vietnamese saigon star - 1 star :-( Is it just me?

It was pouring with rain when i set out today to get my lunch and i had a hankering for roast duck and pork 328, but i can't base my entire blog about my eating experiences there cos that would be tedious. So seeing as it was far, and the legs of my pants were soaked despite my umbrella, and i was only on the upper part of smith street, i decided to give a vietnamese restaurant a go today.

While Darwin is often described as having the best asian food outside asia because of the masses of asian families residing here, there is only one reknowned vietnamese restaurant here - Vietnam Saigon Star. I know it might be unrealistic to expect un-westernised asian food in the west, but there you go - thats what i was after - an authentic vietnamese experience. You can probably guess that wasn't what i got.... i wanted something fast and i was twirling (the phrase anyone knows me uses to describe the lightheaded crazy state i go into when my blood sugar drops and i need food FAST) which never helps my decision-making. So once the woman personning the counter established i was there to get something to take away i was handed the lunch menu. To my disappointment it wasn't that imaginative, pretty standard stuff - i dunno about you, but if a menu is interesting, things will grab my attention straight up - if i have to read it over and over again hoping to find something i missed the first time then its just not going to be good. But i was kind of in a spot - twirling, wet and needing to eat - so i resigned myself to an average eating experience.

I ended up spotting a tomato rice with diced beef on the back page of the lunch menu that in my twirling haze i thought was like the vietnamese stew you get at Annas in leederville in perth, which is rich and yummy and full of meltingly good beef and star anise - but no! Once i ordered it, i realised it said rice fried in tomato and when i tried to clarify with the woman, she mentioned tomato sauce and fried rice and i panicked not wanting any fried tomato sauce business. Then she said i could have my diced beef cubes WITH steamed rice which sounded even worse. So i did a redo. Asked for the proper menu. Cancelled the beef cubes, ordered prawn rice paper rolls for entree and beancurd and mushroom as a main off the vegetarian section of the menu.

This set me back $20 which was tooooooo much for what i got. I carried it back to my desk - i'd like to say it was with anticipation, but it was with something decidedly less than anticipation. What was it like? I ended up with 3 pork and prawn rice paper rolls - these didn't look flash but they were yummy and fresh and minty - and a bowl of very large tofu pieces, carrots and tender shitake mushrooms in a nondescript sauce - which is an odd thing to have for lunch. And an odd combination, those carrots just didn't belong there - and does anyone else have a prejudice about big round pieces of carrot? i'm not a carrot fan at the best of times - but when they're BIG and ROUND - well that's just not right. I truly believe that restaurants have a tricky time dealing with vegetarians and they throw these weird things together that just don't belong together just cos they're vegies! And there is just NO EXCUSE for not making it even a little bit memorable with a bit of coriander or basil, or SOMETHING! AND i ate it all and i'm still hungry. AND i spilt it all over my new pants which made me feel even sulkier.

So would i go back? I might. If i did, i'd order some pho and see if that made me feel like i was living in Vietnam. But I don't think it would, so i don't know that I will.

Vietnam Saigon Star
Shop 4/21 Smith and Knuckey St
Darwin Central
Ph: 89811420
Dine in/takeaway
Open for lunch and dinner