Review Thai's Saigon Bistro - Burnaby

We usually order the P1 pho and spring rolls. We come here often and it looks like the owners are retiring next month. The husband and wife team really care about keeping the prices as low as they can for their customers without compromising the quality of their food. They're truly a hardworking family and I wish them the best in their retirement. My boys and I will miss coming here when they're gone. So come and eat here while they're still here!

I liked it overall. Friendly service, comfortable space. My only point of criticism is the beef to noodle ratio. I didn't exactly measure by weight so it's very subjective, but I felt the ratio was a bit short. I'd still give them another shot.

iced coffee. tastes amazing like it did 5 years ago. the pho broth was so good and you can tell that they don't skimp on quality. SUPPORT👏LOCAL👏FAMILY👏RUN👏BUSINESSES👏

This place has 4.4 stars. why? We ordered 2 #11 "large" soups. We thought okay maybe a mistake. We asked, no mistake! I wonder how big the regular is.. we ordered extra tendon each and to our surprise you couldn't even see the meat. Once again we asked "if they added extra meat". An elderly man came and explained they slice it thin and added "alot". Over all the noodles were mushy and the soup was very oily.. we paid but didn't finish our meal. We ate at a different establishment. We will not be back.

EDITED: Updated my ratings from 5 to 1. I gave 5 stars to this place 3 years ago. Today I ordered food from here and found a couple of hairs from my food. One hair from C9, two more pieces from another C9, two more from the noodle soup. Seriously? How is this possible to find a hair from almost every dish that I ordered? The food quality and the portion size dropped compared to 3 years ago. Below was my original review: Food was great. We ordered lemon grass chicken and beef noodle. Both were tasty and had a good portion. Server was friendly and served us promptly. Price is reasonable. Definitely will go back. Clean and casual atmosphere. There is enough distance between tables. Wheelchair and stroller are accessible to tables but not for entrance. There are stairs (about 7 steps?) You need to lift up

Simple delicious pho soup... I don’t think they use msg... menu is a QR scan (wasn’t 100% sure, I didn’t ask either). The spring rolls were perfect, decent amount of space and social distancing for COVID-19. The place is clean... including the washroom! Nice friendly service as well. I’d come back if I lived nearby

This place is the best! Springs rolls, soup, subs, and sliced grilled pork anything are amazing! Everything taste super fresh. My favourite Vietnamese spot hands down!

Beef pho was terrific. Spring rolls were nice and crispy. Iced coffee with condensed milk was delicious. Had a bite of my son's banh mi and the bread was so fresh and crunchy on the outside...yummy! Prices are very reasonable. Service was great and staff was very friendly!

Placed a big order with only a day's notice for a 90 person film cast/crew meal. Not only was the food delicious, the owner was incredibly helpful! He helped me plan out what items would be the most crowd pleasing and what would fill up the hungriest of transport crew! I highly recommend this place!!!

Good parking in back and a back door. The broth has great flavour and the staff are very friendly!

I just love this place, can't get enough of the food. My go to every week for take out. Highly recommend.

I can eat here every week and never got enough!!!!

Great food awesome service

Love Thai's - their Bun Bo Hue is my favourite in town.<br/><br/>One note - despite zomato's listing, this restaurant does not make Thai food - it's entirely Vietnamese. Thai is the first name of the original owner!

Thai’s Saigon Bistro has been one of my staple Vietnamese restaurants for more than 5 years now, ever since they opened! It has been over 5 years since my last post, so I figured that warranted a revisit. I’ve noticed that the portion sizes have gotten smaller since.

Portion pretty decent. Decent amount of meat. Everything cooked pretty well. Sandwich is a house meatball which is tasty.<br/><br/>I agree with the 4+ rating.

