Reidinger Digs Delightfully Tacky Miss SaiGon; Kauffman Thinks Haltun Could Popularize Yucatecan Cuisine

Reidinger dines at Sixth Street's (Tonight I will be!) Miss SaiGon and finds the spot oozing with kitschy charm. Actually, he describes it best: "The semi-cavernous dining room — weirdly reminiscent of a dance floor in some mid-list gay bar — is screened from the street by a barricade of translucent draperies that hang from floor to ceiling with lacey, lingerie-like suggestiveness. It feels like an after-hours, members-only sale at a Victoria's Secret warehouse." Saucy! But how's the food? Quite good, it turns out. He says that even though the menu is vast, "the execution at Miss SaiGon is sharp and assured." His favorite dishes included garlic noodles, cold sesame noodles, and papaya salad. Plus, there's a life sized creepy doll that greets you at the entrance. This place sounds too good to be true! [SFBG]

Jonathan Kauffman gives us a bit of a history lesson in Yucatecan cuisine in his review of the Mission's 7-month old Haltun Mayan Cuisine. It's actually a much needed lesson because as it turns out, I don't know anything about anything! While he's not wild about all the dishes, he thinks Haltun has the chops to propel Yucatecan food to the same level of success that Burmese food enjoyed after Burma Superstar exploded. That's a pretty hearty endorsement for, "the broadest, most refined menu of Yucatecan antojitos (corn-based snacks) and entrées the city has yet seen." It sounds like Monday night is the time to go, when Haltun sells off extras of special order pastries, including something Kauffman describes as, "sugar-coated puffs". SOLD! [SFoodie]