Hien Nam

After checking out the plethora of 'com chay' within our first 24 hours here, we easily settled on Hien Nam as our favourite. The man who seemingly runs the establishment is more than hospitable; the servings beyond ample; with apparently set prices (18 K according to the notice on the wall). The eatery is large and open-plan, with monks and nuns passing through from the adjoining temple, and even offers complimentary wifi.

Updated from previous review on 2017-01-03

Hien Nam was doing a good trade at lunchtime when we visited which you can take as an indication they're doing com dia right! I guess the price (15,000 VND) is a draw card too.

As the last reviewer noted, the staff just put food down in front of you. No ordering. But this isn't special treatment for tourists who don't speak Vietnamese, everyone just gets a bit of everything. A few people wandered up and pointed to things they wanted more of, or wanted left if their plate but no one ordered anything, per se.

What arrived on our table was the best food we've had in Vietnam at this style of eatery. First, the soup was really refreshing with tiny cubes of tofu and lots of greens. It tasted citrusy as well as slightly bitter so I'm thinking kafir lime leaves. They brought us iced jasmine tea in glasses which might have been special tourist treatment because everyone else just filled their own plastic cups from a big thermos. All the dishes were just a cut above the other com dia we've eaten - lighter and fresher with more distinct flavours in each dish. I was delighted to see cooked jackfruit on my plate, as well as a bitter melon dish, green mango salad, and other things I can't name or even really describe! But everything was delicious. It was a nice change to have mostly veggies on my plate in great variety with a bit of tofu and just a few pieces of fake meat.
Updated from previous review on Monday March 02, 2015

Nobody spoke English when we were there. So they just brought us some food without asking what we wanted and so the ordering problem was immediately solved. We liked the food and we enjoyed the funny situation.