Great Vietnamese restaurant, the name is misleading. I love their pho, great broth, I order extra beef, its slightly on the scant side although compared to other Vietnamese restaurants it is very well priced, the spring rolls are probably the best anywhere. The service is very friendly. The restaurant is clean and pleasant

We (hubby, daughter and I) absolutely love this place.  I usually get the rare beef with beef balls and it's awesome!  I've also tried their pork chop, lemongrass chicken, and pork patty.  I highly recommend this place.  The service is amazing, and I think it may be the owner, but he always has a big smile when we walk in.  The prices are great too.  <br/><br/>We've tried the above but also my daughter loves the chicken with noodle soup.<br/><br/>Anytime we want Pho, this is our 1st choice.

I really really wanted to love this place because it's so close to home, but it just didn't deliver. The service was top notch though! I ordered the Bún bò Huế and it had to be the blandest version I've ever had. It was mediocre at best and the whole dish was just sparse. There were a few token slices of Vietnamese ham and a couple fried fish (?) balls floating around and some paper thin slices of beef shank. I really was very disappointed with my order. <br/><br/>As friendly as the service was, I don't see myself coming back here again, as there's a plethora of amazing Vietnamese restaurants and this one just isn't up to snuff.

Best service I've had at a pho restaurant.<br/><br/>The prices here are very competitive, with the large pho coming in around $8.50 (about a buck cheaper than other places). The salad rolls are average price, BUT they offer a shredded pork salad roll (!)<br/><br/>The restaurant is VERY clean, fresh, with crisp white walls, clean tables, and very comfortable seats. Had a few flatscreens on the wall with NBA playing.<br/><br/>The servers here speak excellent English, and they ran to refill my water. Even though we were here right at last call, they took our table and told us to take our time while eating.<br/><br/>Highly recommended and I will return.

So yummy!! I love having so many great Vietnamese restaurants around me but not all are as great and flavourful as this one!! Always go back for more when I'm craving some pho😊

Sorry to rate this so low but this place has slipped a great deal since opening. Service,food quality and portion size has become not enough to warrant our business. There are far too many better places vying for our patronage. Too bad because it was walking distance!

I can't say enough good things about this restaurant. The Vietnamese Crepes and Pho Tai Nam are my two favourites. The pho broth is rich and slow cooked. We have tried several other restaurants for pho and none come close. <br/>Amazing service as well in the family owned and run restaurant. Thank you, John, for consistently incredible comfort food. It's why we keep coming back!

Ordered the Lemon Grass Banh Mi, the chicken had great flavor and it was grilled, the bun had the right amount of crunchiness and softness. The deep fried spring roll was dripping a bit too much oil for me, it still tasted good.

We're looking for a Thai restaurant for early dinner.  Went to Thai's Saigon Bistro because we were totally misled by Zomato's classification.  This was in fact a 100% Vietnamese Restaurant.  But since we're already there, we might as well try it out.  We ordered a Chicken Noodle & a BBQ Pork Vermicelli.  The Chicken was dry and the soup tasted too much MSG.  The BBQ Pork was way overcooked. Overall, quite disappointing.  Do not recommend.

Basic comfort food can help carry you through a wet rainy spring in Vancouver. Thai’s Saigon Bistro in Burnaby Heights has been serving reliably good Vietnamese food for a few years now. (Don’t be misled by the name, they serve Vietnamese, not Thai food.) We’ve been with them from the beginning and are happy to see the tables fill up quickly. They have a loyal following in the neighbourhood.If you’re from this area, you know this space used to be the old Gilmore Restaurant – a casual diner. It has now been renovated into a modernized establishment with Corian surface tables, stone tiled floors and framed photos of Vietnam.

