Com Viet

Small and intimate Vietnamese place amidst west end theaters, just around the corner from Covent Garden. Great value for money. Delicious, hearty Phở. Perfect for a pre theater dinner. Bookings are a must, especially during weekends.

Oh well.
Phở didn’t taste how it’s supposed to when you cook bones for hours.
Ribs from the entire menu seemed like they had been sitting there for a couple of days after being cooked.

One of the best Vietnamese places I’ve ever been (I’ve been only in a few of them, I must say) ;) but I loved the food. The service was very good, the place could be better, but the food was very very good! I had duck with lime and chili, and fried rice, and I loved it. I must try more Vietnamese places, buy definitely this is by far one of the best I’ve ever been. :)

Ordered Bun Bo Hue and summer rolls… overall the food was average at most. The summer rolls were alright and Bun Bo Hue was disappointing. The soup broth of Bun Bo Hue was certainly not authentic, it was lacking in flavour and does not taste like they have made the soup by boiling bones.

So I was in Covent Garden and decided to introduce my girl to Vietnamese food (she’s Italian, forgive her) and dropped into this place. Yeah, the décor is that of a typical dive but I’m here for the food so, who cares. No standard-​issue hoisin sauce, siraccha, and fishsauce bottles on the table … not a good sign.
Ordered the typical «beginner’s» dishes:
— Cha gio (fried rolls): decent, not great. The nuoc chom seems a bit off but still good.
— Goi cuon (fresh summer rolls): decent, missing chives. The dipping sauce is too much hoisin, and too little peanut.
— Phở bo (beef phở with the rare steak): first off, the vegetable condiment plate had bean sprouts, sliced chiles, lemon (should be lime), cilantro, and mint (!). That’s it. No thai basil and mint does not go with phở.
— Banh xeo (vietnamese moon crêpe): the ideal consistency for this dish is that it should be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Well, they went overboard on the crispy part and the crêpe crumbles like saltine crackers in Oprah’s back pocket.
Again, the nuoc chom is too gingery and needs more line and fish sauce.
Luckily, my girl didn’t know any better and wolfed everything down but I ain’t no chump! I’m heading over to the other side to try the other VNmese restaurant.

A* food, best Asian cuisine tried in London. Recommend the slow cooked chicken and the spring roles are of excellent quality. Really excellent food. Shame it is a small restaurant.
They also do takeaways.

Came in on a rainy day after shopping in Covent Garden. I’m from Toronto so am still acclimating to paying 10quid for soup noodles. Nonetheless the Beef Phở was quite good, although the broth could have a bit more mix of spices like cinnamon, star anise, etc. Overall I would come back and I did enjoy my meal and experience here.

Com VIet looks tiny when you walk past on Garrick St. But underneath its timid exterior, this place has a great space downstairs, with cubicles suitable for bigger groups. The menu is fairly extensive — as with most authentic Vietnamese restaurants. You can even see into the steamy kitchen from the seating downstairs. All good so far.
The food — We opted for the ox tongue phở, the beef phở and summer rolls. the beef phở and summer rolls being my Vietnamese food litmus test. The phở was okay — the portions were well-​sized, the noodles good and toppings were generous. The soul of phở is the broth though — and sadly, although this tasted okay, it was also your standard MSG affair. It didn’t have the fragrance of star anise and other flu-​combating herbs that I would expect from a truly authentic broth. The summer roll was also average — it was big, but too loosely wrapped, although the mint, vermicelli and prawn ratio was well-​balanced.
The service was a bit hit and miss — some waiters were very good, whilst others were slackers — I think it’s time to do a headcount rationalisation, Com Viet. To be honest, it doesn’t quite hit the spot, but if I was in covent garden and dire for my phở fix, I wouldn’t say no either. So I’m on the fence with this one, I would neither recommend nor condemn it. Why’s it so hard to find great phở?!

