RESTAURANTS: At Sai Gon, the best bet is Vietnamese fare

By Jack Schnedler (Contact)

LITTLE ROCK — It took a tragic war in Southeast Asia to add Vietnamese restaurants to America’s dining spectrum.

Since the 1970s, Vietnamese cooking purveyed by immigrants who’d fled communism has become an established part of the ethnic mix in big cities from Washington and Chicago to Los Angeles.

Little Rock is less blessed in this regard, as is true with assorted other international categories. But there are a couple of decent local outposts, one being the family-operated Sai Gon Cuisine, in business now for almost five years near Stein Mart on Cantrell Road.

A sign above the entrance porch promising “authentic Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai food” denotes that Sai Gon is hedging its bets (rather more so than competitor Van Lang) for central Arkansans to whom the cuisine of Vietnam may still sound too strangely esoteric. The multipage menu unfurls a potentially bewildering array of dinner choices: 80 Vietnamese dishes in 10 categories plus 54 Chinese dishes and 34 Thai dishes.

Another 23 lunch combinations are listed, while several daily specials get posted on a chalkboard. Japanese cuisine gains a toehold on Saturdays and Sundays, when seven kinds of sushi rolls are offered. As a navigational aid, the Vietnamese dishes are coded from V1 to V80, the Chinese from C1 to C54, the Thai from T1 to T34, and the lunches from L1 to L23. That simplifies the ordering, and the English-speaking staff is happy to help map out the menu, which marks 10 Vietnamese dishes with a star as “recommended.”

At two dinners and a lunch this month, wife Marcia and I narrowed the plethora of choices by ordering almost entirely Vietnamese fare, which we remember fondly from 25 years of living in Chicago as well as a week of enjoyable eating during a 2005 trip to Vietnam.

A TOP-FLIGHT LUNCH

What we were served at Sai Gon ranged from just OK to superior, with enoughnear the top end of the range that we’ll surely go back.

Especially laudable was the Sunday lunch, which we began by sharing an order of Bi Cuon (V3). These plump shredded pork rolls ($4.50), wrapped in rice paper, tasted pristinely fresh and boasted a pleasantly tingling after-burn from piquant spicing.

Both our main-course lunch soups earned high marks. Marcia’s Hu Tieu Mi (V23), yellow noodle soup with crab meat, quail egg, shrimp and pork meatballs ($8.50), was scrumptious.

The quail egg added an exotic touch. Equally flavorful and filling was my Pho Do Bien (V18), a soup of rice noodles and seafood ($7.50) generously endowed with shrimp, scallops, squid and crab meat, along with cilantro, fresh basil, bean sprouts, and slices of lime and hot pepper. We tackled both somewhat artlessly with atandem of chopsticks and ceramic soup spoons.

Our least satisfactory choice, which started dinner the first evening, was Sai Gon Kai Vi (V5), a $13.75 sampler plate of egg rolls, cho cho beef, chicken sate and crab rangoon. The presentation on a large platter garnished with orange slices was handsome.

But the egg rolls seemed greasy, the chicken sate somewhat dry, the cho cho beef too chewy, and the crab rangoon short on seafood flavor. Even though the sampler is listed in the menu’s Vietnamese sector, we should have noticed before ordering that the beef and crab are invaders from the Chinesepage, while the chicken sate is a Thai crossover.

Definitely better were our second dinner’s appetizers, especially the Bo Tai Chanh (V9), lemon beef in sweet and sour dressing ($8.50).

The marinated beef filled the bill for flavor, with the garnish of shredded carrots adding visual appeal. We also liked the Chao Tom (V10), deep-fried mixed ground shrimp and pork wrapped around sugar cane ($6.50).

The sugar cane, I learned by trial and error, is merely a prop and not to be gnawed.

GRILLING AT THE TABLE

All four dinner main courses earned a thumbsup to some degree. We had the most fun with Bo Nuong Banh Hoi (V36), translated on the menu as special thin vermicelli with charcoalbroiled marinated beef ($9.50). It arrived as a cookit-yourself then wrap-it-yourself project.

Our waitress brought a sizzling circular grill fueled by canned heat, on which we cooked the thinly sliced beef.

In a bowl of cool water, wemoistened the accompanying rice-paper discs for about four seconds as she had specified. We ran out of rice paper just as we were getting the knack of wrapping the beef, thin noodles, bean sprouts and coriander into a tidy roll. Though our presentation fell short, the taste was terrific.

More conventional was the Mi Xao Don (V59), a gorgeously arranged platter of shrimp, chicken, beef and vegetables atop crispy yellow noodles with a mild brown sauce ($15). Also commendable were the Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio (V29), char-broiled pork over vermicelli garnished with vegetables and slices of egg roll ($8.50), and the Com Ga Xao Xa Ot (V49), rice with stir-fried lemon grass chicken in a curry sauce ($8.75) Deservedly menu-marked with a hot pepper, the chicken was the most fiery item we tried.

From Sai Gon’s list of 14 beers from eight countries, I enjoyed the Vietnamese Hue lager ($3.50) with both dinners. Marcia drank a Frei Brothers chardonnay, the most expensive of 11 wine selections at $6.50 by the glass. Oursweet lunch beverages, Vietnamese Iced Coffee ($3.50) and Thai Iced Tea ($2.50), both hit the spot with their infusion of rich condensed milk.

We dined to the background distraction - not an obtrusive one - of Vietnamese music videos playing from two wall-mounted television sets. The most attractive Oriental element in the decor is the assortment of traditional Vietnamese music instruments mounted on one wall.

Service is amiable, if occasionally a bit inattentive.

The menu’s four desserts didn’t tempt us, partly because we were satisfied from main-course portions ample enough for the makings of a third dinner at home with what we carried away.

We almost did succumb to the lure of Crazy Bubble Tea, a concoction first devised in Taiwan and previously unknown to us. Touted by a laminated advertisement on our table, Crazy Bubble Tea is a dessert-like beverage laced with little pearls of tapioca that sink to the bottom and are slurped through a straw. Next time, it’ll be on our Sai Gon radar.

Sai Gon Cuisine Address: 6805 Cantrell Road, Little Rock Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday Cuisine: Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V Alcoholic beverages: Wine and beer Reservations: Yes Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes (501) 663-4000

Weekend, Pages 71 on 09/21/2007