Food was great. Had war wonton soup and lettuce rolls and spring rolls Enough for two and had enough soup left over to take home. Enjoyed. read more

Travelling around Canada, I get to try familiar foods and compare to the staples back at home. It was Pho-king time! Er...yeah...I went there! :D I love the Yelp App. I had no idea how I travelled before! It listed a few places near me and off I went to what I hope was the best Pho in Calgary. Ordered up the standard Rare Beef Pho and the Satay Pho. As an appy, tried their egg roll. Egg roll was pencil thin, I didn't know if anything was in it. It reminded me of Morrocan Cigars. A bit of a let down on filling, however, it was quite tasty. The satay was HUGE! Definitely sharing size for their standard order. Good flavours with a great spicy kick. Was pretty impressed with it. The moment of truth, will their Rare Beef Pho match up to my fav in the GTA? Drum roll!!! I have to say...nah! It was a bit of a let down. Beef was fine - we are in Calgary so shouldn't have too much probs there. The soup base was a bit watery and lacked that deep frangrant flavours that I associate with good Pho. It's still a return place if I was running around Calgary again. 3.5 stars! Cheers. read more

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the Best Vietnamese food in Calgary ! Saigon Maxim... Wow !!!  Amazing Food.  Excellent Vietnamese cuisine (thank you kitchen staff).   Exceptional customer service (hostess, servers, clean up team, delivery (you know who you are : }   Fantastic atmosphere.  Many Thanks !  Helga Griebel read more

Don't try and order from this place. Been a long time customer but this place seems to be getting worse and worse. If you go in for a meal u get slow service and wait 40 min for your food. If you try and order for pick up it is an hour wait even at slow times. Then delivery they charge locals $5 and tell u an hour and a half wait time and even then it takes longer. I ordered at noon and it is now 2 o'clock and I have still not received my meal. Then you call to complain and they don't seem to care what so ever. Extremely unacceptable and really sad to say but I will not be going here anymore. So much for supporting local read more

This place has poor service and the food was very below average. The waitress was rude and forgot one of our main dishes and there was only two of us. Made us wait for ever, brings us tea with no tea cups, then took forever coming back to bring us tea cups. The beef sate pho tasted like it had a jug of peanut butter dumped into it. it was thick and pasty like peanut butter very gross. A really bad experience compared to the possitive reviews we read before coming here which leads me to believe these people are giving themselves fake possitive ratings. read more

Don't eat on this restaurant service is so poor waiter just seated us, take our order after 15 min after I call there attention, 30 min pass still no food, then 45 min on the table waiter come and ask us, what's you're order AGAIN?! Whatttt the F!!!!!!! Where so mad after almost an hour hungry! We just left so disappointed! Don't go on this restaurant service is so Terrible! And the staff they don't have manners. We will never ever come to Saigon maxim! Worst place ever! read more

I love coming here. The food is delicious, portion sizes are generous, and the prices are good. I especially recommend their curry soups; which is what I keep coming back for. Service is also great. read more

Saigon Maxim - Curry Seafood Vermicelli Soup - Vietnamese Near Me - Calgary, Alberta

I have been ordering from here for years. The food is fantastic and owners are very nice. Unfortunately the service is awful. You have to hunt down servers for things. They often don't bring your orders or bring them at varying times during the meal or sometimes not at all. I keep thinking the experience will be better everytime I go in but it always disappoints. Sadly I will not be going again. read more

In Calgary, everyone has a "local" vietnamese restaurant, just like they have a "local" pub. Well we are super stoked to have this place as our go to weekday vietnamese joint. The food is always consistent. The service is almost always better than your average vietnamese place. The prices are decent. The place is super busy on the weekends which is good to see as they are obviously doing something right. read more

I must state, I am not used to Vietnamese food except for Pho. Ordered 5 dishes. Picked it up and got it home. It was do it yourself time. Extra bags and dishes of rice, noodles, sprouts, sauces, and no clue what went with what. Chicken in sate sauce and chicken fried rice were good. The rest was a disaster read more

