Saigon Pho a perfect reintroduction to Vietnamese cuisine

Before last week, it had been some time since I’d last enjoyed a good bowl of pho.

It’s not that I don’t like Vietnamese food – quite the opposite, having eaten my way through pounds of pho back in my college days. Maybe instead that oversaturation led to my longstanding break.

Whatever the case, absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say.

During a visit last week to Saigon Pho & Grill in Sugar Land, 4645 State Highway 6, I let my eyes and fondness for Vietnamese food get the best of me and ordered altogether too much food.

A lengthy menu proves something of a task to navigate, especially for someone who is hungry. But I opted to solve the problem by simply ordering a bit of everything – a bowl of chicken pho (which I hadn’t remembered was an option), a banh mi and an order of vegetarian egg rolls.

That’s quite a bit of food for one person, but exceptionally reasonable menu prices helped make the decision palatable.

Both the egg rolls and banh mi were fine – filling and containing all the necessary components, but without much in the way of frill. For my money, the best banh mi in Fort Bend County will always be Stafford’s Vietwich. And these didn’t quite measure up.

Anything lacking in those two menu items was more than made up for by how tasty that bowl of pho ended up being.

One of my favorite things about the dish is its versatility and uniqueness. You want a little more spice? Try adding a bit of sriracha to the bowl. If you need some more textures, perhaps some additional veggies will do the trick.

In this case, the bowl that appeared at my table – piping hot and more than reasonably sized – needed little in the way of alteration. Rather, it was a perfect reintroduction to what makes pho such an attractive option in the first place.

The chicken was tasty and the soup itself smelled positively heavenly. As I neared the bottom half of the bowl, my stomach finally caught up with me and I started to get full.

But, rest assured dear readers, I soldiered on to the bottom of that bowl.

I still have a lot to learn about the Vietnamese food scene in Fort Bend County after last week’s visit. For instance, I chose this restaurant mostly based on the fact that we haven’t reviewed it before and the Google reviews for it were pretty good.

If I’d been driving by on Highway 6, I’m not sure anything about the exterior of the restaurant would have stood out to me.

Based on my experience last week, it seems I might have to dust off my pho hat sooner rather than later.

Saigon Pho & Grill in Sugar Land

Address: 4645 State Highway 6, Sugar Land

Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Sunday

Entrée prices: $8-$13

Kid-friendly: Yes

Alcohol: No

Senior discount: No

Healthy options: Tofu vermicelli ($11)

Star of the show: Chicken pho

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars