There's a good reason why Cupertino's new Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon Boulevard, hasn't held an official grand opening event: co-owners Hiep Lien and Linh Do have been pretty busy with another big addition: a new baby born a few months ago. But despite the big family addition, they made sure to hold a soft launch for the restaurant in mid-February.
“I wanted to get the place up and running, practice, get customer feedback and a basic menu,” Lien said. “I wasn't going to wait.”
For now, the menu is based around classic dishes, but also includes more unusual dishes and modern twists.
“In our soft opening phase, it's all about traditional dishes,” he said. “We want to make sure we serve them consistently and deliciously. Pho is a staple. Rice plates, noodle bowls are staples of Vietnamese cuisine.”
In addition to these staples, Saigon Boulevard also offers bento-style box combinations, skewer bowls and plates (including soy-based vegetarian options), and appetizers like tamarind shrimp and Vietnamese sticky wings.
Lien said the goal is to continue adding signature dishes to the menu in stages, rather than focusing on a big one-day grand opening.
One of their most recent menu launches is the Smoked Brisket Pho, which Lien describes as a fusion of traditional beef pho and American barbecue.
Another new item is the Saigon Mini Crepe (Banh Cotto), a crispy coconut crepe filled with shrimp and spring onion. Other menu items include a sharing lettuce wrap platter, sugarcane shrimp skewers and pork sausage skewers appetizers.
There will also be a Vietnamese twist on the traditional Korean dish bibimbap, which will be served with charred rice, grilled meat, carrots, radish, spinach, shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts, spring onions, fried shallots, sesame seeds, basil, fried egg and gochujang sauce.
“My wife is the one trying out new items,” Lien said, and now that the baby is settled, “she has more time to experiment.”
Current drinks on offer include Vietnamese iced coffee with hazelnut cream, cucumber mint limeade, a freshly pressed sugarcane and kumquat drink, and a range of shochu-based cocktails, including one with a soursop flavour.
Lien is co-founder of KoJa Kitchen, which started as a food truck in 2011 and has since opened multiple locations around the Bay Area, serving fast-casual fusion Korean and Japanese cuisine (hence the name). Lien has been in the food and beverage industry for about 15 years, and first met Do when she was running a Vietnamese food truck called Lady Saigon in San Francisco.
Lien decided that Koja's Cupertino location at 19700 Vallco Parkway would be more successful as a sit-down restaurant, so he decided to renovate the Saigon Boulevard location and continue to offer Koja's order pickup through a side door.
“It's kind of like a dual concept,” he said.
For Saigon Boulevard, he and Do envisioned a bold look with a “fun vibe” rather than a traditional feel, he said, explaining that the décor and ambience will be full of captivating digital art, glowing lights, vibrant colours and eye-catching projections.
“At some point, it might get too overwhelming for some people,” he said with a laugh.
Both Do and Lien are from Vietnam, and the restaurant, which is currently open daily from 11am to 9pm, prides itself on paying homage to the region that inspired it: each table is named after a major road in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and the restaurant's logo features a scooter.
“The idea is to make Saigon Boulevard a place that represents Saigon's street food culture and all of Vietnamese cuisine,” he said.
Saigon Boulevard, 19700 Vallco Parkway, Ste 130, Cupertino; 408-564-6958. Instagram: @sgblvd. Open daily from 11am to 9pm
