Freshmen Fridays: Something ‘Bout Saigon

With Thanksgiving now upon us, my friends and I decided to have one final, gluttonous last meal on campus, sampling University city’s cuisine one final time before heading off to our respective hometowns. With our preferences all over the map, it took us quite some time before we landed on a restaurant, but the fair prices, huge menu, and BYO status of Saigon on 40th and Chestnut (a brisk walk from the Quad now that temperatures have decided to settle right around freezing) were able to win us all over.

Although Saigon technically describes its cuisine as Vietnamese, its four-page menu reads more like a shmorgishborg of every type of Asian food, from the classic Vietnamese pho (a personal favorite) to the (Americanized) Chinese fried rice to the indisputably Thai pad thai. The portions themselves are enormous. My bowl of pho was practically as big as my face, and the string beans my friend and I ordered to split were mounded into a mountain large enough to feed four. And although it took us about ten minutes to get seated at our table, once we placed our orders, the food came quickly.

Although it is quite doable to have each person order his or her own dish, with multitude of options, Saigon is best suited for family-style dining.

-Emily Waxman