Le Petit Saigon

The Tofu Vermicelli Bowl (Bun Dau Hu) at Le Petit Saigon. Photo by Deanna Ladret

Good Afternoon, Vietnam!

You’ve probably seen their sandwich board outside 7 Eleven on Government Street, but if you aren’t a regular at Le Petit Saigon, its tucked away location is easy to miss. Cozily situated on Langley Street (in the block behind the Bard & Banker Pub), Le Petit Saigon is one of Victoria’s hidden gems for value Vietnamese.

Originally opened in 1986, Le Petit Saigon has been in the hands of current owners Bac and Veronica Truong for five years. Truong’s family (Bac has five siblings!) immigrated to Victoria from Vietnam in the mid-1980’s, where his mother found a job cooking at Le Petit Saigon. Years later, Bac’s sister purchased the restaurant and operated it for eight years before turning it over to Bac. Today Bac runs the restaurant with his wife, Veronica, a Swede that he met and fell in love with while backpacking in Thailand.

Le Petit Saigon employs a small handful of staff, but you can pretty much always find Bac in the kitchen and Veronica working the floor (she’s the one with the strawberry blonde hair and Swedish accent), while their 3 year old son Markus plays quietly with toy cars at a corner table or pops in and out of the swinging doors to the back room. Bac learned Vietnamese cuisine from his mother, who he describes as “the best cook”. In fact, he still phones her from time to time for inspiration for the daily specials. An homage to the woman who started it all, vintage black and white portraits of Bac’s mother hang clustered among other photographs of relatives on the restaurant’s whitewashed walls.

The menu is lengthy, with numerous inexpensive choices and large portions. In fact, you can walk away stuffed for about ten bucks. In true Vietnamese style, fresh vegetables like grated carrot, Thai basil, bean sprouts and cucumber decorate just about every dish. Other dishes include Papaya Salad with prawns and chili garlic sauce, Grilled Quail, Coconut Lamb Curry, Shrimp on Sugarcane, Spring and Salad Rolls, Fried Rice, Hot and Spicy Soup (Pho), Vermicelli Noodle Bowls, and Hot Pots. The menu is very vegetarian friendly, with 16 meatless and dairy-free dishes to choose from. The drink list includes wine, interesting fruit juices and well-suited Pacific Rim import beers like Tsingtao and Tiger Lager. For dessert, try the house made mango ice cream.

Le Petit Saigon is open daily for lunch (ends at 2pm) and dinner (begins at 5pm); delivery is available nightly after 5pm.

1010 Langley Street

250-386-1412

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