Spice Saigon: New Vietnamese Neighborhood Gem

My fiancé and I became very excited when we saw a Vietnamese restaurant was opening up down the block from us. Of course we checked out Spice Saigon (1237 First Ave., New York, NY) during opening week, and it not only lived up to our expectations, but we were impressed and are excited to return!

Saigon Spice has a warm, cozy, and inviting atmosphere. Upon entering the restaurant we realized that they did not serve liquor or wine, but offered BYOB with no corkage. This certainly did not stop Ben from running across the street to get wine from our apartment, to return only two minutes later with a double bottle for our group of four! Convenience is key! They did tell us that they are working on their liquor license, so perhaps soon there will be alcohol available there.
The menu had many interesting and unique items that I have never tried, since I am not as well versed in Vietnamese food, as I am with Chinese, Thai, and Japanese.

Shrimp Stick -
6 pieces of grilled shrimp sate, served with green leaves and dipping sauce

To start, we had 3 appetizers to share for the table. The Shrimp Stick was delicious and simple. It was lightly grilled so each shrimp was slightly crunchy. The dipping sauce that came with this dish was sweet and made each bite extremely enjoyable! This was a great dish to share because there were 6 pieces of shrimp.

Pan Fried Pork Dumplings

The pan fried pork dumplings were moist and tasty. They were crispy and crunchy on the edges, but also doughy in the middle, which is just the way I like them!

Shrimp Summer Roll 
Soft Salad Rolls with shrimp, lettuce, rice vermicelli, and aromatic herbs in rice paper, served with peanut dipping sauce

The shrimp summer rolls were really refreshing and filled with more shrimp than I have seen before in rice paper before. They were the perfect healthy "palate cleanser" and were served with a delicious peanut dipping sauce.

Saigon Spicy Shrimp
Jumbo Prawns coated with water chestnuts, flour, cooked till crispy, then sauteed with garlic, ginger, scallions, hot pepper and fried shallots. Hot and Spicy.

The entrees were all very unique and all had different flavors and spices. The Saigon Spicy Shrimp was spicy, but not too over the top. The shrimp was coated with water chestnuts and flour and fried. They reminded me of a more exciting version of calamari. They were topped with hot peppers, scallions, ginger, and fried shallots which added a lot of flavor and spice to each bite. It was a perfect entree for sharing.

Grilled Beef with Angel Hair Noodles 
Famous Angel Hair noodles with fried shallots, garlic, scallions, roasted peanuts and green leaves with grilled lemongrass beef

The Grilled Beef with Angel Hair Noodles were placed on a bed of anger hair patties that were a great to make the meal into small sandwiches. We all were able to make angel hair wraps with the beef and the vegetables, which added some excitement to the dinner. The meat was tender, moist, and very flavorful. The roasted peanuts that were sprinkled on top of the beef added some crunch and texture to the dish while also adding a nice additional flavor. 

Singapore Style Pork
Large chunks of tender pork cooked with five spices in Singapore style curry sauce. Hot and Spicy.

Lastly, we enjoyed the Singapore Style Pork, which was my favorite dish. The pork slices were cut large and thick, and cooked to perfection. They were extremely tender and melted in your mouth. This dish thrived in flavor, and was cooked in the Singapore style five spices curry sauce. It was moderately spicy and very enjoyable. I am glad we decided to add this dish on at the very end of the meal.
I am so happy to have a new casual Vietnamese place in the UES close to us. This should make a BYOB date night in our future extremely convenient! I think it also says something great about a place when all four of us at dinner had a different favorite dish. Clearly this restaurant caters to a wide variety of tastes! We will be heading back there soon!