Saigon Star

Laksa Soup Noodles at Saigon Star

Saigon Star is one of the many restaurants that is located at Highway 7 and Chalmers Road. It’s a casual restaurant that serves Vietnamese food. I’ve been to this restaurant a couple of times before; once when I was a kid and my relatives wanted to try the popular curry crab and another time when my friend and I were coming from a movie at the Richmond Hill theatre and instead of choosing to be stuck in traffic on the congested Highway 7, we stopped in here for dinner instead. My recollection of this restaurant is that it was so-so. I didn’t particularly like the food or care for it enough to have a good memory of it.

Located at 330 Hwy-7 E in Richmond Hill

On a weekday during the holidays, we decided to come here for lunch and to see if it lived up to its hype again. It turns out that they have a really affordable lunch menu at only $7.99. There are three lunch menus and the three variations of it all include a soup of the day, spring roll, a specific kind of meat, noodles or rice, and a tea or coffee. It was a really good deal! We ordered the Thai Combo specifically which had the tom yum soup of the day, Thai spring roll, grilled chicken satay, and pad thai noodles. It was really good and I really liked the grilled chicken satay. The chicken on the skewers were grilled perfectly and really soft. The satay sauce was also not too overpowering. Everything fit onto the square plate and it was the perfect portion for one person dining in for lunch. The spring roll was crunchy and fairly good. The pad thai was quite yummy as well.

Thai Lunch Combo: Soup of the day, Thai Spring Roll, Grilled Chicken Satays, Pad Thai Noodles ($7.99)

The other dish we ordered was a Laksa soup noodle. Despite it being a Laksa soup, it actually wasn’t too spicy. The noodles were good and I really admired how the soup was very thick and rich. It wasn’t watery or thin at all. They were very generous in making sure that the soup was actually of Laksa and rich in ingredients. I was impressed.

Laksa Soup Noodles. $6.50

Mango and cranberry juice. $1

Lastly, I also ordered a drink — a mango and cranberry juice. It was only $1 so it was definitely worth a try. It sounded unique and it tasted very refreshing and it was a really good blend of mango and cranberry. I really liked it!

Coffee that came with the lunch combo

Overall, after visiting this restaurant again, I would say that Saigon Star is worth a visit. The food is pretty good for its price, the service is decent and quick, and I also wasn’t left thirsty after the meal even though I figured they used a lot of MSG in their cooking — not feeling thirsty at all means that there probably wasn’t MSG added at all. Score! Let me know what your experience at Saigon Star is. 🙂

Saigon Star storefront

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May 21, 2018: We returned to dine here for lunch, just the two of us again, five years later. Looking back, we ordered pretty much the same thing. My opinion of this place remains similar. The food is mediocre to good. Also, look at how much their prices have jumped! The Laksa Soup Noodles used to be just $6.50. As of May 2018, the same thing cost $9.50.