Back Again for Round 2 and Not Happy!. So after my first visit I wasn't completely satisfied. I thought I would give it another chance. The last time I went I was not satisfied about the amount of meat. So this time I thought I would order a large size P1. Again, I was not given enough meat for $8.50! Same portion size as the small size. Also, I didn't like the noodles and the broth wasn't that great either. The spring rolls were on the spot! To be honest one of the best I've had in Vancouver. Fresh and Hot! I wasn't too happy with iced coffee with condensed milk. Such a small portion for $3.50! Wouldn't order it again. Overall $16 for a large pho (which should be the small size), one spring role and one iced coffee I felt really ripped off. Since when did it cost $16 to go for a bowl of soup? This shouldn't cost more than $10. Prices are too high here and portions are too small. If this package was priced at $10 I would come back more often, but since its not I think this was my last trip here. Moving on to the endless list of pho shops in Vancouver/Burnaby. Thai Saigon, don't say I didn't give you a chance. Because of your small portion sizes, you lost my $600 allocation for pho each year! Guess I will spread this budget elsewhere.<br/><br/>The restaurant is always clean at least and the tables are spotless!<br/><br/><br/>-----23 May, 2015-----<br/><br/>Back Again for Round 2!. So after my first visit I wasn't completely satisfied. I thought I would give it another chance. The last time I went I was not satisfied about the amount of meat. So this time I thought I would order a large size P1. Again, I was not given enough meat for $8.50! Same portion size as the small size. Also, I didn't like the noodles and the broth wasn't that great either. The spring rolls were on the spot! To be honest one of the best I've had in Vancouver. Fresh and Hot! I wasn't too happy with iced coffee with condensed milk. Such a small portion for $3.50! Wouldn't order it again. Overall $16 for a large pho (which should be the small size), one spring role and one iced coffee I felt really ripped off. Since when did it cost $16 to go for a bowl of soup? This shouldn't cost more than $10. Prices are too high here and portions are too small. If this package was priced at $10 I would come back more often, but since its not I think this was my last trip here. Moving on to the endless list of pho shops in Vancouver/Burnaby. Thai Saigon, don't say I didn't give you a chance. Because of your small portion sizes, you lost my $600 allocation for pho each year! Guess I will spread this budget elsewhere.<br/><br/>The restaurant is always clean!<br/><br/><br/>-----03 Apr, 2015-----<br/><br/>Good but you will leave hungry. The pho soup is really good and the spring roles are great too! Biggest problem about this place is the amount of meat that they put in the pho. There is only 1 piece of each meat in the house special leaving you hungry and wishing you went to another pho restaurant. The coconut shake is artificial and not fresh. The previous person commented on the mangos but I think the owner just tells this to everyone because he told me the same thing on two occasions. Obviously he is trying to put on a show. The place is really clean. Overall great pho but because of the pho having absolutely no meat in it I think I will just spend my cash elsewhere. Its a shame because this place actually has good soup but not worth $10 for a "vegetarian" pho. I need value for my money!

Fresh and delicious.. We live in the neighborhood and That's Saigon Bistro is one of our favourite restaurants. Food is very fresh and delicious. When we were there this week, my son ordered a mango shake. The owner mentioned he had just picked up some mangoes to try them and make sure they were the best quality. Oh my gosh that was one amazing shake! My son had to pry it out of my hands :)<br/>Definitely try this place.

Pretty good Vietnamese food.. Was pretty quiet when I came, ordered the Hu Tieu Dac Biet and some spring rolls. Both were really good and will come back to try their Pho next time when I'm in the area.

Delicious Pho!. Visited Thai's Saigon Bistro in North Burnaby, just a few blocks from Boundary next to the Scotia Bank, based on reviews. They are in the spot that used to be the old Gilmore Restaurant. <br/><br/>I'm happy to say, they've cleaned and completely renovated the space into an inviting, comfortable and modern establishment. As other reviews have indicated, the family that owns the place is very nice and welcoming. <br/><br/>I ordered a Large Pho Tai Nam. Bean sprouts and lime arrived and were really fresh and the chili oil was nicely done. The Pho was good size for a large, with a decent amount of brisket and thinly sliced raw beef topped with onions and fresh cilantro. The broth was clear and aromatic and the noodles were nicely cooked and not clumped.<br/><br/>The broth was flavorful, deep and earthy with little or no msg. Beef and noodles were on point. Overall, the soup was really good!!<br/><br/>This place is a must visit if you like Pho and appreciate hard working local businesses that try to really put out a nice product and experience for their customers at a fair price. I'll be back to try more from their menu.

