Charlottesville VA: Saigon Café

Reader Aaron reports some excellent pho in Charlottesville, VA. Saigon Café (1703 Allied Lane, Charlottesville) is "the only local purveyor of the goodly stuff and their offering is solid. They are family-run and kind of hidden away but everyone who works there is super nice and the food is always good. The pictured pho tai is their only variation but this being Charlottesville, demand for pho elaboration isn't (quite to the level of) San Francisco. In any event, these guys straight up rock and I wanted to share the love. Charlottesville would be a lot worse off without them."

Comments

[Friend of Pho]

True that.

[pei and caroline chang]

Thanks for this posting. We are about to move to C-ville from Los Angeles and we need our pho! This is all very encouraging.

[Mike]

I have recently transferred from Richmond, which has some excellent Pho restraunts and compared to them, the Pho at Saigon Cafe is very poor. Low on flavor, skimpy on meat, and we were only given cut up iceberg lettuce rather than bean sprouts, cillantro, basil, and jalepeno like I am accustomed to. I was extreemely dissapointed, and I hope that I can convince the Richmond folks to expand to the C'ville market.

[PHO PHO]

PHO IS SICK =^.^= MOO GOO GAI PAAAAAN

[hbd]

P&C Chang are right: Charlottesville's Saigon Cafe Pho is not very good--never has been. I've lived in Charlottesville since 1998. In late 2005, however, a Vietnamese restaurant opened on Main St. called "Orchid." They have a semi-passable "pho" with great broth, but it is really just the newbie friendly pho tai (or pho tai chin), not the real stuff. I get my pho craving satisfied at Pho Royal (Rt. 7 and Augusta, near Leesberg), when I am in northern VA.

[Nick]

This place is the worst Pho i ever ate.

[Tino & JiHyun Dinh]

Thx for the scoop on Charlottesville--headed there soon for b-school. BTW, you can write me if you want the dope on pho in Seoul, South Korea and Honolulu, HI.