Great lunch offer. £9.50 for two courses and a drink. Was pretty good. The décor was a bit peculiar — I liked the air of tininess upstairs but wasn’t so hot on the downstairs which was a cross between a European railway station café and a disused nightclub. Service was fast and there were no tourists which is a major bonus in this area. Left feeling deliciously satisfied and with a happy wallet :)

Stopped in for lunch jonesing for phở. I got the beef phở which was honestly flavorless. The broth was just so weak and even loads of coriander, mint, and chili sauce didn’t help. They also served a lemon wedge with the garnish which was just bizarre — it should always be a lime wedge. The meat in the soup was tough as boots and not at all the thinly sliced rare beef you usually see. I get the appeal due to the location of the place but save your pennies and go elsewhere.

So this one for me was a meh…
We went here after a long monday and just needed some spice in our life.
So we sat down and ordered a whole bunch of stuff
Salt and pepper squid with chilli… Lets say that I have seen second hand shoe soles that look like they are more appetising then this was
Wok fried prawns with salted duck egg, basically just deep fried prawn with a salty crust lovely with some of the fresh chilli from the not so successful squid mentioned above.
The fried rice was good, mixed veggies were a bit all-​inclusive holiday style
and the avocado salad came with a lot of not avocado stuff.
Then there was the issue of the fish. There were a lot of bones there that were definitely not easy to remove (so we had to pick half of them out mid-​chew) not very romantic.
Also the so longed for spice was completely missing in this dish (even though the menu mentioned a little chilli pepper) all that said I think the sauce was lovely with some white rice and the staff was very friendly and helpful.
I don’t think we will be going back here

This place wouldn’t survive 5 minutes around Old Street where competition amongst Vietnamese eateries is high. The price point is high for the quality of food you receive, I can see that a lot of the price tag would go towards ground rent with this being slap bang in the middle of the tourist district.
I went as part of a group and I was disappointed by patchy service. We were on the top floor so I guess we were easy to overlook. Things like one bowl of phở coming with all the extras (mint, beansprouts, chilli etc) but somebody else with the same dish not getting any of them. We had to ask, the lady looked a little taken aback but did oblige. Eventually.
Drinks ran empty and finding a member of staff was a chore. I had hoped that pricey food + central location would mean half decent service. Nope.
The phở itself is underwhelming. The broth is not all that rich or tasty. The meat hasn’t been in there long enough, it’s tough and chewy and sinewy. I found myself trying to subtly pull hunks of fat and gristle out of my mouth on a few occasions. Even with every single seasoning item in there, it was barely passable.
I wouldn’t recommend this place though I understand that in this area it can be challenging to get something half decent to eat without having to remortgage your house. I’d swerve this and take my chances elsewhere. It might not be better but I doubt it’d be much worse.

Very nice and cheap place to eat a small meal.
I took a very spicy soup with prawns and okra for less than 6£
And it was excellent !!

Totally missing phở, as I haven’t had it in ages since I made the move from Vancouver. Decided to try this place out based on the positive reviews. and I was pretty underwhelmed.
I went for their lunch special, which was around £10, and you get to choose from a selection of appies + entrees. I felt it was a bit pricey for what we got. My friend had the spicy squid, and I had the beef ribs (3 ribs). The spicy squid was pretty disappointing. It was hot but squishy, not crispy, and didn’t have the flavor or heat. Quite bland overall. The beef ribs were alright.
I ended up ordering the beef phở — and while it wasn’t terrible, it certainly wasn’t authentic. While the beef was tender, the soup definitely lacked body, it didn’t have a rich robust flavor and felt like it was missing a lot of the spices (or maybe it wasn’t strong enough), of fennel seeds, star anise, cloves, etc. it was definitely missing the onion! Was the broth made from bones? I really couldn’t tell, it looked very very clear, and though I wouldn’t want a soup full of scum from boiling bones, I couldn’t really detect that it was fresh broth boiled from scratch due to the lack of flavor and the clarity of the soup. Maybe they did a good job of skimming everything? I kinda think it was just prepackaged beef stock with some other flavors mixed in.
Ended off with a viet coffee, which is supposed to sit through a filter and drips into a cup of condensed milk. It was brought to us right away, which surprised me since they are supposed to bring the cup /​filter to sit on your table — either way, the coffee should take about 10’ish minutes at the very least to filter through. But when it was ordered, it came out within a minute. It just tasted like sweet coffee.
. not authentic. wouldn’t come back.