Very nice, clean restaurant and excellent service. First time here but will definitely be back...great food! Well, WTH happened to the service! Went there yesterday at about 3:30 and plenty of staff on duty, got seated immediately but waited 10 minutes to be served by a guy who had no interest at all in being there. Took our order and we had to ask another waitress for water. My soup came, no spoon or spouts, and my wife's came 5 minutes later all the while a couple was watching us from a corner booth snickering and we wondered why? They told us that they had been waiting over 20 minutes for their leftovers to be boxed and their bill...not impressed either. Although the food is excellent the experience with the service on this occasion was pathetic, might give it one more chance as our first 2 visits were great. read more

Oh my God this is so awesome the food here it is so delicious and healthy so I brag about this place all the time

Super delicious, great staff, the food was hot & fresh and it's not expensive. They give you enough food to pack up some extra to take home for later or lunch tomorrow I will definitely make the trip to come here again :D read more

Saigon Maxim - #37 so delicious ! - Vietnamese Near Me - Calgary, Alberta

Barely hits 3 stars: although better than many Viet restaurants, is far short of the very best in Calgary, 'Pure Contemporary Vietnamese Kitchen & Bar' on 8th Avenue SW downtown between 7th & 8th Streets! As the difference between a chef and an ordinary cook comes out in the dishes, it's important to draw those distinctions. A sense of generosity would like to award this place 4 stars, but it's just not there... We ordered their specialty dish, Lobster pho ($19), and the Grilled Pork Loin with Rice, and both were okay: the pho underlying the lobster was almost distasteful smelling, and the taste was only average (and the next day worse); the grilled pork had a thick sweetish sauce, but although good tasting, quite average. One can take these cues - big sauce bottles on the tables, burb location, a sea of white faces - and apply some keen discernment re. how good the food really is. Their service was very good, the interior very attractive when compared to many others, quite large, and nicely spaced out, and with all the caucasians fairly busy. We will forego any further experimentation in Calgary and stick with 'Pure' for sure. I'd venture to say that in the main these restos have fewer than 5% chefs. The rest are short-order cooks who don't know what 'superlative' and 'creative' means! Oh well. Anyone living out in the Glenmore / Riverbend area can try Saigon Maxim or Saigon Royal further south and see if you like them and would return. We won't. read more

Started going before grandson Ty took over and its gone downhill. Satay beef in 3 spots on Menu and we were told one comes with peppers..Dont like peppers so have been getting without . However quantity reduced...today got with more peppers than meat and floating in grease. As regulars..they know us and when called them I was given double talk. Pork chop is coming dry and burnt. Sorry but the girl taking order doesnt understand most english. We are done Sad..Ty wake up your staff read more

