Miss Saigon
6th & Mission
Pros: Clean place, friendly people
Cons: Everything else
Price: $7.94 (main and a glass of water with a slice of cucumber in it)
Style: Traditional Vietnamese in a modern setting
Overall grade: F
Should you happen to have just recently finished your session with a prostitute in one of the local hourly motels this might just be the lunch spot for you. Upon entering, the smell of bleach instantly burns your eyes, which might or might not be the reason why it’s about the only place in the neighborhood that has clean windows. But hey, you needed the disinfecting anyway. A friendly hostess seated me at one of the many empty tables came over. (All the tables were all empty, but I assumed that was because it was early).
The menu had all the staples of traditional Vietnamese restaurants and I opted for a pork and rice dish, Thit heo ram man (“Sliced pork stir fried in hot chilli, garlic sauce” according to the translation). I will admit that whatever arrived about 90 seconds later was sliced, but beyond that I have my doubts. It was somewhat of a sticky sweet taste maybe close to what melted fly paper tastes like. The pork (assuming it was pork, or even meat) had clearly been cooked the day (or week) before a had just then been reheated, somewhat, and probably in a microwave
The final straw came when on the third bite I found something that looked strikingly like the tail end of a cricket. I was later assured that it was part of an “onion”, but I somehow felt the need to head to the nearest (or maybe not exactly the nearest) pharmacy to self medicate. All in all, should you happen to end up in or around this restaurant, save your $8, walk half a block and buy a crack rock; you’ll thank me later.
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