Rediscovered Favorite!

It`s been a while since I`ve been able to spend much time downtown during the work day...about 4 years actually and boy have I missed it! There is so much to do downtown and so many great restaurants that the sandwiches I normally take to work are going to have a lot of ground to make up when I'm back in the office.


When I was about 18, my friend and I regularly went to a Vietnamese restaurant located beside the Odeon movie theatre downtown called Saigon Night. They had AMAZING salad rolls that we just couldn't get enough of. I actually don't think we even tried anything else at the restaurant we loved them so much! After about a year of going there we found out that they were closing as the owners were a bit burnt out after so many years in the business. It was truly a sad day and basically ended my Vietnamese food kick.


Several years ago I heard that they had re-opened for business in a new location on Fort. Of course, now that I don't work downtown and also don't spend much of my free time downtown, I hadn't been there until this past week. I think I might have to make more visits down there though because my recent visit allowed me to rediscover my love for salad rolls.


I decided to go there for my lunch break while I'm on jury duty this past Friday and ordered pork salad rolls (Goi Cuon Tom Thit). For $7.75 you get 3 salad rolls that a fairly good in size. On the menu they are listed as Appetizers, but they were perfect for my lunch. I love salad rolls because they are similar to spring roll, but aren't fried so they have a nice light and healthy taste to them. Filled with shredded cabbage (or could be lettuce, not positive), shredded carrots, vermicelli and shredded pork, they are served with a delicious peanut sauce. As you can see in the picture below, the sauce comes with some crushed peanuts and fish sauce that you can mix into the peanut sauce to give it some crunch and bite if you like. I'm not a fish sauce person at all, but I love it when mixed in with the peanut sauce. It creates the perfect flavour!

Goi Cuon Tom Thit with Pork - Saigon Night

Next week I plan to go back, but this time try something other than the salad rolls. After Saigon Night originally closed, we found a different Vietnamese restaurant (now closed) that, while they couldn't compare in the salad roll department, made delicious bowls filled with rice or vermicelli, salad, sliced BBQ pork and other items. They were quite tasty and I saw other people in Saigon Night on Friday eating something that looked very similar, so I think I'll give it a try. They are listed on the menu under Bun Hoac Com (Rice and Noodle Dishes) and range from $10.80 - 13.65. I'll let you know how it goes :)

Saigon Night on Urbanspoon