Sài Gòn Pho is in Main Gate Square, but you still have to hunt around a bit to find it.
The Vietnamese restaurant, which has been open since May 2008, is tucked behind Which Wich sandwich shop, down a walkway that leads to a parking lot across from the Tucson Marriott University Park.
Son Tran grew up south of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), in a small town called Bac Lieu.
"My aunt had a restaurant there," she says.
Tran, 41, says she's made a few changes since she first opened Sài Gòn Pho, such as adding more vegetarian options to appease the liberal students.
"We had a lot of people asking for vegetarian," she says. "And my mother, she is a vegetarian."
The vibe
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The restaurant is clean and colorful.
Sài Gòn Pho customers place their order at the counter, and there are photos of the entrees to help them decide.
Red paper lanterns with yellow tassels dangle from the ceiling. One flat-screen TV shows PBS with Vietnamese subtitles, and a second shows a program from a Vietnamese channel.
High ceilings with exposed ductwork make the room seem more spacious than it is, and whirring overhead fans keep customers cool.
The food
Sài Gòn Pho's bánh mì is especially tasty because the restaurant bakes its own bread daily.
The resulting sandwich is crispy, sweet, spicy, salty — pretty much everything you'd ever want in a sandwich.
I washed my Cajun tofu bánh mì ($3.50) down with Thai tea with boba ($2.50), a sweet drink with tapioca balls that add a gummy texture.
My dining companions ordered the bun bo xao ($7.99), a rice noodle dish with beef, lemon grass, bean sprouts, cucumber and cilantro, and the vegetable pho ($7.99), a large bowl of soup teeming with broccoli, sprouts, cilantro, jalapeños, mushrooms, lime and more. The bun bo was deemed tasty, but the beef fatty. The vegetable pho was comforting and savory.
Sài Gòn Pho also offers a special dinner menu, with unusual fare such as frog curry, buffalo, boar and venison. But Tran says not many people order those more expensive items.
Why would they when the tasty bánh mì is the best deal in town?
If you go
Sài Gòn Pho
• Where: 943 E. University Blvd.
• Hours: Mondays through Fridays 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays noon-9 p.m.
The bill
Bánh mì — $3.50
Vegetable pho — $7.99
Bun bo xao — $7.99
Thai tea with boba (2) — $2.50 each
Total (before tax and tip): $24.46
