14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
Despite food court setting, some Vietnamese dishes shine
Review and photos by
MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
D
Despite its location — just
past the Carousel Mall, fl anked by
funky T-shirt shops on Broadway
in the heart of Seaside’s tourist
vortex — the Saigon Deli can feel
a little desolate. It’s parked in the
middle of a mall-esque food court,
whose bygone, un-styled, worn
dining room could use a hug. The
space is home to three other vendor
windows, though rarely are all four
open simultaneously. Sometimes
anodyne pop tunes play over the
stereo. Other times you could hear
a pin drop or the wailing of chil-
dren and cars on the street outside.
While only at a few feet’s remove
from Broadway, the court can feel
a little lonely.
Fortunately, some of Saigon
Deli’s regional fl avors supersede a
somewhat neglected setting.
Best I can tell, the deli is the
North Coast eatery centered around
Vietnamese cuisine. The deli also
carries an array of Bubble Teas,
though I focused primarily on the
food. Well, that’s not entirely true.
I did have a Thai Iced Tea ($4),
which — compared to the Viet-
namese Coffee and smoothies —
had the least sugar. It was orange
and milky and, while still sweet,
was punctuated with herbal fl ora.
I began with the Vermicelli
($9.50), which the counterperson
described to me as something akin
to a salad. While I did appreciate
the newly cut veggies dotting the
top of the dish, the heaping base of
rice noodles were fi t for a mara-
thon runner — anything but light.
I dressed them with a mild, sweet
fi sh sauce (served on the side) and
combined them with the nicely
charred pork but, not needing
for empty carbohydrate calories,
quickly ran out of any use for the
noodles. The slippery white tangle
began slurping up everything else
in the bowl — the peanuts, shards
of cucumber and carrots, the onion,
cilantro and green onions — and I
dug them out. After I’d found them
all, the bowl remained three-quar-
ters full with those squiggly noo-
dles. In the interest of not sounding
too whiny: Better to have more
fi ller than not enough, I guess.
My return trips to the Saigon
Deli were somewhat fraught. One
evening I arrived at 7:15 p.m. on a
Thursday to fi nd the gate shut-
tered. Despite the building’s posted
hours (11 a.m. to 8 p.m.) I would
later learn that the Saigon, which
displayed no hours of its own,
closed at 6 p.m. It wouldn’t be the
last time I showed up to fi nd the
deli closed when it fi gured to be
in prime time.
(Info online
needs to be
updated too.)
Without any
more hem-
ming, hawing
of fi nger point-
ing — indeed
there is a criti-
cal shortage of
workers — I’ll
just say this:
The Saigon
Deli is a spot
for lunch, not
dinner.
After tracking its rhythms, I
fi nally returned to fi nd the lights
on. This particular day was cold
and rainy. I had Pho ($9.50), which
warmed me through and through.
But it did more than that — I was
entranced with the broth, whose
seasoning offered a dance with
steps I have yet to encounter as
the Mouth. It twinkled with anise,
cloves, ginger and more. The salty,
complex liquid made the rice noo-
dles this time worth slurping up.
The beef was supple — sliced wide
and thin, cooked tender, peppery,
just a shade over pink. Alongside
the sloshing bowl came a plate of
bean sprouts, slices of lime and
jalapeños, and a forest of cilantro.
I added the bean sprouts to the
soup; they gave it crisp earthiness.
A squeeze of lime opened the broth
up like a springtime thaw.
SAIGON DELI
Above: Saigon Deli’s pho features a
seasoned broth that will warm you
up on a chilly day.
Left: The Mouth devoured the Bahn
Mi sandwich in no time.
Below: The Vermicelli bowl is a cold
salad of veggies, pork, onions, pea-
nuts and sauce atop a heaping base
of noodles.
Along the way too I tried the
Rice Plate ($9.50), which I found
a tad underwhelming. The chicken
was reasonably well cooked, but
the veggies were lacking — there
weren’t nearly enough of them. I
shouldn’t even consider counting
the amount of cucumber and carrot
shards, much less actually do so.
The iceberg lettuce had no place on
the plate, be it in texture or fl avor.
Much the same can be said of
the Fried Noodles ($9.50). While
swapping egg noodles for the
rice, this was another carb-heavy,
fl avor-light brick that yearned for
more veggies. (In such cases, I
found liberal use for the house-
made, fresh-ground chili paste.)
The Banh Mi ($7.50), how-
ever, was a champ. The slender
chunks of pork were both juicy and
blackened — good barbecue. The
bread offered a similar sensation
— a fl aky, crumbling thin crust
and soft innards. With carrots,
cucumber, cilantro and a creamy,
mayo-like spread (it might’ve just
been mayo), the ratios were right
Rating:
200 Broadway, Seaside
PHONE: 503-738-6628
HOURS: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Thursday to Sunday.
PRICE: $ – No entrée over $10
SERVICE: Helpful counter
service.
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN
OPTIONS: Lacks tofu/meat
replacements.
DRINKS: Thai iced tea, Viet-
namese coff ee, smoothies,
bubble tea.
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
Poor
Below average
Good
Excellent
Best in region
on. The only issue? It could’ve
been bigger. To put it another way:
I devoured it in no time.
The sandwich, like the pho, is
something worth coming back for
— regardless of the setting.