Due to recommendations from friends and family, as well as faint memories of coming here in the past, Saigon was my #1 spot on my latest trip to Calgary. I actually ended up coming in 3 times in 2 days because people just KEPT WANTING to come back! And I have to say, I really didn't mind. The massive servings, which are really quite delicious, gave me enough Vietnamese food to eat for three straight days. Definitely okay with me. The actual restaurant is relatively small and a little bit crowded, which can get a bit tiring when you're trying to have a conversation and keep getting drowned out by the hum of background noise, but that only happened to me on one occasion. But definitely beware of when you come because, as you may have inferred from the previous statement, it gets busy in here. Lunch and dinner are honestly kinda wild, and the workers are practically always running to keep up; luckily, going in during downtimes proves to be a relaxing experience and I've stayed for quite some time chatting before, and they just keep the tea flowing. I should note, though, that even when it's on the verge of frantic inside the restaurant, I never feel neglected and the food and service come very quickly. The family that owns it, and their other employees, are really friendly and always a pleasure to be served by. There are family photos around the restaurant as well, so being inside really feels like a close community experience. Besides the fam photos, the front entrance has super cool statuettes and other charming decor, but the place isn't OVERLY themed. Now, for the behemoth-sized servings that are their food. I tried their #1, Deep Fried Pork Spring Rolls; #14, Deluxe Beef Noodle Soup; #20, Chicken Noodle Soup; and #71, Stir Fried Beef with Vegetables on Crispy Egg Noodles. I'll break them down one at a time here: #1, Deep Fried Pork Spring Rolls. Classic spring rolls made extremely well. I don't have too much to say about them because nothing was really surprising, but I do have to say that it was hard to share them... I had to try pretty dang hard to not eat the other 2 when I finished mine! #14, Deluxe Beef Noodle Soup. All four types of beef in the dish - cooked beef, brisket, beef ball, and tripe - are absolutely delicious. The broth is amazing and I consider this to be the best pho I've had to date. Plus, I couldn't even finish what I got in this bowl so I got to enjoy it again later that night. Warmed up at home, it, of course, wasn't AS good, but it still retained its wonderful flavour! $20, Chicken Noodle Soup. The broth was good and the noodles and veggies were great but, sadly, I was pretty disappointed by the chicken. It came in nicely sliced pieces but it was quite dry and didn't really satisfy my palate that well; I found myself favouring everything else over it, unfortunately. #71, Stir Fried Beef with Vegetables on Crispy Egg Noodles. Okay SO, I don't know if having a nest of egg noodles is a common dish or just something that Saigon Maxim does, but WOW was it ever cool!! The noodles at the top are crunchy and delicious and the ones at the bottom are covered in sauce and also SO TASTY. The stir-fry inside the nest was extremely well cooked, with the beef and vegetables having pretty much a perfect amount of crunch and warmth to them. The sauce that sat at the bottom of the dish was amazing and I found myself spooning it onto every bite, with a little bit of spice added. This dish was gigantic and I happily worked my way through it, until I got pretty close to the bottom and thought I was going to have to be rolled out of the restaurant. The flavour was wonderful, the presentation was spectacular and I think that this was my favourite of all 4 things that I tried this past Calgary trip. Since Saigon Maxim is in my hometown neighbourhood, I can absolutely see myself coming back for AT LEAST one meal every time I'm home. Go Riverbend! Go Calgary!! read more

Always great food! I have wings and my girlfriend had vermicelli bowl with spring rolls. Both were great! The place was busy but the food came out hot and fast. The only thing here is the staff is running around like crazy people trying to serve everyone and it's distracting plus when they clear a table they are smashing dishes and making a racket! But the food is so good here this is just part of the experience. Great Vietnamese food, best in the south if you ask me! We come here often and will continue to come! Love it! read more

Saigon Maxim - Wings!! - Vietnamese Near Me - Calgary, Alberta

My Mom and my Auntie have been raving about this restaurant for quite awhile now. For family lunch on Saturday we took their advice and went here and I am so glad we did because it was delicious! There food options are very reasonably priced and oversized portions. I got the seafood soup and it was delicious! It had crab, shrimp squid and scallops in it. I love scallops way more than squid and they put lots of squid in and only one scallop and I wish they would have put more so that was the only negative thing about the experience. My grandpa got a lobster curry soup and his soup was the most expensive, yet it was definitely the most delicious at the trouble. However, because of the portions and how creamy it is it would have been a very heavy and very filling soup. In the soup where it states that you get lobster you get a whole lobster tail in it. It is delicious. I will definitely be going back because I saw the rice vermicelli bowls coming out and they looked amazing and oversized portions as well. read more

Friendly service. Bright clean decor. Offers noodle soups, dry noodles, rice dishes, even Viet subs. Good portions, good taste. read more

One of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants in the area. They are very friendly (though very busy) and give you a large portion. Food is usually fast (10 minute wait), but tastes pretty darn good. The restaurant is medium sized, with about about 18 tables, so there's usually lots of space. It shows get busy around lunch hour though, since a lot of people working in the neighborhood head over for the good food and prices. They are also really open to customizing dishes (eg. Noodles instead of rice) or sharing; a lot of Asian restaurants in Calgary really discourage sharing plates, but Saigon Maxim waiters will bring you extra bowls. Truly do appreciate it. Also, I noticed that they will also give you a little extra if you're ordering take out. Super thoughtful! read more

I have been to dozens of Vietnamese restaurants and this is hands down my favorite. Their Pho is amazing!

