“ You know an appetizer is good when there are negotiations about who gets the last pieces.”
Cheap Eats: Vietnamese favorites at Pho Saigon
By Andrew Z. Galarneau -- News Staff Reporter
Updated: 04/18/08 8:47 AM
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- Nicole Christo and Jeff Matthews enjoy their meals at Pho Saigon.
It takes a mighty clever cook to come up with a new way to sell chicken wings in Buffalo.
But the folks at Pho Saigon didn’t have to hit the test kitchen. Their “House Special Wings” ($6), known as canh ga, are a standard in their native Vietnam. The wings are marinated with Vietnamese spices, then deep-fried. Then they’re wok-fried with onions, peppers, herbs and a good dose of salt and pepper.
Pho Saigon
1551 Niagara Falls Blvd., Amherst
834-8889
3 pennies (out of four)
Open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. It is handicapped-accessible.
You know an appetizer is good when a tableful of people enter into negotiations about who gets the last pieces.
Pho Saigon’s menu is wider and deeper than you might expect from a small store in the Burlington Plaza. There are teriyaki dishes, some Thai noodle dishes and curries and some Thai salads. dishes.
Grilled pork paste ($2.25) and grilled shrimp paste ($2.50), essentially finely ground sausages, taste much better than they sound.
From the array of bun dishes, served over thin rice noodles, we were delighted with the grilled pork version ($6.99). Thin strips of marinated pork had been stir-fried to a savory caramel state. Mixed with shredded lettuce, bean sprouts, mint and the accompanying sauce, it was a pleasing bowl – crunchy and chewy, savory and sweet.
The pho, or beef noodle soup ($6.49 and $7.49), which was tried in several combinations, was decent, but not enthralling.
There are, however, soups that may cause swooning. There’s “Hot & Sour Soup with Catfish” ($8.99), otherwise known as canh chua ca, which is catfish steaks in a piquant broth laced with tomato and pineapple. Served with rice and fish sauce, it’s a dish to dawdle over.
Then on weekends, you can pull up to bun bo hue ($7.49) beef soup with a spicy chile broth, noodles and unruly hunks of beef, pork and a few slices of congealed pig’s blood, which they will leave out if you ask. Stuff in a handful of shredded cabbage from the accompanying salad plate, tuck in, and you’ll feel far, far away from Niagara Falls Boulevard.
