Saigon Market & Restaurant

With my job, I find myself all over the city… in good areas and bad areas. I’ve found that if you only expose yourself to perfect little, SUV, soccer mom parts of town, where there’s no fear of getting car-jacked or propositioned by a prostitute, then you’re seriously limiting your options for some great “international” food.

Living on the Northwest side of Indy, I’m getting pretty familiar with what I’d call the local version of Epcot’s World Showcase. Just within a few miles radius, you can travel to India, parts of Africa, South America, Mexico, China, Japan and Vietnam. And it’s the real stuff. Not just some knock-off version of a dish that you might find at Noodles and Company.

This brings me to our next global destination. Located close to 30^th and Lafayette Rd., it’s Saigon Market and Restaurant. If you come to this part of town, you can probably get your hands on some crack or other illegal substances, but Saigon’s Bun makes a great substitution. It’s so good, I feel like I’m doing drugs every time I eat it.

During this visit, I got two of my favorite items here: the #4 grilled pork spring rolls (Goi Coun Thit Nuong) and the #84 Vermicelli noodles with grilled lemongrass beef and egg roll (Bun Bo Nuong Cha Gio). It’s a mouth-full, I know. Both of these taste very similar, one is just in spring roll form. The spring rolls are sort of a warm-up if you will.

The atmosphere is nice and Saigon is totally appropriate for a family outing, a date night as well as a business lunch.

Like I said, I get a fix when I eat this stuff. Rice vermicelli noodles, Thai basil, vegetables and grilled meat. How can you go wrong? My favorite part is when I get down to the end of the Bun and it’s a soupy mix of fish sauce, vegetables, Sraracha and meat. I’m in love.

If you’re interested in a possible Vietnamese love connection, just go North of the corner of 30^th and Lafayette Rd. You won’t be sorry. Give it a shot.