Not much love here. We were seated quickly in a booth in the corner. The decor is a little incongruous from a typical Vietnamese restaurant but it is pleasant enough. A guy came back quickly to take our order which was a 40 - vermicelli with chicken, prawns & beef, a 41 - vermicelli with lemongrass chicken and some tea right away. Everything went south from there. About 5 minutes later a lady came by and dropped off some spring rolls and quickly left. We were a little uncertain if they were a complimentary thing but since we had no napkins, utensils, sauces etc. we thought we would wait to find out. We flagged someone down and it turns out that they didn't belong to us so they were quickly removed. We requested from that server our tea as well. Shortly after our dishes were delivered and we finally got our tea. We had to ask for napkins and either chopsticks or a fork to eat the food with as the food delivery person was scampering away. I order lemongrass chicken vermicelli every time I go to a Vietnamese restaurant, which is fairly often, and this order looked and tasted very different, and not in a good way. It tasted exactly like Chinese chicken chow mein, with about the same amount of grease. My husband's bowl more closely resembled what I have come to expect the dish to look like but his vermicelli was clumped in the bottom and a few pieces of his chicken were filled with gristle. No one had come to our table to check on us from the time the food was delivered, and after we had finished eating what we could we sat for quite some time before we just got up and went directly to the cash register to pay. This is the standard operating procedure for more casual Vietnamese restaurants but this place appears a lot more formal so we weren't sure, but we didn't want to sit in the booth ignored any longer. There is a 100% chance that we will not be returning. The food is sub-par and despite a whole ton of wait staff, the service is not great either. There are far too many other options in the city that are better. read more

We have eaten here many times and the food is always delicious and generally ready quickly. But last night we waited almost 90 minutes for our pick up order to be ready. We had been told the order would be ready in 35-40 so waiting more than twice that time was very disappointing. Upon complaining of the wait time our party was treated somewhat rudely and told to expect two hours wait time next time we order. Very poor service and very unprofessional. There were many people there, some dining in and some picking up and it seemed they were all experiencing the same service. Maybe they were understaffed, maybe there were problems, but condescending treatment of customers is never acceptable. The food was still delicious but I would not recommend the restaurant anymore. read more

Not too bad for a first time experience. The negative here was that they forgot our chicken salad rolls and brought them when we were half way through our meal. Kinda missed the point there guys. Our dinners though were great and the portions were huge. We've found at many similar restaurants we frequent the quality has started to go. Things like pre-cooking the pork then throwing it on the grill for a minute to reheat it when someone orders. Not here though. Everything was fresh and cooked to order. read more

Good experience overall. Service - friendly, quick, professional. Food - #14 - House Special Beef Noodle Soup - broth was rich, with some oil on top, which is a good sign that it was stewed with meats and bones. #23 - Satay Seafood Noodle Soup - different broth used than #14. This is also a good sign. Some places use the same broth for all their types of soups, which is not right. Authentic Vietnamese restaurants know there are different broths for different types of soups. This soup was also very good, broth was very tasty. Parking - plenty of parking, it's in a mall so parking is shared and plentiful. Interior - pretty new, clean with tables and booths. Enjoyed my visit, but it is located in the SE and a bit far out of the way for me. If I am in the area, I would definitely visit again and try their specialty: Sate Lobster Tail Noodle Soup - looks really good. read more

The spicy soups are amazing. It's the perfect place on a cold day. I've eaten at many Vietnamese restaurants in Calgary and this is my favourite spot. They go the extra mile and service is very fast. Free tea with each meal. read more

Awesome. So awesome! There is something magical and special about the vietnamese coffee here. It is delicious. Try it. We started with the shrimp tempura which had a fantastic sauce with it. My husband got the satay lobster noodle soup. Rich, dark flavorful broth and lots of lobster. Really good for under $20. ! I got the vermicelli with shrimp, beef and chicken. Often vermicelli can be bland and bleh, but this one was so tasty! Even the bites without meat were full of flavor, and a little spicy. Really stood out from the regular bland vermicelli. Super cute restaraunt with lots of space, and lovely servers. Will come here again. *update* the curry seafood soup is also incredible read more