Great pho!. Cute and clean with prompt friendly service. Had Pho Tai and hubby had Pho with flank and a side of spring rolls. Price was great, just over $20 incl tip. Would definitely come again,

Clean, Fresh and Tasty. I ordered pho for the kids and asked the owner for a suggestion on something authentic for me. Unfortunately, I can't remember what he suggested, but it had all kinds of stuff I wouldn't normally eat (including blood) in a dark soup. It was very very tasty. The kids loved the pho as well, but they always love pho. My wife had her standard lemon grass chicken and thought it was as good as anywhere else she has had it.<br/><br/>The restaurant is really clean with decent decor, and really nice washrooms too.<br/><br/>All the staff are really great. Seems like a family operation, and their dedication to the business and keeping customers happy shows.<br/><br/>Very authentic, flavorful, but also clean tasting.<br/><br/>Overall, nice looking decor, friendly staff, tasty food, reasonably low prices. We've got a keeper.<br/><br/>Really like this place and will be back.

This place is amazing! I loveeee their food and their service is great. Must try M3, m4 and c10.

A true sign of a great Vietnamese place is the aroma right when you step in. Smells and tastes great. I like that there are the lesser known Vietnamese dishes (not just pho) on the menu, including some of my favorites: Bun Bo Hue, Bun Rieu, and Banh Xeo. If the Bun Bo hue is as good as the banh xeo and bun rieu I tried, this will easily be one of my favorite Vietnamese places in Burnaby! Most outstanding is the cleanliness and friendly staff that sets it apart from the other fav. Vietnamese establishments. Would definitely recommend and come back.

Must try meal is M3, M4, and c10...best soup base ever

Tasty Broth!. Wonderful food, very tasty pho broth! The staff is very nice, very friendly. The establishment is very clean! I go here all the time, I love it!

Excellent. Delicious specialty dishes. I had the M5: beef stew with egg noodles, my boyfriend and I agreed it was the best that we've tried. Our server was Eugene and he was very helpful, personable and great service all in all. Very clean, new and quick. Will definitely be coming back more often and recommending to all family and friends.

New Pho Fan. I had very little experience eating vietnamese until i started coming here lately.<br/>It's in good dining neighbourhood. Nice interior, very clean, and super friendly attentive servers.<br/>The Pho is really good, but i order extra beef on the side to give it a little more substance.<br/><br/>The Bahn Mi sandwiches are fresh and very tasty.<br/>Salad and spring rolls are also very goo, and my girlfriend always gets the Vermicelli pork bowl, which is also really good.<br/><br/>Will frequent again.

Amazing Meal. My friends and I were in Vancouver last weekend and decided to go out for a nice dinner. We were going for Italian but their was a private party there so we walked further up and found this bistro . Amazing experience. The staff was very welcoming, friendly and attentive . Service was quick, but our food was the best part. Absolutely delicious. Our servers mom was the cook and she came out and had a chat with us when they closed . Very clean and flavourful food . My friends said "amazing' with every bite they took . Definitely recommend this restaurant for anyone wanting to try something new in Vancouver . Very positive experience .

YUM. It was one of those days when I wasn't really sure what to eat. Luckily, I decided to try something different and went to the Saigon Bistro. <br/><br/>First, I had a hard time believing it's the same place I visited a year ago (when it was the Gilmore Restaurant). It is nice, fresh and clean in there!<br/><br/>Second, the server was an adorable old man. I'm not sure if he's the owner or just works there, but he was so sweet.<br/><br/>Of course I saved the best for last... the food. I had a spring roll, a shrimp salad roll and lemongrass chicken. The spring roll was nice and crispy, not grossly greasy. I liked that it was served with some pickled daikon and carrot to balance. The salad roll was huge. The sauce wasn't really peanutty like you find in some places, but had just the right balance. I was pretty full by time I got to the chicken and only ate a few bites. It was nicely seasoned and also came with a little serving of salad. <br/><br/>I did have one embarrassing moment when the server brought me a bowl of water. I sniffed it...didn't smell like anything, and it had a few floating bits of cilantro. I tasted a tiny drop and it had no taste. I determined it was a finger bowl for rinsing my fingers and decided not to touch it. When the server came he asked me if there was something wrong with my soup. I kind of was trying to scramble for an answer. I drank it rather than insult him, because I guess this extremely thin broth is common to drink in South-east Asia to wash out your mouth (this was the explanation he gave me). But it tasted like dish water, so consider yourself warned.

