• Saigon

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  • White Veg-options
Beer/Wine
Vietnamese
Non-veg

Serves meat, vegan options available. Vietnamese restaurant at walking distance from Central Station. Has separate menu of vegGIE dishes, including vege pork, chicken, and shrimp. Menu is translated into English, however not all staff speak English - be sure to know the Dutch "ik ben veganist." Gets busy especially on the weekend, so book ahead. Open Mon-Sun 16:00-22:30.


Venue map for Saigon
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19 Reviews

First Review by SuzyQ

SophieSchueler

Points +125

Vegetarian
12 Jan 2023

Big vegetarian menu, but I think I tasted fish sauce

There were a lot of vegetarian options with mock meats and tofu. We had the rice paper rolls with fake duck en then I had the wok dish with mushrooms. Rice paper was nice, but I would have loved more dipping sauce. Then I suspect I got fish sauce in my wok dish. The only thing I could taste in it was a fishy salty flavor and nothing else. The staff couldn't give me an answer whether this was the case but was very helpful otherwise.

Updated from previous review on 2023-01-12

Pros: Lots of vegetarian options, Exciting drinks ( I had basil mango lemonade) , Not that expensive

Cons: Dessert was NOT nice, I suspect there was fish sauce in my wok dish

Zaar

Points +150

Vegan
15 Oct 2022

I love this place

The dishes are very flavourful and there are plenty vegan options

Pros: Plenty vegan options, Flavours are great

zoilala

Points +105

Vegan
15 Aug 2020

Heerlijk gegeten

Al een tijd geleden heerlijk gegeten hier met mijn vriend. Erg fijne omgeving, zou er ook met familie naartoe gaan.

Pros: Mooi restaurant, Gezellig, Lekker eten

hack_man

Points +23142

Vegan
01 Jan 2020

Confidence is a preference

After reading some very solid reviews from the Happy Cow Utrecht and Den Haag ambassadors we felt confident dining here. Ignore the spoof review from someone with an obvious grudge and very little points. The beef curry and shrimp in spicy orange sauce were both superb. Full of vegetables, plenty of sauce, generous amounts of faux meat and sufficient rice. Along with a carafe of wine you’re looking at a bill just short of €50.

Pros: Separate meat free menu, Fair prices for The Netherlands

Cons: Meat

happy_vegan_happy

05 Jul 2020

I'm assuming you're pointing to my review as the "spoof review", which is understandable since I didn't give too much context. I can assure you that it wasn't a spoof review and that I don't hold any grudge to the restaurant (staff is very friendly) besides them not being well-informed about the products they use.

I actually really like the restaurant and I think the food is amazing. I know this information about the ingredients used in the fake meat because of a friend who used to work there. After me inquiring about whether the food was vegan to which the staff in the kitchen responded "yes" my friend went to the kitchen to actually find that the fake meat contains milk powder. The dish in question was the "Thit Chay Xao Lan".

Since my review was posted in 2018 this could have changed and they might have updated their menu or changed the ingredients used. Caution should be used in any case.

whepper

Points +1165

Vegan
18 May 2019

Delicious Vietnamese food

Vegan options available, but be sure to check and be sure you are understood. They can also veganize different options. Delicious mock meat of tofu based dishes.

Pros: Delicious Vietnamese food

Cons: Not clearly labeled, so always check!

happy_vegan_happy

Points +16

Vegan
19 Jun 2018

NOT VEGAN

All the main courses have fake meat which they advertise as vegan but it actually contains milk.

Cons: Pretends to be vegan but actually isn't

Sorana

Points +2199

Vegetarian
14 May 2017

Great Vietnamese food

Saigon has a special veggie menu and a big selection of meals to choose from. I tried the coconut curry with the veggie meat and it tasted surreal for a mock meat. It was also very delicious.

Pros: Many veggie options

Cons: A bit pricey

RomaDhanani

Points +409

Vegan
26 Mar 2017

Amazing

This restaurant has tons of vegan options (mostly fake meat based) and they are so so so tasty. I love this place! I highly recommend it:))

annemyn-x

Points +27

Vegetarian
04 Oct 2016

Vegetarian fish and meat

Have you ever heard of vegetarian duck or vegetarian shrimps? Well, I hadn't! But at Saigon they have all types of 'fake' meat and fish. Great for vegetarians who miss or don't want to miss out on the taste and texture of that specific ingredient. I really like the dishes at Saigon, they have a range of different dishes for vegetarians. Especially making rice paper rolls is a lot of fun! Sharing food, filling the paper rolls with crispy salad, herbs and fried vegetables or 'fake' meat and chicken, it's great. I'll be coming here more often :)

Pros: Range of vegetarian dishes, Explore the taste of 'fake' meat and fish, Nice price, good quality, never disappointed

Cons: Some things may be a bit too spicy, Don't eat the sweet you'll get at the end, yuck ;), A bit hidden away at the Voorstraat

Alizeev

Points +102

Vegan
08 Jun 2016

Amazing vegan options

Restaurant in the city center of Utrecht; cozy/classy; great vegan options: vegan- shrimps, fish, meat...! And all this not pricy! 30euro for a 3 courses menu

Eepie

Points +830

Vegan
02 Mar 2016

Too pricey

Nice atmosphere, friendly personnel…
But,
The food is way overpriced!