Some of the best Pho i have had in the city hands down. Service is usually pretty good, and the portions are HUGE! I cant get enough of this place read more

By the way, don't try to find a place on Google by searching "Calgary" plus "Saigon", because apparently there are nineteen restaurants in Calgary with "Saigon" in the name. NINETEEN. Obviously Maxim must be the best, why else would they call it Maxim. Being a Vietnamese restaurant, one should expect common qualities. The food should be good; the service should be...well...appalling. I wonder if there's a correlation between bad service and good food--the further apart they are, the better. So if one is treated like absolute garbage, the food should be next to ambrosia. This is not far from the truth with Saigon Maxim. Saigon Maxim is not particularly memorable visually, with elevated sections, poles, and a labyrinthine layout one must navigate to even find the bathroom, a task made even more difficult given the crowds. The place was slammed this afternoon, and after a short wait, we were led to our seats. Knowing full well how successful a restaurant is when turning tables efficiently, the staff basically took that as gospel, encouraging patrons to order quickly and depart as hastily, rushed and rude service prompting a lower tip being favorable given the reward of higher table rotation. An example of this was shortly after being offered menus. I had previously decided to avoid the usual pho like my friend was planning on ordering and tackle something different. I soon fell upon the combo thin vermicelli patties--served with salad ride paper, peanut and house special sauce. It looked interesting, but when I attempted to inquire about it, the waitress responded, "you have to roll it; I don't think you can do it." Okay. Outside of accusing outright prejudice, the probable reason would be that it's a long meal to prepare and devour, and the restaurant wants to turn tables quickly. Pho and its related dishes are already prepped and ready for assembly. So whatever, I opted for the vermicelli bowl, which is basically a pho with no broth and more stuff, though served in the same bowl. We both also ordered egg rolls and shrimp salad rolls, the latter always being my test of any Vietnamese restaurant. And when I claim the pho and its related dishes are prepped ahead, I mean to such an extent that the delivery of food after placing said order took less than three minutes. After ordering, I took in the bathroom, and when I returned, the rolls were waiting. Only a few minutes after that, still with our plates half full (or is that half empty?), our mains arrived. Who needs burger joints when Vietnamese dishes arrive this fast? Any faster and they would read our thoughts, or simply and more accurately, just hand us food that they have determined we should enjoy. Returning back to what I said earlier, given this curt service, one would then expect the food to be amazing, and once again, this stereotype (works both ways) is confirmed. I find it an odd practice, akin to maybe a tradition, as it's not repeated in a lot of other similarly ethnic restaurants. That being said, my local hometown features a Vietnamese restaurant that very much breaks this trend, and is both welcoming and enjoyable. But in this case, Saigon Maxim is damn good, some of the best Vietnamese cuisine I've had in ages, and despite the service, I'd consider returning...in fact I did a few hours later. Not because of food, but because I left my debit card there. When I called and asked, they answered that there was no such card around. I don't believe they bothered to check, because when I drove down to double-check an hour later, it was found in the drawer underneath the till, meaning the person I talked to never bothered to each check. Par the course. Saigon Maxim is a good restaurant, just to clear the air. The prices are reasonable, the food is good, and the service is rocket fast. However, to quote the great Aaron Sorkin, it's not binary, you can be decent and gifted at the same time. Food: 5/5 Service: 2/5 Presentation: 3/5 Value: 5/5 Recommendation: 3.5/5 read more

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My girlfriend and I were excited to try out this local Vietnamese restaurant. I don't think we'll be back though. Granted the place was relatively full when we got there, but the service was just plain bad. It took a while for us to be able to order our food, then when we got it (it wasn't served by our waiter) we never saw someone again until we were ready to pay for our meal...no extra drinks for us. Not just the service was poor though, I am a man who truly enjoys pho, but this restaurant had some of the blandest pho I've ever eaten, if I ever get dragged back here you can bet I won't be ordering the pho again! read more

