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Saigon Annam Vietnamese Cuisine

I love eating Vietnamese food, especially during cold winter evenings when I don’t want to cook. This usually happens during weekends, and my favourite Vietnamese restaurant doesn’t open on Sundays, so I was out on a hunt looking for a new Vietnamese cuisine that was opened! I found one, and I like it! It’s Saigon Annam Vietnamese Cuisine which is opened daily from 11:00 to 9:00PM. This business is located on 24th Street SE just off Deerfoot Trail and Douglasdale Blvd/24th Street exit. It’s at the same area as Sobeys plaza, but further west. It is a stand-alone building.

We started our meal with their Prawn Salad Rolls which came on a plate with 4 salad rolls, which was decent in size, for $6.50, I wouldn’t expect it to be small. The shrimp was quite fresh, which is always a delight! The worse thing is having soggy shrimp with a fishy smell/taste! But, thankfully this little restaurant doesn’t server stuff like that!

We wanted a good satay noodle, as the last time we had one, it was nothing but chili oil in the soup – which isn’t “satay” flavour. So, we ordered a bowl of Satay Beef Noodle Soup, and we love it! It was actually a bit spicy and it offered some great satay flavour! There was a lot of noodles and beef in the bowl, and for a price of $9.50, it ranks in on the high end of regular Vietnamese noodle prices. I really like the portion sizes that justifies the price tag!

As the temperatures get colder and colder, all I want is spice! So, I ordered a bowl of Bun Bo Hue which is something I order a lot, but with caution since a lot of times, it just turns into a bowl of SUPER spicy noodles with again, no taste. I am happy to say it was really good here, and the texture of their noodles was perfect! It was just a great bowl of Bun Bo Hue – and now I’m thinking about ordering another bowl for take-out tonight!

Overall, I really like this place. The service is great, fast and friendly. The cost is really decent for the amount of food you get (even though it’s Asian food), and it’s not too far from home! I’m sure I’ll be back, and I know I would love to thy their Vietnamese submarines, as I haven’t had a delicious one in a long time!

Saigon Annam Vietnamese Cuisine on Urbanspoon

Saigon Annam Vietnamese Cuisine

11566 24 St SE
Calgary, AB T2Z3J3
(403) 457-3885

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Pho Taurus – Calgary, Alberta

We really like Vietnamese cuisine, not only are they filling, but they usually are very reasonable in prices – especially when you can find a location that is really delicious! We’ve been going to Pho Taurus for a few years now, and we stopped with a 2 year period in between… and in which they’ve renovated the place and the food it seems.

I love their appetizers especially their Roasted Quail dish! It comes in a plate with 2 quails, and they are always perfectly cooked and tastes delicious! The skin is always crispy and the meat remains juicy. They are something I always get from Pho Taurus and I still love it! And, of course when you visit a Vietnamese restaurant, you always have to order their Vietnamese Spring Roll and these come in a plate of 4 crispy fried spring rolls filled with ground pork, chicken & vegetable

For the actual meal, I like to get the Rare Beef with Beef Balls Noodle Soup which seems to be my trend, while my husband just gets the Rare Beef Noodle Soup which is the same thing without the beef balls. Usually, this place makes these bowls of pho packed with flavour, but this time, it seemed quite watered down. We don’t normally stock up on tons of Hoisin Sauce and Srichacha Sauce but this time we weren’t left with any choice but to do so…

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As Pho Taurus was once my favourite locations back in 2008/09 and suddenly upon returning, it was quite disappointing that the soup was watered down so badly we didn’t know what to do with our noodle soups. Hopefully it’s a phase they’ll soon recover from.

Pho Taurus

#311-500 Country Hills Blvd NE
Calgary, AB T3K5G9
(403) 567-1228

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The Noodle Bus – Food Truck Calgary

One of Calgary’s newest Street Food would be The Noodle Bus which is a food truck with Vietnamese cuisine on-board! This truck is wonderful, fast and delicious as it offers great quality food at reasonable price — really quickly! It’s actually faster to get food from The Noodle Bus than it is to order and wait at the food court.

We tried a few things just to get a good sample of the food. The first thing we ordered was the Lemongrass Chicken Skewer and it came in a little tray of 3 skewers covered in sauce. The sauce was really good, but it seems like they put a little too much alcohol which was weird as normally they don’t have alcohol in lemongrass chicken… but, regardless, the taste wasn’t bad, just a little off! And, it’s okay to me, as they just opened up less than a week. As for the lemon grass flavour, that we definitely there and I enjoyed my skewers! It got a little messy to eat as the chicken didn’t slide off the skewers, but that’s why I got paper napkins!

We had an appetizer which was the Springrolls and it came in a tray of 3 springrolls. These were gems as we loved it! Even though it was cold out, it stayed hot forever! It was really crispy on the outside and the inside was packed with goodness!! It is one of the best fried springrolls I’ve had in awhile, and I’m so excited to say it was off a food truck! What are others doing!? Oh well.

Finally, we had a Beef Noodle Soup and we didn’t do the Satay flavour. I think the soup was prepared for customers to order it with the satay sauce, so I found the soup to be lacking in some salt. This does make sense, otherwise when you do order it with Satay, it would be way too salty. It was alright anyway, because we poured the rest of the fish sauce from the spring roll in and turn the bowl of noodles to extra-delicious! The saltiness from the fish sauce was really all it was needing! The bowl of noodles was very large in size and probably bigger than some local restaurants that charge more for it!

This was a wonderful truck, and I think it will do well – in any season as it can warm you up with their selection of hot food, or cool you down with refreshing vermicelli bowls. I’m sure I’ll be returning when we cross paths with the food trucks again! I love the food truck community! 🙂