Saigon’s Delightful Veggie Pho

One key ingredient to a great experience when dining out is whether or not the establishment is willing to catering to your specific needs and tastes. It’s a no-brainer: Treat your customers well. Give them what they want — within reason, of course — and they will appreciate the extra effort. It keeps them coming back and most likely they’ll spread the word to friends and family.

Saigon House gets it. The next time you’ve got your appetite set on a steaming bowl of pho, look no further. The restaurant typically uses a beef broth for its pho, but if you choose to go meatless, owner Mandy Nguyen and staff will happily oblige. “We do have a vegetable broth,” she says. “It’s not on the menu, but if they request, we use mushroom broth.”

The Pho Tofu Vegetables ($7.75 medium; $8.25 large) is healthy bowlful of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage and tofu along with those hard-to-resist noodles and the aforementioned mushroom broth — a veggie lover’s delight. But remember, when placing your order, be sure to request the mushroom broth or the pho will be prepared with the standard beef broth.

If you’d like to tickle your taste buds a bit before digging into the pho, Saigon House also offers Vegetable Spring Rolls ($6.25) stuffed with taro, yellow beans, carrots, round onion and long rice. “It’s very good,” touts Nguyen.

If that’s not enough, she adds, “We can also put together a vegetable stir-fry with rice.”

Saigon House