Com Saigon — Restaurant in Florence

If you read the reviews for this restaurant, you will read the sarcastic, aggressive owner replies. He interprets my impression of his food's authenticity, and composition with my lack of travel sense, knowledge and experience specifically in Vietnam. You are wrong Sir. Just accept that you serve overpriced medium sized bowls of pho broth with an automatically added coperto without actually adding any bread or rice or anything to the table. Fortunately there are plenty of other food options in this beautiful city.

I've traveled all over Vietnam several times. However I don't expect to find the same level of authentic food in Florence, Italy. ...and I didn't.

The Com Saigon's version of pho is pho light....scarce on meat and rest of ingredients. The broth is satisfying but at 16€ for a medium bowl of pho it's equal to a tourist trap. They even have a tip jar by the cash register. The 2€ per person they automatically add to your bill is for coperto. Normally in Italy that surcharge includes a basket of bread and a bottle of water. Here it doesn't include anything, niente, nulla, just a way to charge 2€ more. Your food is only delivered to your table, there's no one checking on you or providing any level of service that I experienced.

The only Asian person I saw working here was a young girl by the stove, by the front window. I don't know if it's to add an impression of authenticity but the rest of staff I saw were Italians.

This restaurant may be on par with an Italian restaurant in Danang, Vietnam where you're expecting to find an authentic plate of cacio and pepe but chances are...

A few year back, we went to Com Saigon during our trip to Italy and the memory are stilf fresh because the food was very good and the owner couple was super nice. The fried fish with fish sauce and the fish sour soup were amazing. My wife did not feel well on the day and the owner who was a chef herself offered her a cup of lemongrass tea. She felt so much relief after taking the tea. A very heartwarming memory we still remember until today: at that time there was a lot of Syrian Refugees in Italy. We witnessed a Syrian refugee family of 4 with 2 young children came to the restaurant and ask for food because they did not have food for days. Without hesitant the owner couple welcomed them and set a table for them just like for any customer. The owner/chef told us that she felt for them because as a southern Vietnamese lady who had to leave Saigon after 1975; she had a lot of sympathy for those who were forced to leave their beloved countries. We decided to share the meal cost with the owner and were so thankful that they accepted our offer. The husband owner was an Italian journalist who used to work in Saigon. He was kind, supportive and very hospitable. Again, thank Com Saigon for a great memorable meal and heartwarming moment of humanity. If we ever come to Florence again, we will definitely come to this...

It’s not a good place to have Pho if you had any Pho in your life before, it’s maybe just a ok place to experience if you never experienced “Pho”. Let me explain to you why I only rate them 1 of 5, ☝🏻it’s very very very small restaurant, the seating is not confortable at all☝🏻the menu is not clear, you will not find “Pho” till the very last few pages on their menu, actually, I seen big selection of ” spaghetti” on their menu, it’s big time mislead to me if the Restaurant named as “Pho”. ☝🏻we ordered two “Pho” (12 Euro each ) and another main dish called” something Chicken” which is 13 Euro, guess what, the small bowl not much big than “French Onion soup” size, I don’t really Believe that is main dish, actually the MSG water cost nothing, the “chicken” dish appearing 6 small piece chicken with little rice on a beautiful big plate, I promise the 6 pieces of Chicken less than 100g for sure, I just don’t get why the owner care for the most cheapest meat ever ☝🏻there were total 3 table customers tonight, 2 groups of 2 and one group of 4 almost leaving while we seated, more than 20 minutes we waiting for the simple cooking process food ☝🏻 we decided not back there again, so we didn’t take any pics, I don’t use to comment any merchandise, but I decided to share with people who may be mislead by their...