Saigon Bowl (replacing Blue Planet Natural Grill)

garyomaha · Post by **garyomaha** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 6:12 am

(I did a quick search and couldn't find a previous discussion of Blue Planet Natural Grill, although I'm sure the group discussed it. Mods, please move this if appropriate.)

I received this in email from Blue Planet Natural Grill:

Saying Good Bye!

After five years of Blue Planet Natural Grill, we have decided to close our present location and focus on bringing our unique products to retail sales. We have enjoyed getting to know so many of you, and have learned a lot during this time, and we hope that we have helped many of you find that eating healthier can be an enjoyable experience!

Our last day open will be Sunday, December 16. Please come in and see us over the next week and a half, and please use up any gift cards that you may have. This is not a final "good bye" because we will be present in grocery stores here in Omaha, and hopefully soon many other places, and we have a feeling that it may not be too long before we are open for business as a restaurant in some form. We will keep in contact via email and Facebook, so please watch for product and business announcements. You can still communicate with us via email.

Thank you all for your support during these past five years! We will miss seeing you at the restaurant.

Tom Smith, owner
Dan Tweedy, manager

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 8:45 am

I never ate there, but heard the food wasn't too good.

bigredmed · Post by **bigredmed** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 9:06 am

Linkin5 wrote:I never ate there, but heard the food wasn't too good.

Same here. Also that it was pretty exclusively fru-fru organic/natural blah blah blah. If I want a salad, I will go to Greenbelly. If I want a roast beef sandwich, I don't care that it was vegan fed kobe beef that were slaughtered while listening to the acoustic sounds of indigenous music. Nor do I want to know where it was born, where it grew up, or that it was carved by a left handed butcher who was a personal friend of the Obamas. I can pretty much handle the normal news of how cows turn into roast beef sandwiches, and don't want to deal with the fru-fru set.

(OK, feeding vegans to cows would be a cool.)

The people who ate there didn't like the food for the price, and they were unimpressed by the atmosphere.

RNcyanide · Post by **RNcyanide** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 10:58 am

I ate there once about 2 years ago. I thought the atmosphere was a little bland and the food was expensive and nothing worth noting. Never cared to return.

icejammer · Post by **icejammer** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 11:04 am

Never heard of this place. Where is/was it?

ricko · Post by **ricko** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 11:05 am

bigredmed wrote:
Linkin5 wrote:I never ate there, but heard the food wasn't too good.
Same here. Also that it was pretty exclusively fru-fru organic/natural blah blah blah. If I want a salad, I will go to Greenbelly. If I want a roast beef sandwich, I don't care that it was vegan fed kobe beef that were slaughtered while listening to the acoustic sounds of indigenous music. Nor do I want to know where it was born, where it grew up, or that it was carved by a left handed butcher who was a personal friend of the Obamas. I can pretty much handle the normal news of how cows turn into roast beef sandwiches, and don't want to deal with the fru-fru set.

(OK, feeding vegans to cows would be a cool.)

The people who ate there didn't like the food for the price, and they were unimpressed by the atmosphere.

Running a restaurant is a difficult, time consuming business (70 hours a week, anyone?). What on earth possessed you to post such a bitter, politically-tinged rant that has nothing to do with the O.P.'s thank you to the community for their support? You've even admitted that you'd never been there. Real classy.

RNcyanide · Post by **RNcyanide** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 11:10 am

icejammer wrote:Never heard of this place. Where is/was it?

To the southeast of Aksarben Village on Center St. There's a beauty salon and some other businesses in a modestly modern looking strip with some offices or residences over the top.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 11:26 am

To the left on this pic, under Studio Salon:

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 7:27 am

We ate there maybe 5 or 6 times. The food ranged from just okay to very good. They have a great selection of ketchups, which might have been the best thing they had going. The pizzas were also good. But the burgers were too dry for my tastes.
I agree with Ricko that running a restaurant is a very difficult job, with long hours. Talent is no guarantee of success. You also need a lot of luck.
I wish the owners success in their future ventures.

nebport5 · Post by **nebport5** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 3:44 pm

I didn't love the place but ate there occasionally. I particularly like the turkey burger and pizza. However, I'm not surprised with the closing. I noticed "cost cutting" within the last year. And yes, the restaurant business is tough. Still, with this concept of restaurant (and more importantly) with the targeted clientele you shouldn't get the feeling that much of the food sourcing came from a large distributor such as Sysco or US Foods as I suspect it did with Blue Planet. If everything was sourced local and organic, & etc., the prices wouldn't have been too out of line. If they have some hope of re-opening in a restaurant form in the future, I hope the concept it tweaked considerably rather than finding a space with lower rent.

