Miss Saigon Hurstville NSW

Stir fried flat rice noodles buried under a heap of veg, chicken, corn bits and carrots.

I recall having dropped by this restaurant many years ago when Hurstville was already showing signs of being one of the most non-mainstream suburbs in the southern part of the greater Sydney area.  


The restaurant's name resonated with a spectacular and popular musical staged at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney's Chinatown, with the inevitable Filipino artiste taking the lead about the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the American War.


Well, this modest place at one end of the now crowded and bustling Forest Road, the main business strip for Hurstville, continues to dish out standard fare from the Vietnamese cooking genre.   Perhaps the strategy is to provide good old simple fare that is modestly priced, consistent with expectations of the target market, who could be families out on a social outing, singles and couples who cannot bother to cook and those in a hurry to have a quick meal after alighting from the nearby rail station or from many of the passing buses.


I did notice an interesting section this recent visit on the menu - starch noodle soup or the Hu Tieu Dai.   They come served  steaming hot with the usual seafood or pork chops.  Why starched? To me, it looked like the Koay Teow Thng soup found in many street food locales in south-east Asia,  especially popular amongst Fujian diaspora who settled away from southern China overseas for  many generations by now.


Pho, of course is a useful, iconic test for any Vietnamese food place and Miss Saigon serves only beef options here, still tasty according to my mates.


One of my fav orders at such places is the Chim Cut, or marinated quail pieces then deep fried to give an extra crunch on the bite.    Another quick snack is the Banh Xeo, where bean sprouts, pork slices, prawns and chopped shallots are whipped up into a pancake fold, which is presented with fresh mint leaves, fish sauce dips and freshly peeled lettuce on your plate.


The restaurant looks a bit jaded in its walls - and although the framed wood cuts are lovely, perhaps need a refreshed overhaul in look and feel, away from its rather current brownish feel.  There are competitors nearby, but perhaps mainly from the mainland China variety, which does offer another sort of cuisine, more affecting the traditional Cantonese culinary places. 


Still, Miss Saigon is open the whole day and echoes comfort food for many Asian- Australians, even if the younger ones have moved one in taste, residential base and mindset to other parts of greater Sydney - or even to London, California, Singapore and back to Vietnam itself.


I did enjoy my serve of the Viet-Chinese version of Sar Hor Fun.  The wok heat came through the noodles,  the serving size was not over the top and the stir fry was thorough  (first photo on this blog post).   There was no pennywort drink that day but we settled fro the young coconut juice at AUD3.50, a bargain price compared to most similar restaurants these days.

Miss Saigon is located at 185C Forest Road, Hurstville NSW.

Opening hours are from 10am to 10pm every day.
Contact    + 61 2 9585 0068



My impressions of Miss Saigon at Hurstville NSW:
Ambiance: 2.5 out of 5

Customer Engagement:  3.5 out of 5
Culinary Delight:  3.5 out of 5
X Factor: 2.5  out of 5
Overall:   12 /4  out of 5