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Best Bargain Restaurants: Taste Of Saigon

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Taste Of Saigon
Rockville

With some of the best vietnamese food in the area, Taste of Saigon also has an attractive setting and reasonable prices. Burnished black-lacquer tables and chairs, glass-block dividers, and colorful murals enhance the dining room. The restaurant traces in ancestry to a restaurant in Saigon, run by the family's matriarch, Ba Tu.

The menu is long, with more than 100 dishes, including several of French origin. New dishes mesh with traditional favorites. Test the kitchen with the standbys--deep-fried spring rolls, beef in grape leaves, minced shrimp paste on crab claws. Good main courses are the curries, made with soothing coconut milk; caramel chicken, which nicely balances spiciness and sweetness; and a range of noodle dishes.

To experiment, try the frogs' legs casserole, anise-flavored Saigon beef stew, Rock Cornish hen stuffed with ground pork, or the grilled pork balls, which the diner wraps with greens in rice paper. The adventurous may want to try two unusual pudding desserts, made with taro or black-eyed peas.

Taste Of Saigon , 410 Hungerford Drive, Rockville; 301/424-7222. Open Monday through Thursday 11 am to 10 pm, Friday and Saturday 11 am to 11 pm, Sunday 11 am to 9:30 pm. AE, CB, D, DC, MC, V. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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