Saigon: Oyster crisis averted

Saigon is the second “Asian” restaurant I am reviewing for this blog and the second “Asian” restaurant to teach me a lesson. The first was Wasabi, teaching me the treachery of bad lighting and my iPhone camera.  So, this time, Chicken Sandwich Girl brought a real camera. And sadly, we still didn’t get awesome photos.

Saigon taught me my second lesson - as someone who is allergic to shellfish, I need to be more responsible with what I order.

Despite all that, my meal (the replacement one) was AWESOME.

My peanut salad

For starters, I ordered the Thai Peanut Salad. And, it is exactly what you think it is. It’s a salad with that yummy Thai peanut dressing.

Mike ordered the duck spring rolls. He loved them. He also loved my peanut dressing from my salad. He asked for a side of it and finished his spring rolls off covered in peanut sauce.

Mike's Appetizer

Erin had the shrimp spring rolls with some Sriracha brought on the side. Erin is my firey ginger friend and she likes her food hot.

Erin's appetizer rolls

I first ordered the Garlic Tofu. And here is where the meal could have gone horribly wrong.  They make this dish with oyster sauce.  The menu description said nothing about oyster sauce but I tasted and took on the role of “that guy.”

Our waitress handled the situation flawlessly. She apologized profusely, made sure I was ok, and suggested several things that I could try sans oyster sauce. 

My entree #2: red curry

I settled on a red curry tofu dish and I can honestly say their red curry is one of the best I’ve ever had. Side note, their house cabernet is really good with said red curry.

Erin and I had a total of four glasses and due to the mishap with the oyster sauce, the wine vanished off our bill.

Mike had the Masaman Curry tofu for his dinner and it was fully of curry and peanuts. He was pleased, he left his Big Baby persona holstered and polished off his food.

Mike's Masaman curry

Chicken Sandwich Girl reverted back to being just Ingela because she could not order a chicken sandwich. She ordered dumplings and when I texted her the next day to confirm if they were chicken, her response was, “I believe they were a meat medley.” Enough said. 

Ingela's meat medley dumplings

Patricia mixed a few apps to make a meal.  She started with the Tom Ka soup which is a coconut ginger soup with veggies. She nodded agreeably when I asked her how it was when her mouth was full. I did the same thing again and asked her how her veggie spring rolls were. Same full mouth, same head nodding.

Patricia's Tom Ka soup

Erin had the Saigon Special Noodles. She chose tofu and added shrimp and broccoli. She also loved it. She asked for her noodles to be Super Thai Hot. They were, her face was too. It was all very hot.

So Saigon, thanks for not killing me with shellfish. Thanks for a great meal, upscale atmosphere and an overall awesome time. I think you can tell a lot about a restaurant by how they handle guests when things go wrong. So, you have my vote for best Thai in town.