saigon 60's

this was my first experience for vietnamese dining in rotorua. my rating is based on food quality, wait time, affordability & service.

the greeting at the door from staff was inviting, allowed us to choose a table (i dislike sitting by the door). it was clean, warm & cosy. unlike other establishments where the menu can be overcrowded & i often find myself ordering based on a picture of the dish or someone else’s preferred dish, the menu here was easy to read & well laid out. we ordered the vietnamese spring rolls, chicken pho, summer springrolls& seafood stir fry. vietnamese springrollswere great, served with a sweet chilli sauce, they complimented each other well, but that’s to be expected. the chicken pho broth was delicious, i even suggested it to family, i’m not a fan of coriander but it didn’t over power the dish so i was even happy to have had that. the summerrollswere good & the peanut sauce they served with it was yum. the seafood stir fry was an extra $1, and was expected. prawns, mussels, crab meat & squid rings were very average served with your usual stir fry vegetables. all was served hot & within 10 minutes of our order being taken. very happy with the service. i would recommend & return. i hoping to try their beef stew next visit.

an authentic and tasty vietnamese restaurant!

we ordered
spicy beef pho, classic beef pho, spring rolls, and vietnamese iced coffee.
the highlights would be
- the texture of the classic pho noodles: they were not too doughy, and did not break easily (meaning it wasn't overcooked), but instead were light and springy.
- the tender and thin slices of sirloin
- the deep flavours and fragrance of both broths

i thought the springrollscould have contained more filling, because they were quite skinny and were therefore too crunchy.

the iced coffee was good but a bit expensive at $6.50 for a small cup (most of the cup was ice as well)

pho and springrollswere nice and staff were friendly. however the restaurant only had a fan going which didn’t provide much relief on a hot summer day, not even cold drinks could cool us down and we couldn’t wait to get outside. other thing was that the restaurant did not have any toilets available for public use so we had to rush our young child to the nearby information centre.

had the beef pho, lemongrass chicken and summerrollswhich were all super tasty, especially the beef pho, way better than all the vietnamese restaurants that i’ve ever had. beef pho soup was full of flavour and the beef was super tender. highly recommended.