Lunch. Seating was comfy. Friendly staff, good service.<br/>Had spring roll, pho, rare beef with lemon, iced Vietnamese coffee<br/>Broth needs a bit more depth but still good. Spring roll was light and crispy, not greasy like a lot of other places. rare beef with lemon was refreshing with cilantro, lemon juice and a bit of mint. coffee was good too.<br/>Overall, good place to eat. Staff was very pleasant. Will definitely go back and recommend friends.

We went over to Thai's Saigon Bistro for a late night dinner.<br/><br/>We ordered lemongrass chicken and two orders of Pho. For drinks, we tried their lemonade and avocado milkshake.<br/><br/>Our waiter was very friendly, and we enjoyed the clean decor and clean washroom.<br/>The lemongrass chicken was excellent, with great seasoning.<br/><br/>The pho was also delicious, and nothing out of the ordinary. However, one bowl felt quite salty, but we had much saltier from other restaurants. <br/><br/>The lemonade tasted great, and was very flavourful, leaning more towards the sour side than the sickeningly sweet side.<br/><br/>The avocado milkshake was tasty, and surprisingly flavourful also. <br/><br/>We recommend anyone looking for pho and Asian food to try out this restaurant. It definitely beats the other two similar restaurants down the street (one, while nice, is overpriced---and the other is cheap but dirty)

Goood tasty food. unlike most forgettable places in north bby on hastings this place i can't wait to return to try a different dish. reasonable price. very very CLEAN. wish they put a foyer or something to block the freezing draft that blows in if someone opens the front door.

Great great service and what's even better is the food that hits the spot. Different from the average. Had the egg dry noodles, never had it with dark vinegar. So it was a new experience. Thanks Saigon Bistro! Definitely will be back

Best in burnaby.... Bahn mi (sandwiches) and pho is awesome here, can't wait to go back and try other menu items. prices were fantastic and the interior is nice and clean. oh and here's the real kicker... the service is amazing LOL (yeah for real)

Awesome New Vietnamese Restaurant!. My coworker recommended this new restaurant to us and highly recommended the Mi Dac Biet, which is a dry (meaning no soup base) egg noodle dish with pork and prawns in a special house sauce. I usually always order pho or the rice dishes, so I thought I would be an adventurer and try something different and I was so glad I did. The dry noodle dish was so tasty without being salty, the egg noodles had the right bite to it (al dente) and the two prawns were big and cooked just right. To be honest though, I would have been happy with just the noodles itself (it was that good!). It also came with a side dish of a small bowl of clear broth. It was a perfect way to clean your palate because the broth was not salty or fishsaucy, but just a good clean tasty clear broth. We also ordered the spring roll and what made it stand out from other Vietnamese spring roll was that the skin was thin and crispy instead of thick and greasy and the filling was moist and tasty. The best part of this restaurant though is the service. Our server was attentive and made recommendations such as adding vinegar to the noodles (he recommended to try it without first, and then try it with vinegar as the Mi Dac Biet is usually eaten with a dash of vinegar)--I did prefer adding quite a few dashes of vinegar as it added more depth to the dish. After he gave us our food, he made sure to come back after a few minutes to check on how we are doing (this never happens at any other Vietnamese or Chinese restaurants we've been to). Usually, after the food has been served to us, we only see the server again if we call them to ask for more water or when we go to the cashier to pay, so it was really nice to have a more personable service. The restaurant was very clean and has a modern decor and the washroom is nice and clean too! Overall, my new fave Vietnamese restaurant! FYI though, they had a sign that says they are close on Tuesdays, so just in case...

