Review Saigon '60s - Rotorua

📍Saigon’60S Originally, we planned to have Japanese food for lunch, but since we arrived late, we ended up finding a Vietnamese restaurant on the roadside. 🍗Lemongrass chicken with rice Taste 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 🏮Review🏮The chicken was a bit tough, which affected the overall taste, and the flavor was also on the milder side. 🐮Beef Pho Taste 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 🏮Review🏮The broth was pleasantly sweet, but unfortunately, the beef slices were slightly overcooked. Hygiene 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 Service Attitude 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 Likelihood of revisiting 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 💰Total cost: $39

The pho soup is a bit sweet. They don’t serve with lime nor basil. I asked for lime but since they don’t hv, she gave me lemon instead. After adding ground chili and lemon juice, it’s perfect. The beef is very tender and tasty. The pho broth is boiled with only cow bones, no pork bones. So Muslim can eat.

We ordered a beef rice noodle, spicy lemongrass noodle, Baguette, spring roll and pancake with coffees. The baguette is fantastic. The noodles are overall a bit sweet but it’s better with chillies. Coffees are pretty okay. Recommend this place!

Nice authentic Vietnamese noodle! My favorite is spicy pho (noodle soup). I tried both - regular one and spicy one. Nice and relaxed environment with friendly staff. Recommended if you like Vietnamese food.

Have you tried the Vietnamese egg coffee before? This place probably does the next best egg coffee after northern Vietnam! Multiple food varieties to choose from!

Limited seat. Beef Pho is ok. Pho is a bit hard though. If you haven’t tried iced egg coffee before, I would suggest this item.

This is the best Vietnamese restaurant I have ever come across. The food is authentic. The chef’s special is highly recommended. It’s duck meat braised in curry sauce. The meat is tenderly cooked and the sauce is blended with lemongrass and coconut cream, which makes the dish so delicious.

For rice dish, felt a bit pricy for the portion of the meat. The vermicelli noodle salad, noodle portion is very big.

Strong bold flavours, quick service. I liked the egg coffee, but my partner thought it was gimmicky and not hot enough, she liked the traditional Vietnamese coffee. Pho was good, would be better with a wedge of lemon or lime and some fresh chilli's (they only gave chopped chilli). The BBQ pork rice was awesome, nicely caramelized and no smell. The sauce worked well with the dish. Lovely place. Will come eat here next time we are in Rotorua.

A basic, plastic table , hole—in-the-wall, with a simple, pared down southern Vietnamese place. Choices of Phó’ are limited to choice of protein, and my beef pho came simply with sliced meat and bean shots added on top. A steady takeaway business supplemented the few tourists and locals dropping in for a simple meal. At NZ$20 for a bowl, it seemed expensive , but was quite reasonable value for New Zealand prices. Satisfying my desire for pho, it was quite acceptable, if not the richest or most complex broth. When in Rotorua, I shall return No toilets and drinking water on tap

Delicious pho and soup. The spicy lemongrass soup was one of the tastiest things I've eaten in the area, though be warned, it is legitimately spicy! The perfect amount of spice for me, absolutely delicious. The flavor of the soup is also rich and deep.

Very cool joint, food is very nice, and quiet different to the Viet food I normally see from Auckland. Shop is small but service is great and its bustling. Nice feeling to eat here, and needless to say the food was all very delicious. Plenty of street parking outside as well, and they also have free Wifi.

I went here with my parents as a last minute dinner, as we were having a day trip to Rotorua from Tauranga. To be completely honest, this is now one of our favorite Asian food places!! The place is absolutely adorable, such a cozy atmosphere and the lady is kind and friendly. The food is delicious, it was freezing outside so we thought to get the Pho and the BBQ pork that came with a side of soup to warm us up. It definitely did!! Amazing place overall, the mural on the wall with a little story on how the owners met was a beautiful touch. This will definitely be a go-to place if we stop by Rotorua again!!

Beautiful food !! Although the place was packed , they still managed to serve our food fast ! . Forgot to cook our chips tho , so we had to remind them . Other then that definitely recommend!! Absolutely love their soups.

server/waitress not wearing mask. Food: Udon texture was perfect. Stronger flavours than what we had last time. husband loves their salad with pork. I enjoyed the cold coffee too and avocado smoothie.

A pleasant escape from the mundane dining options. With a variety of unfamiliar foods on the menu, there will be something to keep you interested for a long time. The food was full of flavours and captivating to the very last mouthful. The presentation of the restaurant is very pleasing to look at

I feel this is quite a polarising restaurant. The words used to describe the flavours to me by a local was “heavy” and “gamey”. My chefs special pork pancake was perfectly crunchy with a strong fish sauce on top, almost to the point of oily but balanced by the zing of the citrus in the salad. <br/> My wife’s classic beef pho definitely had a few extra flavours in it I couldn’t quite identify. As an Asian she found it authentic and delightful, I found it different and somewhat unexpected. Not your run of the mill chain restaurant, I felt it was a bold take on Vietnamese style. <br/> The staff were helpful and informative, the restaurant seemed full of difficult people with strange requests that were all handled well and politely while we where there. Busy on a Monday night post covid!<br/> It did feel crammed and not much in the way of privacy, other than that a great food adventure.

