Com Tam Saigon

Want traditional Vietnamese broken rice this is the place to go. We don't visit Eden Center often but when we do we stop by here and take home our dinner. ( we live about 90 miles away)

Com Tam Saigon has been at Eden Center for many years, pretty much since the opening of Saigon West wing. They seem to do brisk business with carryout and catering orders. We ventured here for a late lunch in January. It's a small space with a lot of the work overflow spilling onto some of the tables. A man was wrapping banh chung for Tet, but we were able to sit at a small table by the window.

It helps to speak Vietnamese, but you can get by with pointing out what you want. The restaurant has a small dry erase board with their specialties. Since "rice" is in their name, you can't go wrong with ordering "Com Tam Saigon", which is listed as #1. The dish includes broken jasmine rice (com tam), shredded pork (bi), grilled marinated pork chop (thit nuong), steamed pork quiche (cha), a fried egg, and Chinese sausage (lap suong). The dish is a generous size and comes with a small bowl of broth with cilantro to enjoy after your meal. It was truly delicious and the pork was tender and had a bit of char. Use the fish sauce (nuoc mam) and mix it into your rice and bi. There are condiments to doctor the fish sauce to your preferred level of heat.

CASH ONLY! The com tam is $9/each including tax. Most places in Eden Center charge $8.50-99. Considering the egg is usually a $1 surcharge at other places, it ends up being the same amount you would spend anyway with tax.