Phnom penh watch out. My wife and I finally made it out of the house with our newborn and we decided to check out this new restaraunt walking distance from our home. <br/><br/>I liked how warm, modern and spatious it was and at the same time it was private enough that people couldn't tell it was my baby that was crying.<br/><br/>Our waiter recommended the dry noodle and prawn dish to my wife and suggested I change my dish to the short rib and rice since my wife was having noodles.<br/>I was glad he did. The grilled ribs were tender made all the better by the marinade. My wife's dry noodle was excellent. The prawns were of high quality and their was a hint of fried onion or shallots which we liked. I sampled probably more than my share of her dish and she was left wanting more. The broth of the accompanying soup was light. I finnished the meal with the power dark coffee with sweet milk and spent the rest of the evening with a satisfied grin on my face.<br/><br/>I am a huge fan of Phnom Penh in vancouver and Saigon's rib dish is far superior to the beef and rice dish and Phnom Penh - although there's no egg which I didn't necessarily miss. And the dry noodle dish is of better quality. <br/><br/>The other thing that struck me was the service was very personable, they really tried hard.<br/><br/>I am just so glad that there is a restaurant of this calibre in the neighborhood - no line up, good value and great service.

Yes!. I'm from Victoria, and I went here for lunch recently with my friend who lives in the North Burnaby area. This place is excellent, I wish it was located in Victoria! The first thing I noticed was the restaurant was really nicely renovated and designed. Our server was really friendly and attentive. I ordered and fresh squeezed orange juice and my friend ordered a domestic beer. Her drink came with a chilled glass, which always gives a restaurant extra points in my opinion. My fresh juice was amazing, the best I've ever had! We both ordered large pho, which came in big portions and good broth. The prices here are really cheap too, which is great. The owners were really friendly when we chatted with them after our meal. I hope for the best for them and their new restaurant!

I felt that Saigon Bistro deserved a revisit because I was only able to try their salad rolls the last time I was here and that didn’t give me a good idea as to how the food here was like. C and I went over to Saigon Bistro for dinner to catch up with each other on rainy Monday night. It really was perfect to go on such a day because well, who doesn’t like a warm bowl of noodle soup on a cold day?

The interior was spacious and everything looked newly furnished. I’m not sure if this was a Vietnamese owned restaurant or a Chinese owned one because I heard mumbles of both languages here and there.

There are a couple other restaurants around this area but none of them were clean, simple and had good  Vietnamese food with  authentic flavors.   Upon entering this establishment, the decor was simple clean and modern looking. The restaurant was quite roomy with a fair amount of tables and booths.  They had 2 large flat screen TVs on the wall with the occasional hockey or sportscast which was nice. This place was a family run restaurant which has this nice homey atmosphere. Service was quick and they constantly refilled your tea/water. I went with a few friends and we ordered a variety of things. Everything we tried tasted good and the noodle soups had layers of flavor. I had only one criticism though, although the noodle bowls were

The bun bowl had fresh and well executed ingredients in the correct proportion. The cooks were not skimpy with the meat or vegetables. This is the reason why I love this particular Vietnamese item and this version I ate was great.

When I first saw the name of this restaurant, I wondered… is it Thai? or is it Vietnamese  Well, to answer the question, it is Vietnamese…

There used to be a scary-ish place on Hastings called Gilmore Restaurant. Scary because they were advertising a steak for $8.95. I'm sure it was good value, but I could never bring myself to actually go try it. Well, alas, it's gone and replaced with Thai's Saigon Bistro. I was a little confused by the Thai reference with Vietnamese food, but gave it a shot anyways.  Craving Vietnamese more than Thai, we were relieved to see that they didn't have any Thai dishes. Instead, they feature items such as Bun Bo Hue, Lemongrass Chicken, Banh Xeo, Pho and more. Yes, they do have Chicken Wings too! I'm not a huge Spring Roll fan, but I was in the mood for one (preferred over a salad roll on a coolish evening. The presentation is a bit messy and seemed more of an afterthought. The pickled veggies were good, but the greens were completely unnecessary. The Spring Roll itself was great. Good crunch, not greasy and filled with minced pork, vermicelli and some shredded carrots for crunch. I would ord

On to the pho! The pho came with a light and well-balanced broth, with a fair portion of beef, fresh beef balls, and al dente noodles. Overall the portion was between fair-large, and the presentation was about average.