Restaurant owner Vicky Hy serves a shrimp and vegetable meal, foreground, and a chicken teriyaki meal to Redmond residents Mark Mason, left, Cameron Mason and JC Peterson at Saigon Village in Redmond last week.

Tony Chau and Vicky Hy were born in Vietnam, emigrated to California and came to Oregon by way of Tupelo, Miss., better known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley than as a mecca for Asian food.

So how did they wind up in early 2005 in Redmond, where they opened the Saigon Village Restaurant, a high-quality Vietnamese cafe?

“We wanted to move closer to family,” said Hy. “My husband’s sister lives in Redmond, and the rest of our family is in California. We liked the idea of being in a smaller town with lower rents, and I felt Redmond needed more variety of food.”

Saigon Village is a plus for all of Deschutes County.

Located in the Fred Meyer Shopping Center in southwest Redmond, it introduces a cuisine that has elements of its Chinese and Thai neighbors but is lighter than Chinese and not as spicy as Thai.

And for diners who might think Vietnamese food is too adventurous, Saigon Village also offers a Japanese menu: not sushi but cooked dishes like teriyaki and tempura.

“Here in Redmond, we wanted people to branch out a little bit,” Hy said, noting that she and Chau owned a Japanese restaurant in Mississippi. “Maybe next time they’ll come back and try Vietnamese food.”

Beef soup, squid salad

When I think Vietnamese, I think pho. Throughout the Portland and Seattle areas, both of which have substantial Vietnamese populations, there are dozens of cafes and storefronts selling the trademark beef broth, with large sprigs of fresh mint, basil and bean sprouts. I’m aware of only one place to get it in Central Oregon: Saigon Village. For those with a craving, it’s worth the trip.

At Saigon Village, pho is served with long rice noodles and spongy beef meatballs, plus a choice of thinly sliced beef, shredded chicken breast or tripe (or a combination of all three). A small bowl costs $5.75, a large bowl (nearly twice the size) only $1 more. It can be a meal in itself for lunch or dinner.

I accompanied my bowl of pho with a pair of garden salad rolls, their noodles and vegetables not deep-fried but wrapped in rice paper and served with a plum sauce. This is another of my favorite Vietnamese dishes, and it hit the spot.

For a dinner, I decided to step outside the box a little farther and try something different: a squid salad. The squid was thinly sliced and sauteed; it was tossed with sliced ginger, dark wakame seaweed, hot red chiles, a touch of celery and other green vegetables and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Although the squid was chewier than I might have liked, I ate every last bite. This salad was really quite good.

Then I had a dish of vermicelli (thin rice noodles, known in Vietnam as bun) topped with grilled marinated chicken thigh meat and four barbecued shrimp. The meat was very good, but there wasn’t any flavor to the noodles themselves; I recommend adding a tabletop condiment such as hoisin (sweet soybean) sauce or, for the spice lover, Southeast Asian chile paste.

A side salad of lettuce with sliced cucumbers was very uninteresting, and an accompanying deep-fried spring roll (quartered, with minced pork and vegetables) was merely so-so. I didn’t care for the vinegary dipping sauce.

Not your mama-sans tempura

Saigon is as far from Tokyo, both geographically and culturally, as is Redmond from Havana, so I had doubts about a Vietnamese restaurant serving good Japanese food. I was obliged to return for one more lunch.

Indeed, my fears were realized. I ordered deep-fried tempura shrimp and vegetables: zucchini, broccoli, onion and yam. While the tempura batter was neither greasy nor oily, it was considerably heavier than I prefer. The crab-meat rangoon, like a won ton stuffed with cream cheese and (artificial) crab, was doughy. The steamed vegetables (broccoli, zucchini and carrots) were overcooked and superfluous after the tempura. The house salad, with two kinds of lettuce, was forgettable and hardly Japanese. The steamed rice was — steamed rice.

In future, if I wanted Japanese food at Saigon Village, I think I’d order a teriyaki chicken bowl and leave it at that.

On the plus side, the Thai iced tea, strong red tea topped with sweetened artificial milk, was as good as any I’ve had in a Thai restaurant.

Perhaps the best thing about the Saigon Village, apart from the excellent Vietnamese food, is the service. On one of my lunch visits, 11 of the 12 tables were packed with diners, and the staff was ably and politely efficient. Everyone seemed happy, and no one waited too long for their food.

The cafe is clean and comfortable, if somewhat minimalist in its decor. Here and there are artificial plants, including bamboo and starfruit; eclectic Asian art, from traditional Chinese scrolls to mother-of-pearl inlays to backlit Vietnamese photographs; and good-luck cats beside the register. Classic soft rock, rather than Asian pop or Chinese opera, adds a soothing element to the ambience.

My advice: Go to Saigon Village, throw caution to the wind and be a little adventuresome. Vietnamese cuisine is lighter than that of its neighbors; meat is grilled, vegetables boiled, not stir-fried. Mint, basil, oyster and fish vinaigrettes are common ingredients. Count on natives of Vietnam to do what they do best.

Saigon Village

Location: 950 S.W. Veterans Way, Suite 100, Redmond.

Hours: Lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday, noon to 3 p.m. Saturday; dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday.

Price range: Appetizers $3.95-$4.95, lunch specials $5.50, dinner entrees $6.50-$9.50.

Credit cards: MasterCard, Visa.

Children’s menu: Yes.

Alcoholic beverages: Beer and sake.

Reservations: For large parties only.

Contact: 923-9986.

Scorecard

OVERALL: B+

Food: B. Stick with the Vietnamese cuisine, especially the pho, and skip the Japanese dishes.

Service: A. Friendly and efficient, even when there’s a full house.

Atmosphere: B. Clean, spacious, with no frills; perhaps a little more color would liven things up.

Value: A-. The price is right, and so are the portions: If you like the food, you won’t go hungry.

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