balance of Spicy, Salty and Umami Flavours.
To be honest, when this arrived I was slightly disappointed when this arrived and that was due to the small serving size of the dish. I thought it would be bigger compared to other places that serve Pho. However, there was no luck here. Getting over the serving size though, I was surprised to see this side of chilli next to my lemon. I thought I would try some on it’s on and it was really hot so I only added half of it to my Pho. Regarding the dish, the soup was really nice and tasted all natural. I loved the pieces of beef and the Vietnamese Pork Ham and also loved the onions and fresh vegetables and herbs you get. The noodles were great, but there could have been a bit more generous with them though. Overall really nice bowl of pho but I did suffer as I put in too much chilli.
I was very impressed with this place. The food was really nice and fresh. However, I do feel the bowls of noodles were pretty small but they had good flavour. The service was good and I will go back because I would like to try their Bahn Mi.
Address: 146 Featherston St, Wellington, 6011
Website: Le Saigon Vietnamese Kitchen
Trencherman's Travels 