bigredmed wrote:Same here. Also that it was pretty exclusively fru-fru organic/natural blah blah blah. If I want a salad, I will go to Greenbelly. If I want a roast beef sandwich, I don't care that it was vegan fed kobe beef that were slaughtered while listening to the acoustic sounds of indigenous music. Nor do I want to know where it was born, where it grew up, or that it was carved by a left handed butcher who was a personal friend of the Obamas. I can pretty much handle the normal news of how cows turn into roast beef sandwiches, and don't want to deal with the fru-fru set.

(OK, feeding vegans to cows would be a cool.)

The people who ate there didn't like the food for the price, and they were unimpressed by the atmosphere.

Well you represent a shrinking majority. There are in fact a growing number of people who do care about the source of their food. Crazy liberals (no doubt) who think that one's health and well being could fall so close to what one puts in their body. Crazy, that I avoid processed "foods" with little to no nutritional value or produce treated with chemicals that make me physically ill upon ingesting only small by products. Crazier, still that I don't want my 9 year old daughter to start menstruating and precociously develop physically because of the growth hormones injected into livestock.

Also, there's nothing "fru fru" about vegan and organic, rather it's about simplicity and quality. Now beer fed hand massaged kobe beef, you could call fru fru but there's nothing like that at Blue Planet.

Way to own the backwards Nebraska cowtown stereotype.

Post by **Brad** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 10:11 am

Sign was coming down this morning.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Fri May 16, 2014 3:39 pm

Saigon Bowl will be replacing Blue Planet. A sister project of Saigon Surface, it will offer Vietnamese "fresh food fast", a concept that is not fast food, but all of their items will be made to order.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Fri May 16, 2014 5:34 pm

That sounds fantastic. They should do very, very well so close to Ak Village.

Post by **Brad** » Fri May 16, 2014 10:45 pm

My wife was telling me about this the other day. We still haven't been to Saigon surface yet either. Even had a living social or groupon but never went.

OMATOL · Post by **OMATOL** » Sat May 17, 2014 8:59 am

This is awesome if true! We love the original Saigon out west. Saigon Surface, on the other hand, has been so so in our visits.

Professor Woland · Post by **Professor Woland** » Sat May 17, 2014 10:51 am

OMATOL wrote:This is awesome if true! We love the original Saigon out west. Saigon Surface, on the other hand, has been so so in our visits.

I will say this for Surface though, it has a good banh mi. The original Saigon never has banh mi, but the vermicelli bowls and clay pots are amazing.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Mon Aug 11, 2014 11:00 pm

I believe Saigon Bowl opened today.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 12:58 pm

I was at a special event last night at Saigon Bowl where I met the owners Tu and Rob, and really enjoyed our experience there. With the Motto "Fast Food made Fresh" they are trying to create a restaurant where you can get a quick meal (to stay or to go), but still is quality ingredients and as authentic to Vietnamese street food as possible. Tu compared this business model to Chipotle's and hopes to franchise this model around town. We were able to create our own bowls, plenty of sauces available from peanut, to aioli, to Srirachi. Even the fried tofu was enjoyable. I will have to return to see what it is like during real business hours...

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Fri Jan 31, 2020 11:17 am

Closed.
It will now become an Asian restaurant: The Mandarin.

ricko · Post by **ricko** » Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:02 pm

ricko · Post by **ricko** » Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:08 pm

Coyote wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 11:17 am Closed.
It will now become an Assin restairant: The Miranda.

Get your assin here. Eat. Get your assout.

I like that concept.

Padre · Post by **Padre** » Fri Jan 31, 2020 2:50 pm

ricko wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:08 pm
Coyote wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 11:17 am Closed.
It will now become an Assin restairant: The Miranda.
Get your assin here. Eat. Get your assout.

I like that concept.

I so wanted to say something, but then I looked it up, and though; “It could possibly be an ethnic Ghana restaurant.” and let it go.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assin

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 3:28 pm

I absolutely love Vietnamese food, but I never liked the Saigon Bowl concept.

ChadJK · Post by **ChadJK** » Mon Mar 09, 2020 11:55 am

The Mandarin now open in Saigon Bowl's former location: https://mandarinasiancuisine.com/

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 7:36 pm

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ChadJK · Post by **ChadJK** » Sun May 02, 2021 10:52 pm

I heard The Mandarin has closed. Can anyone confirm?

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