Last Saturday, PenangTuaPui went to Miss Saigon for a food review courtesy of the owner. Miss Saigon has just launched their new menu focussing on Vietnamese Street food. Well, since our first review on Miss Saigon some time back, the feedback wasn’t that good and in fact it led to quite a heated argument then with one particular reader accusing us of not knowing how to enjoy Vietnamese food.

Hmm, well we’re not true blue, pure Vietnamese but we sure know what are good foods and what are not. Our previous visits had us wondering what the hell went wrong with the food standard in Penang when we expected the best, the best wasn’t given but merely mediocre standard. Looking at the dishes really made us wonder then if we had stepped into the right restaurant in the first place.

After all, we got the message from the owner of Miss Saigon that eventually invited us for the review again in conjunction with their newly launched menu. Well, nothing is permanent and change is the only constant right? After all, if the owners are genuinely looking for feedback to improve their standards, it should be a good thing, right? 

What we could say from this round’s of food review is that Miss Saigon has improved quite a lot on the menu and the presentation as well as on the freshness of the ingredients. The varieties were splendid with choices of chicken and beef of the same dish, giving the flexibility for the customers who don’t take beef but would still want the similar dish.

From bad to good, because we did see the improvement but there’s always room for improvement. One thing we kind of dislike was the price of each dishes. They’re quite pricey for the dishes we had especially when most of them are basically snacks not meant to make you full. Based on our discussions with the owner, the reason of having slightly higher price dishes was due to the fact it needed more time to prepare, hence the steeper price. But from customers poin of view, we don’t care or don’t bother how long that’s going to take to prepare as long as the food tasted nice and affordable. 

Perhaps this is something Miss Saigon can work out to reach to more affordable market especially with recent economic uncertainties where people are tightening the budget and at the same time still able to make healthy margin to remain a F&B player in Penang market.