New Saigon Vietnamese Bistro

Is this space just too palatial for Asian grub? Because not one single concept has worked in this space in the past decade. Pung Mie was there for a long time barely making ends meet, they were basically squeezing blood from a rock. Then this Ocean Villas came and went like a 2 dollar whore on Boulevard in the night. Let me tell ya, those two places sucked balls. It's no wonder why they closed shop (Pung Mie has became Fung Mei in Duluth). I could only imagine the rent for this space. When expense is greater than income... Well, y'all can count. I think.

Now, comes this New Saigon Vietnamese Bistro... Am I missing something here? Was there an Old Saigon? But anyways, this place is awesome... Awesomely, fucking weird. I walk in and the owner starts speaking Cantonese to me... WTF? Do I have a Made In Hong Kong sign around my neck? This is a Vietnamese resto, yes? Bloody hell, we're in for a treat. Like with the past tenants, the staircase to the upstairs is mysteriously blocked off. Has anyone ever seen the upstairs? I was tempted to make a run for it and snap some pics... There could be a opium den up there. How coolie would that be?

Let's take a peek at the goods... The menu consists of your generic Chino hits, oops, I meant Viet hits... Nothing mind blowing here but when you think of Viet grub, you think simple comfort food. So, let's try some of them...


Cha Gio- Super thin wrapper, super crispy, super hot and fresh outta da fryer... But it wasn't super good. It was passable, filler wasn't a thriller. Wrap it with the lettuce, dip in the nuoc cham and call it a day.


Pho Dac Biet- 2 sizes available (regular and large). This is the regular and it is huge. No normal human being can eat this entire thing... Except me. Broth was ok, not very flavorful, didn't really expected it after I saw a black & white poster of The Rock (yes, Dwayne Johnson) Scotch-taped to the wall. Yes, Scotch-taped to the wall. I didn't know The Rock was such a big fan of this place. They give you a hefty portion of meat and all the fixins but at the end of the day, it was just ok. It's overpriced for what you get, when you can go down the street for better and cheaper. The rent here must be outrageous. If you need a quick fix, it'll do and you'll help pay the rent.


Grilled Pork- Those two sunnyside up fwied eggs looked disturbing. It feels creepy as if my football coach was raping me with his eyes while I pulled up my R2-D2 Underoos. Did I say that out loud? Nevermind. Anyways... This dish was ok. The pork was fine if not a little overcooked and tough. The rice was just some regular old white rice from your local dumpy Chino joint... If it ain't "broken", don't serve it. Look at that brown crust around the eggs, looks like all the loose skin after a fat chick has lost a ton of weight. That shit is so gnarly.


Chocolate Ice Cream on Banana Bread- WTF is this? I usually put my scoop of ice cream in a hamburger bun... Buttered and lightly toasted, pweez. That ice cream tasted like powdered hot coco mix that was frozen. It was not creamy, it was a brown snowball. You can taste more ice than chocolate. This was FOB as fuck.


Flan- What? Yeah, you heard me, it's a creme caramel. I know the Frogs had a lot of influence on Vietnamese cuisine... But did they forget that the owners are Chinese? This thing was ridiculously bad but here's a little something for the effort... Flush. No wonder the desserts were free. No one would seriously pay for these two displays of incompetence.

This place has no identity or soul, it's a little of this and little of that. It's part Vietnamese, part Chinese (they have beef chowfun but after that beastly rendition at Golden House I wasn't gonna be bamboozled again) and part Ra-tard. This combination is a risky proposition especially in a space that's notoriously known for failure. I give this place no more than 4 months.

1 Star.

5145 Buford Highway
Doraville, GA