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Saigon Cafe is located at 1945 NW 86th Street in Clive.
After several recommendations, this examiner finally got the chance to visit Saigon Café in Clive. I was a little worried when we walked in and were the only customers, but I guess that just means that Saigon Café is a well-kept secret. (Other customers did come in after our group.)
Saigon Café has actually been recognized for its excellence. It has finished in the top 2 in multiple Cityview reader polls in the last 7 years in the Vietnamese category. Saigon Café offers a wide variety of Vietnamese and Chinese favorites for dine-in, carryout, or delivery, and at reasonable prices. It should be a secret no more…
Saigon Café offers your standard Asian appetizers, priced from $2.00 to $5.95. An appetizer sampler can be had for $8.95. Saigon’s Chinese menu is likewise, fairly standard, with prices ranging from $5.35 to $6.15 for lunch portions, and from $6.95 to $13.70 for dinner portions. The Garlic Chicken ($8.50) and Happy Family ($13.70) are both quite good. Saigon’s big draw, however, is their Vietnamese menu. I highly recommend their Combination Vermicelli Salad, marinated shrimp, beef, and chicken served with vermicelli and veggies over salad. At $7.75, it is a tasty mix of textures and temperatures that can be a shared side dish or a full meal. Also recommended are the Crepes a la Vietnam (a thick crepe filled with shrimp, pork, and crunchy bean sprouts) at $8.25 and the Double Fried Noodles (crispy-fried rice noodles topped with shrimp, chicken, beef or tofu, and veggies in a brown sauce) at $10.50. Their Vietnamese menu features a variety of duck, quail, fish, seafood, pork, chicken, beef, tofu, and vegetable rice dishes, vermicelli salads, noodle dishes, and soups priced from $6.75 to $12.25. Saigon Café also offers daily specials and family dinner specials.
While Saigon Café does offer top-notch cuisine, they do have a few occasional draw-backs. First of all, they do not offer desserts. Second, they do have the occasional lapse in service and cleanliness. They had had fairly good health inspections[http://dia.iowa.gov/food/controller.aspx?cmd=establishmentDetails&eid=RS00-0067346], until last year when they ran into a few snags with faulty equipment and storage methods. While they appear to have righted the ship and cleaned up everything in their kitchen, their restrooms are still a little unpredictable at times. Also, they occasionally have only one server working on slower business days. If you like Vietnamese and Chinese food, though, their cuisine and price definitely make them worth a visit. In this examiner’s book, Saigon Café’s value outweighs any secrets they may have been keeping.
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