Tried Saigon Maxim when I was in the area. Satay Chicken sub was absolutely delicious!!. Others had Chicken Vermicelli bowls, There was some sort of a "Mock" chicken type meat on the top. It looked like a chicken nugget. I have never seen this used in this type of dish. In the past it has always been grilled chicken sliced up on this dish. Over all the experience was ok, good server, fast service. read more

Dinner date with the misses, which usually means sushi. But I was in a soupy-seafood kinda mood, so it's off to Saigon Maxim. Had a lobster dinner, aka Lobster curry soup and it was delish! I love a creamy curry broth and even though I'm so not a lobster-meat guy, I do enjoy a fishy stew and this didn't fail. My young lady had the satay lobster soup, along with my lobster tail. Very good quality & taste and fair prices. It's worth a check-in for sure. PS: Decent Shrimp Salad Rolls! read more

It was pretty good. Not too bad at all. Got sate soup and its actually peanut-ty sate which i actually like

Saigon Maxim is my new favourite for great Vietnamese! The service is excellent, the pho is extremely good, and if the packed tables at lunchtime are any indication, I'm not the only one who thinks so. While it can be a little on the noisy side at lunch, if one comes in after 1 PM, it's just fine. Kudos to the owners for saving a oft-changed space from obscurity and changing it into a great place to have good food at a decent price. read more

Great food but horrendous service. It felt like self serve, almost. No one came to take our order, my mother had to stand up and ask another waitress to do so. The food was tasty, but when we finished, we were again met with no one to give us the bill. Yikes. read more

We have done takeout from this restaurant many times, however never again. They seem to have a problem with freshness. We have had seafood satay soup that was so fishy it was inedible. The next day It was completely rancid. Last night the shrimp in the rice vermicelli were beyond fishy again, which tells me they are not fresh. The final straw was the shrimp salad rolls we ordered were SO dried out and hard they must have been days old. read more

May 3rd, my family and i went to Saigon Maxim after banning them for the last time we ate there. They served me burnt food and hid it in underneath noodles. So this time we sat and ordered immediately, the waitress wasnt giving us much time. We called her back to order a bubble tea. We were served tea, but there was speculation as to the cleanliness of my cup so i didnt use it, my family joined me in not using the cups. So as time passed it was nice to be with family :) . A little longer i tried to make eye contact with the waitress for the bubble tea and she ignored me. Minutes later the restaurant's amassing numbers of take out orders on table near the cash register. So all in all we waited about 1/2 hour before served 2 plates of warm food not hot food, bits of food on plate was cold. We had to wait for my sons food, then we had to say something about not getting bubble tea. We talked to Michael we he asked us how things were and we told him. He just stood there slack jawed looking at us, mentally stuck as what to say to us. He did tell us we came at a busy time because of take out orders. Still no bubble tea. Shortly after a lady approached us asking us about our meal (she did not talk to Michael), we told her our experience and she tried to offer solutions. We chose to reheat food because my son was nearly done his dinner. Listen to me SAIGON MAXIM, people dining in get food before take out. You lessened our family time together. I WILL NEVER EVER BE BACK TO SAIGON MAXIM!!! Eat that! read more

This gem of a restaurant tucked away in Riverbend serves up excellent food with friendly efficient service. We dropped in for lunch at 11:30 which was a great idea as the place filled up fast. Usually when you get quantity, you don't get quality but in this case Saigon Maxim delivers both quantity and quality. Our meals had the right amount of spices and seasoning with portions large enough for leftovers all served at a great price. The only thing missing was seeing Grandma from the TV commercial. read more

I live and work quite close to Saigon Maxim. It quickly became a default restaurant for lunch or take out after work. The food is super tasty and the portions are very generous. However, there was a mistake with my most recent order. Tom, current the owner/manager/, was very quick to rectify the mistake. When I got home item #77 on the menu was a huge hit with my toddler. Cheers all around! read more

Might have been a little harsh on the local pho hole. I guess I should've known better then to order the chefs special at a Vietnamese restaurant. Since then I haven't had a bad experience so I decided to update it. I think I'm still bitter that my favourite place Pho Tien Giang closed. Does anyone know any place that puts peanut chunks in there sate sauce?? Not the same without it read more