I had ricepaper-springrolls (€18). Apart from my ‘’meat’’, I mostly got a lot of herbs, a bit of cucumber, lettuce and rice noodles. All very basic ingredients and in not so much quantity.

The ‘’duck’’ is very nice though, but everything is just too expensive!

Updated from previous review on Wednesday March 02, 2016

Pros: meat substitutes

Cons: price - quality/quantity

Gudrun

Points +4875

Vegan
31 Jan 2016

Great!

I believe this is the best omni restaurant I been visiting for many years. We had the vegetarian dinner for two persons and it was really delicious. Not sure if it was necessary to stress out that I don't want fish sauce or oyster sauce or anything with shrimps involved, but I did that anyway, due to bad experience with "vegetarian" dishes in many other Asian restaurants (especially Thai). Well, probably it was not necessary here. A funny detail: we had to roll the rice paper spring rolls ourselves, after an instruction by a friendly staff member. I found the plastic device they re using to wet the rice paper so interesting that I bought one right away (they sell them). Using it you get exactly the right quantity of water and it doesn't use a lot of space...

Pros: delicious food, friendly staff, variety of veggie dishes

Ashlynn_White

Points +43

Vegan
23 Oct 2015

this was really good!

This restaurant is fairly classy for a good price! The food was really good, especially recommend the rice paper rolls with vegetarian "duck" as well as the vegetarian "pork" curry. You do have to ask for the vegetarian menu:)

food4ricky

Points +960

Vegan
30 Dec 2014

Really tasty vegan dishes!

Vietnamees food is my new favourite cuisine! The vegan soup is delicious; a tiny bit sweet mixed with sour, salty and spicy. The main dishes are delish as well! In the Netherlands it's hard to find a good Vietnamees restaurant with many vegan choices on the menu, so we were positively surprised. Good service and affordable prices.

Pros: Vegan meat options, Good, fast service, It smells nice in the reastaurant :)

tsthomas

Points +78

Vegan
15 Mar 2014

Great food

Nice and cozy plaze. Staff and serving is good and swift.
Had a vegetarian duck dish which was awesome... Taste very close to the real thing. Plenty of food. Also had some veggie egg rolls which hit the spot ! :) Definitely worth a visit !

Pros: Nice staff, quick serving, fair price

Qternocq

Points +68

Vegan
11 Dec 2013

Popular, pricey, but good

I had a good meal. I wasn't full when I left, but I enjoyed the food. The staff understood the concept of veganism very well and explained clearly which dish wasn't vegan and why not. The veg-pork was quite good. I had some fried noodles and veggies and the taste was nicely balanced. Not exquisite, but for the price of the food I had no complaints. The price of the drinks however was quite high. A Saigon beer would go for as much as 4,50 which strikes me as a bit steep, but I don't know much about special beers, so maybe that's normal... I would certainly recommend this to any vegan or vegetarian looking for something in Utrecht.

jeroenkusters

Points +674

Vegan
10 Apr 2013

Ruime keuze lekker eten

Saigon heeft een aparte vegetarische menukaart dus ruim voldoende keuze. Eten is lekker maar niet bijzonder. Personeel is vriendelijk en behulpzaam.

Pros: Ruime keuze, Goede sfeer

j8)st

Points +49

Vegan
19 Oct 2012

Delicious food

They have delicious vegan options. It can be quite crowded, and service might take some time then.

Pros: Vegan-friendly, Good portions

Cons: Can be crowded

SuzyQ

Points +15

Vegetarian
22 Jul 2010

One of my favourites

Merely saying this restaurant is vegetarian friendly is selling them short; this place offers a full range of vegetarian dishes, not just two or three options. It is the only restaurant in Utrecht that offers us as many choices as meat-eaters would have in other restaurants.

Emphasis is on 'mock meat': vegetarian 'duck', vegetarian 'pork' etc. although there are also tofu-based dishes. There is an explanation on the menu about how these mock meats are made and what they contain.

Saigon is well known in the Vietnamese community in Holland, it is very common to see Vietnamese families dining here. They obviously have a good name to keep up, and you can taste the effort they put into this. Do ask for the springrolls you can roll yourselves, they are tasty, fun, and come with an enormous bunch of letuce and herbs.

Service is always friendly, although language can sometimes be a problem, not all the staff speak Dutch. Most of them do speak English to some degree.

Saigon also has a back door, where you can order take-away food.

Pros: A lot of options, friendly service

Cons: Language can be a problem




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