From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published August 7, 2007 #58 Saigon Grill 1$ Mandeville: 2890 E Causeway Blvd. 985-727-7711 Lunch and dinner continuously, Tues.-Sun. AE, DC, DS, MC, V. Vietnamese. The first Vietnamese restaurant on the Mandeville-Covington side of the North Shore is in a little building obscured from passing traffic by oak trees. Despite that, the Saigon Grill seems to have attracted enough customers to keep it at least reasonably busy. It's all those very slender, in-shape people who make those of us with normal New Orleans figures ashamed of ourselves, though. The reason they are there is that this kind of Vietnamese food is almost insanely healthy to eat. Despite the name, this is essentially a pho shop, whose menu is centered on that brothy soup served in big bowls with rice noodles, boiled beef or chicken (several varieties available of each), and piles of herbs, sprouts, green onions, and hot peppers to flavor it all up. Also here are cool noodle dishes topped with grilled meats, and a rice variation of the same idea. Add a few appetizers, and you have the entire menu. With a lot of permutations, a few ingredients become some thirty-five different dishes. For example, you can get the noodles with the beef you could have had in the pho, and cut-up spring rolls from the appetizer list. All of this is as tasty as I've had around town. The beef broth is certainly flavorful enough. I can imagine being in a mood to eat this. And if I were on a diet, it would be the perfect dinner. But a lusty feast this is not, and never will be. Service is pleasant and efficient, and the prices are very low. This was a restaurant in the 2007 Top Sixty Ethnic Restaurant Countdown. To view the entire list, click here. Click here for an index of all restaurant reviews. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com.