The Sneak Peek is now a review! Click here to get to it.
I'm busy on a new review of what might actually be the answer to our plaintive cries for local Vietnamese food has opened in Bethany Beach. Located on Rt. 26 (Garfield Parkway), to the right of the WaWa, Zen Saigon is across from DiFebo's in the spot formerly occupied by Sabor (one of the worst-run restaurants I have ever had the displeasure of spending good money to review). Zen Saigon looks clean and seems to be well-managed, given that they have not even been open 2 weeks as of this posting.
Treasures such as summer rolls (goi cuon) and beef pho (2 versions) are on the menu, and both are quite good. There's a little bit of Thai thrown in too. I love Vietnamese food and it appears that owner/chef Kenny is serious about it. Scroll through the gallery for more images of the food. There will be a lot more when I post the review in a day or so.
I've already been a couple of times and so far the place rates 5 stars – including the service. Check their hours at (302) 616-1957.
This isn’t for posting (unless that’s important to you) but only for your own information – us it as you wish. 🙂 We went there tonight, and our review was mixed – definitely liked it enough to give it another try at the end of the season and/or go there again if we’re going to be in the area, but not enough to make another special trip from the Milton/Lewes area any time soon. Ambiance was very nice – way nicer than any Vietnamese restaurant I’ve ever been to, which actually contributed to our sense of it being more committed to being Americanized than Vietnamese (with show tunes playing?!? I still have “Surrey with the fringe on top” stuck in my head three hours later). We started with the spring rolls which were very good but didn’t stand out in any way. I had the pork and rice vermicelli bowl which was good but nothing to go out of my way for. My wife had the Pho which is where we really wanted them to excel but where they fell short the most: Even if they had served it with bean sprouts (which they were out of, and they served shredded lettuce instead – lettuce in a soup?) and thai basil (they offered a few shreds of regular basil) and cilantro (it was listed as an ingredient but we had to ask for it), the broth was tasty but weak/thin, almost giving the sense of a good broth that had been watered down. We’ll give them a B for now but definitely give them another chance.