Com tam bui — Restaurant in Garden Grove

This is a chill little place that has a modern cafe vibe. We were not greeted immediately but the lady at the register was nice to us when we got to the register inside. She offered us to sit anywhere and we were promptly given menus and also were able to order pretty easily.

The place is pretty clean and it was dead when we got in but I noticed quite a few people coming in for food pick up.

DRINK:

Vietnamese Coffee:

This was delicious! Great balance of coffee and milk! Not overly sweet, just right!

FOOD:

Soup:

I'm not sure what it is called but it is a wonderful start to the meal. It is light, delicious, and refreshing.

Com Tam (Broken Rice): Wow! First of all it was weird for me not eating Pho when I eat Vietnamese food, and this was AMAZING! The rice is cooked perfectly and the meats are also cooked very well. I got the chinese sausage, pork rib, and some other pork meat. The veggies are also a nice refreshing taste and texture to the meal!

OVERALL:

The food was great! This is a new meal for me so it feels life changing, but I don't think the idea is revolutionary. The service was not what you would expect in a sit down restaurant, but. every interaction we had was great. There was just no order to the service. We got our meals first, then our drinks. They did not really check on us at all as well. I think that despite the service not being as great as I would have liked, the food pulls it...

We weren’t even planning on eating here—honestly, we were headed next door like culinary snobs on a mission. But then we pulled a spontaneous foodie U-turn and walked in… and wow, best detour ever.

The menu is delightfully simple: pick rice or noodles (a.k.a. the starchy foundation of joy), then choose three tasty sidekicks. That’s it. It’s like a choose-your-own-deliciousness adventure.

The portions? Massive. Like, “should’ve worn stretchy pants” massive. We were fighting for survival by the last few bites. Grilled Pork? Heavenly. Egg rolls? Crispy cylinders of happiness. Egg cakes and Chinese sausage? A symphony of flavor.

Bonus points: every table has a bottle of dipping fish sauce and a jar of chopped chili peppers, so you can spice things up like a reckless flavor daredevil.

The place was packed, which is Restaurant Code for “this spot slaps.” We’re already plotting our return. Next time, we might even skip the original plan and walk straight in like we meant to...

It was hard to enjoy the foods when the restaurant is so dirty. I almost walked out but I was short of time and stayed. The cement floor near the entrance was so filthy with a thick layer of black grime 1 mm thick. The base of the walls are also dark with dirt, oil and fish sauce splashes. The chairs and tables were sticky. If the restaurant is so dirty in the front, what is going on in the kitchen? Until they clean this restaurant up, I will not come back. However, the people who let this new restaurant into this dirty state obviously don't see the issue so they won't...