Com Tam Saigon

Came here with a friend. As almost all the reviews have said the rice platter special is really good here, the hype is real. It even comes with soup on the side which you have to ask for at other places. So your wondering, why the four star and not five if this place is so great? Perhaps I came right when the were closing, but I felt the place could use a little bit of tidying up. Other than that, good food, good service, and a full stomach.

Lured in by the rave reviews here however this is my take and experience. Since this business is small and informal it doesn't offer any English translation to the menu on the wall. During this visit a guest was nice enough to translate everything for us. Leaves me to guess that the owner doesn't really cater to individuals who doesn't speak,read or understand the Viet language.Low overhead translates to low prices for consumers. You don't come here if you want ambiance or service. This is pretty straightforward Viet comfort/traditional food.

The best Com Tam in Eden hands down. Hole in the wall, and a little hard to find, I had to hunt this place down and try for myself. The lady doesn't speak English so its harder to communicate with her if you don't speak viet, but that's how you know this place is as authentic as it gets. Just point to what you want on the menu and you're good.Only $10 for the Dac Biet (Special dish) which includes rice, pork chop, sunny side up egg, Chinese sausage, shredded pork, fresh salad, as well as a small cup of broth. Their portion sizes are very generous. Their ingredients are always fresh, and tastes like grandma's home cooking. I never finish the dish in one sitting.Very sweet people who own this little shop. They always give me a big smile and tell me that they made it special. Delicious and worth the money, I will be back!

I need to write an update review for this place. I hate to do this for small business but I have to be honest with reviews. This place should not even be in business anymore. I miss Com Tam and decided to make a visit. I recognized they might change management. 1. They used to offer ice tea or water, now they just gave you a bottle of water (which can be confusing cause you dont know it is charged)2. The food is horrible, barely eatable. The pork chop tasted like it got marinated about 2 week ago, and left in the freezer. It was poorly seasoned. It's smaller than what it used to be served.3. The egg cake had a weird smell, and tasted like it already went bad. I could not even take another bite.I really want to support mom & pop shops, but this is unacceptable. That's the reason why local Vietnamese people do not go to Eden center for Vietnamese food anymore. It is such a tourist place now. I am actually very ashamed on the food they are serving.They are getting to lazy and too conformable with poorly taste clients they are having. I will never set foot in this place ever again.

Small, very very small. But very VERY GOOD. The food here is exactly what I wanted out of a com tam place. The portions are great, and the food came out quick!

Com Tam Saigon is not easy to find but it is most certainly worth to find it. You have to go to Eden Center and after that you have to go Saigon West section and after that you have to walk around until you find this grocery/restaurant. Once in, you have no reason to believe that you are not in Saigon - Viet TV show and there is nothing western in the shop. The proprietor does not speak English but they are ready with English written menu. Based on other Yelp reviews I took No 4 which is pork chops, sausage, rice, vegetables, shredded pork and tofu. You get strong broth soup and you get a smaller dish with a broth liquid that you pour over your meal for the extra flavor. I was also served iced tea. The meal was $8.If there was a hidden microphone I would have most certainly sound like Andrew Zimmern (from the Bizarre Foods). My sounds were in line with hmmm, OMG, so good as I was trying each piece on my rich platter.Chances that I would have find this place on my own, without Yelp, are 0%. Thank you Yelp for guiding me toward a wonderful dining experience. I have one small unfulfilled wish from this trip - despite me trying to be charming and raising my thumbs up and cleaning my plate completely - I was not able to crack a smile from an elderly Vietnamese lady that welcomed me. That is OK - we understood each other well and that is what I wanted from the human interaction. Highly recommend this place for non-experienced ethnic meal diner, who is ready to jump in the diverse ethnic dining.

Yay first review! Anyways, I was in Eden Center and feelin some com tam, which is broken rice to the uninitiated, and lo and behold walked by com tam saigon. Usually if the restaurant's namesake is one dish you should probably get it.If you don't know what broken rice is, picture a grain or rice, cut into three pieces, in a pile of other tiny pieces of rice then topped with a variety of toppings from bbq pork, shredded pork skin, a fried egg, this steamed eggy porky mung beany cake, all topped with some fish sauce. It's amazing.Com Tam Saigon did a pretty good job. nothing lifechanging but good enough to stand up to the california average, though not the top dogs.They don't speak much english though so if you're trying to edit your order just give up. That goes to you, you vegetarians!

I can't vouch for this place anymore!I went back here recently to fulfill a craving for the com tam I used to love here. I was NOT greeted, and sat myself down. They didn't give out any menus, nor did I see any food lists on the wall like before. After taking our orders (we just ordered the former #1 broken rice dish), the server plopped plastic water bottles in front of us, with no regard to whether we'd be charged for them or not. No more of that delicious brewed iced tea they used to serve. We ended up shoving the bottles aside in fear that they'd charge us, and we didn't even feel invited to ask if that were the case, because the attitude was so stand-off-ish. Horrible, horrible ambiance that literally made me want to get out ASAP, but I gave them a chance in hopes that the food was still good.Wrong.Com tam: The pork chop tastes old, with marinade that tastes like something out of a jar. The dish also includes fried egg, "cha trung" (steamed egg quiche, which actually had an unpleasant odor as well), "bi" (shredded pork), and a few sad pieces of lettuce and cucumber. No more "lap xuong" sausage like before. Vietnamese food is rarely "disgusting" for me, but this one took the cake. It was unpleasant to eat, and felt unpleasant in my body afterward. It's not like I could send the dish back - I knew they were incapable of making it any better. Similar "com tam" in other pho restaurants in the area cost about $11-12, and I'd much rather pay the up-charge for the fresher taste and better service, than $10 here for the saddest dining experience ever, food wise and service wise. Com Tam Saigon went downhill drastically and this will be my last time if they don't go back to their old self.

It's somewhat sad to see that this place has only one other review at the time of this writing, and it's 4 years ago at that. But I guess it's not too surprising; while it's not so much a hole in the wall in the interior of the outermost wing, it's small and cluttered and can be passed by without much notice. (They do sell some fruits and stuff outside their store though.) But as already mentioned, the owners do an awesome job at making their con tam. Their default water is a cold refreshing tea, and they also give a small cilantro soup on the side. On the plate, we get a generous serving of fresh veggies, lots of yummy shredded pork, an egg fried to perfection, and intensely flavorful Chinese sausage. The pork chop sealed the deal--so tasty and the meat was so tender. No part of the chop was dry at all. All this along with their friendly service made dinner very enjoyable.To reiterate, the owners don't speak much English, and their menu is rather limited, so just pick the con tam you want (or something else if you're really inclined), point to it, and you're good to go.

Killer hole in the wall. They don't speak english, so the lady had a guy at another table translate to price for us. That's how you know it's authentic. If you want a pretty restaurant with all the luxuries of Paris, you're in the wrong place. You want awesome food that'll make you destroy your diet, you're in the perfect place. The dish here is Com Tam - broken rice. I have no idea what that means. But it's rice with a pork chop, sausage, egg, and some other stuff. All is delicious.So go and give Grandma some business.