Time: While there is no set happy hour, Bar Saigon is open Friday and Saturday from 5- 10 p.m.
Drink: The drinks in Bar Saigon are suitably gimmicky. The house-specialty 'Flaming Volcano' ($18) is a potent combination of rum, vodka, gin, brandy, grenadine, fruit juice and Bacardi 151 (incandescent in a shot glass, surrounded by the cocktail itself). Despite Vietnam's imaginative nomenclature, cocktails have at most two degrees of separation ('Suffering Bastard' + cr‹¨«me de cassis - grenadine = 'Zombie.') The Scorpion ($9), which contains rum, brandy and fruit juice, is the simplest and probably the best.
Food: Vietnam's renowned BBQ platter for two ($20) is the best way to sample their appetizers, and includes spring rolls, beef stuffed grape leaves, grilled chicken, pork meatballs, vermicelli noodles and rice paper. Blackened skewered shrimp ($7.95) are fantastic, piping hot and with an optimal ratio of crushed spices to crustacean. The most intriguing of the appetizers is probably the pork ravioli ($6.75). These boiled parcels of rice paper conjure the brothiness of a wonton soup, yet retain just enough of the al-dente bite that ravioli promises.
Ambience: The general motif is a relaxed French-colonial, of which Bar Saigon is a more bohemian and ambient interpretation. And while the laid-back comfort of the restaurant is endearing, it is somewhat tacky in the details; the fake candles are microcosmic of the general ambience. This isn't a disaster, as pretty much everyone in Bar Saigon was waiting to be seated in the restaurant.
Clientele: Vietnam is packed with large parties, looking to wine and dine, reflecting a breadth of age groups from college pre-gamers to cheery pensioners.