If I could give this restaurant a 0 star rating I would. I ordered the Beef Pho, for $14+ I was expecting a beautiful broth and tender beef. Instead I got overcooked noodles, a broth that smelled gamey, and 3 stingy pieces of colourless beef. My partner ordered the Grilled Pork on rice, which was $15+, what we got was a very small portion of fatty off-cuts of pork - which would have been bearable if the meat didn't smell like leather boots that had been in the rain for 3 days. <br/><br/>There is no way that any fresh meat that is cooked in clean oil, in a clean pan can have that stench. My partner has a higher standard for food than I do, so I tried some - I have never in my life rejected food or left a plate uneaten - but the food was so terrible that I felt compelled to tell the owner. <br/><br/>I told her very politely, that I don't want to offend her, but there is a smell in the meat and that we cannot eat this. She then became very defensive and unfriendly, she said that it is the "New Zealand pork" that has a bad smell and refused to amend anything or offer even a portion of a refund - even though one dish was not eaten at all and the other was maybe only 1/3 consumed.<br/><br/>Will NEVER come back here again - and will tell my colleagues, friends and family to avoid this place like the plague if they visit Rotorua.<br/><br/>Don't eat here unless you want a terrible experience with stinky meat, overcooked gluggy rice, overcooked rice noodles and terrible service and business ethic.

Had the beef pho, lemongrass chicken and summer rolls which were all super tasty, especially the beef pho, way better than all the Vietnamese restaurants that I’ve ever had. Beef pho soup was full of flavour and the beef was super tender. Highly recommended.

This was my first experience for Vietnamese dining in Rotorua. My rating is based on food quality, wait time, affordability & service. <br/><br/>The greeting at the door from staff was inviting, allowed us to choose a table (I dislike sitting by the door). It was clean, warm & cosy. Unlike other establishments where the menu can be overcrowded & I often find myself ordering based on a picture of the dish or someone else’s preferred dish, the menu here was easy to read & well laid out. We ordered the Vietnamese spring rolls, Chicken Pho, Summer spring rolls & seafood stir fry. Vietnamese spring rolls were great, served with a sweet chilli sauce, they complimented each other well, but that’s to be expected. The chicken pho broth was delicious, I even suggested it to family, I’m not a fan of coriander but it didn’t over power the dish so I was even happy to have had that. The summer rolls were good & the peanut sauce they served with it was yum. The seafood stir fry was an extra $1, and was expected. Prawns, mussels, crab meat & squid rings were very average served with your usual stir fry vegetables. All was served hot & within 10 minutes of our order being taken. Very happy with the service. I would recommend & return. I hoping to try their beef stew next visit.

After reading the previous reviews it got my hopes up too high. It’s not as close to to eating on the streets of Hanoi as I would’ve liked - I was disappointed with the banh xeo - it was made with shredded cabbage (not a single bean sprout to be seen) and big slices of thin pork belly (bacon-like cut) rather than pork mince.The dishes are little on the pricey side, but well presented, fresh, big portions and the place had a nice atmosphere and prompt and courteous service. Egg coffee is quite yummy but seems like it has been adapted to local tastes - possibly flavoured with a caramel sauce.

Beef Pho soup is very authentic and very good, the prices are affordable. The vegetarian dishes of theirs are also good. Visited on Saturday at lunchtime, almost all our dishes arrived within five minutes. Waitress is quite helpful.

Visited this particular restaurant on a rainy morning in the city. Really tasty, authentic Vietnamese food. Having the noodle soup with their egg coffee took me back to our time in Hanoi. Service was great and welcoming. Give this place a go if you are after true simple Vietnamese foods.

Stopped by for late dinner. The place was really quiet which was exactly what I needed, but was wanting it being a bit busier! Beef pho was very nice, the taste was great though far a bit much noodles. Would come once again to try out more dishes.

Wow honestly, they really exceeded the expectations of ours. Beautifully presented food, huge proportions we could not eat it all. Service that is great and place is tidy. Menu is very kid-friendly with large variety. Food is very good, they seems to have a great deal of Vietnamese patrons which sort of speaks for itself truly.

Like other people stumbled across this particular location as not apparent from the roadside. Very great value. Had an excellent night, food was wonderful the staff was knowledgeable and very friendly. Highly recommend the restaurant<br/>.

Enjoyed real Vietnamese dishes. It's been much time since I left the country of mine. Discovered the actual taste of Vietnam right here in New Zealand. What a surprise! Highly suggest the beef salad and beef PHO noodle soup. The chef is very skilled and artistic in how he mixed the ingredients and also do the plating.

Stop by this particular spot on our road trip to Rotorua since I&#039;m Vietnamese and also was craving for Viet meals. Certainly worth the stop as I&#039;m really impressed by how it&#039;s very like those in Vietnam. My parents are a rather picky eater and all appreciate the foods of theirs. Recommend and also will be returned!

Super new authentic Vietnamese food for a fantastic value. The staff is very helpful. Would like to endorse for this. Should test the Vietnamese Egg coffees.

Food that is awesome, super friendly staff, and great prices. Was filled with Asian families which is generally an excellent sign. Quite an excellent food spot<br/>.

It is very hard finding great usual Vietnamese meals around here. So this place really surprised me with the tasty food of theirs and awesome service. Good, full-flavored although not bitter. This particular place may be worth being checked out! I will definitely go back.

What a great experience at Saigon 60s. The restaurant is minimally furnished and many tourists eating there. Go there for a feeling of Vietnam Cuisine. The price is quite high but worth it.