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835 NE Broadway, 503.281-.669, 3954 SE Division, 503.236-.2312 (both in Portland, Oregon)
If this isn't everybody's favorite SE Asian restaurant, it should be. An extensive menu and consistently superior output from the kitchen make Saigon Kitchen an easy choice when you're craving salad rolls with peanut sauce or a bowl of rice noodles. Don't pass the spring rolls (called chazio rolls, pronounced "cha yow," on the menu). Served cut into short pieces, they're meant to be wrapped in the accompanying lettuce with cilantro and bean sprouts, then dipped in the vinegary sweet fish sauce called nuoc mon. For something different, order chazio noodles, a bowl of rice vermicelli with the spring rolls on top. Hot and sour bean curd soup is a sure-fire cure for the winter sniffles. The incendiary tomato-based soup will leave your eyes watering, but you won't mind a bit. Less fiery is the Thai tom yam gai, a curried chicken soup made with coconut milk and lemongrass. All the soups come with steamed rice, and it's customary to scoop the rice into the soup. Other good choices from the Thai menu (it's at the very back of the regular menu) include chili noodles, a variant from the usual pad thai, and nua lap, a sort of beef salad.