Great food, reasonable price and in central London!
The menu is varied and there was plenty of things I hadn’t tried before. I had the prawn cakes to start which were delicious. For main I had the Bun Bo Ha Hanoi which again was delicious and also HUGE! The beef was perfectly cooked.
The staff were really friendly and helpful when it came to picking food. Also explained how the food was meant to be eaten etc.
Will definitely be coming back here to try more things on the menu!

Com Viet has very friendly staff, cosy booths for groups in the basement and fairly good food. There’s not much more to say about it really, I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed but there’s nothing wrong with it either. It’s a good option if you want somewhere independent and reasonably priced in the area. The pork spring rolls bun was pretty good. I’m still not too sure what I think of bun… I am often left a little unsatisfied but then I few weeks later I start craving it again.

Spot-​on 4 but off of my maiden voyage experience; this rating could chage!
–Phở ga (chicken) broth was very nice; for once NOT the BEEF broth dumped on noodles w/​chicken. too many noodles though even for a non-​carb-​phobe like me so I’d ask for less.
–Summer rolls: good, passed the test, & glad they had evenly distributed ingredients.
— Bun Thit with grilled pork belly & spring rolls: pretty good, liked the pork belly touch & the fish sauce was nice. Odd to me, that the dish came on a plate vs. a bowl but altogether was a fine dish.
Must try the Bun Bo Hue next and the Banh Xeo. Sadly, they don’t offer Banh Cuon. It’s great to have a decent Viet place in this area! Very nice service, too.

This is the best restaurant ever!
Order Phở best thing I have ever tasted! bursting with flavor. Beef gets more tender the longer you let it sit which is hard because you just want to take it in as quickly as possible. This would be the meal I would request for my last meal :)
Bun Sa, very fresh, perfect blend for a salad.
MUST TRY!

Quickly seated downstairs on a weekend night when most other restaurants in the area had outrageous waiting times. Glad we ended up here instead.
Excellent Vietnamese summer rolls to start. The chilli salt and pepper squid lacked the chilli, but had decent flavor.
Had bun bo hue phở while my significant other had the assorted mushroom phở. Both did the job for filling us up, but in my case it lacked heat and I expected more beef than I was served (which seems to be a recurring theme in England).
The search continues for 4 – 5 star phở in London!

This place is a hidden gem! As my friends and I walked around searching for a place to eat before our show started, we were losing hope that we would find a place without a 45 minute wait. Com Viet is a little easy to miss as most of the seating is downstairs. From the outside, it looks like nothing special, but once you go downstairs there is more seating and the décor is lovely. I had a hankering for some delicious Phở and as I have been looking up restaurants in Cambridge (where there is only one Vietnamese place) it was on my mind.
We were able to sit right down and enjoy dinner before going to see a show at the Duke of York’s Theater. I started off with the Cha Nem, Vietnamese spring rolls, which are filled with crab, mushrooms, and pork. They were delicious and I wanted to devour more. Next up, I had the Phở with beef and it was so good. My friend ordered the Bun Thit Nuong, BBQ Pork Loin with Rice Vermicelli, lemon-​grass marinated Pork loin, served with crispy spring rolls, Pork, Daikon & Herbs. This was also a very tasty entrée. The staff was very nice and this place was a great find.
I am getting hungry while writing this review and I find myself wishing that I had leftovers.