Downtown pho at Saigon Venture Restaurant : Tiny Bites

Downtown pho at Saigon Venture Restaurant

1 Comment Karen HamiltonJuly 26, 2008

This is Blogathon post #11 of 48 in support of the David Suzuki Foundation

The staff at Calhoun’s are certainly curious about my blogging effort tonight. A couple have already come by to check out the Tiny Bites site and to give me some encouragement. One asked if I ever frequented Vietnamese restaurants—that is a resounding yes! I just haven’t blogged about any of them yet…until now.

Saigon Venture Restaurant is a tiny mom and pop place just off of the Burrard Street bridge that my husband and I always passed by during our summer walks. One day, I had a particularly insistent craving for pho but an equally strong reluctance to drive to our usual pho haunts along Fraser and Main. We decided to give this place a shot.

Let me just say that downtown Vietnamese food is notoriously horrible. The fast food Vina’s is some of the better fare you will find (which is really not saying much). Before I found Saigon Venture, I went through 3 different pho houses near our corner of downtown and nearly spat my food out.

My husband and I managed to enjoy both of the soups we ordered. Neither could be said to be any better than decent, but it satisfied that day’s craving for pho well enough. Don’t bother with the spring rolls though; if you do, you’ll get 6 really tiny pieces and pay over $5 for it.

In a nutshell: if you live downtown and can’t drive out to Main or Fraser for truly fantastic pho and Vietnamese cuisine, stop by Saigon Venture and see if it’ll do the job.