OA ComTam

This place! I’ve only ever ordered takeaway and always the same dish but rarely have I wolfed down a meal so quickly. It’s so good! I always order the chicken curry, fried rice & prawn crackers. Once I tried noodles but prefer the rice. The staff are very pleasant and accommodating. The food is so flavoursome and great portion sizes. Highly recommended. I live close by so it’s a regular stop off on my way home.

I’ve been to OA Com Tam a few times now and it’s been better each time. Originally the main focus of the menu was Com Tam, Vietnamese broken rice with a range of fresh meat, fish and veg options like King Mackerel with pineapple and stuffed Calamari. There also offered Bahn Mi baguettes with various fillings and a couple of sides including some excellent Prawn Summer Rolls for just £1.80.
With winter approaching and after lots of customer requests the menu has been expanded to include beef, chicken of tofu Phở and Bun Bo Hue — Hue’s version of Phở in a lemongrass and chilli soup. I had the Beef Bun Bo Hue (£6.20), last time I visited and it was awesome! A lovely warming broth with silky noodles, good quality ingredients and the right amount of heat.

The Bun dishes are glorious. The Phở is above-​average yet better can be found along Kingsland road. Nonetheless, if you want quality Bun dishes and care little about trendy atmosphere, then this spot will satisfy.

Perfect spot for a study break! Situated next to London Met, offering fresh Vietnamese! Try the Phở or the spicier version like I had! Delicious! Perfect on a chilly day!

I want to make something clear right from the start: were I assessing the quality of food alone, I would grant this place four stars. On the couple of times I’ve been there, what I have eaten has been very tasty, and while I have no real knowledge of Vietnamese food, does seem broadly authentic. Similarly, the service has always been very warm and efficient, and merits a better score.
The problem I have with this place is what you get for your money.
The first time in there I ordered a caramelised pork and egg com tam to take away. Com tam, a traditional Vietnamese dish referring to the «broken rice» that accompanies the meat, is their signature dish (as the name suggests). But when opening the box at home, my main thought was that there simply wasn’t enough of it. The pork was delicious. The rice was well cooked and just the right flavour. The fish sauce, provided in a separate pot to pour over the top of it all was lovely. But while I was certainly not hungry when I’d finished it, I wouldn’t have said I was exactly full either. The same was true when I went back and tried their bahn mi.
In a way they’d nailed on the head exactly how much the meal they sold was worth. At £5.80 for that com tam box, I felt I had received precisely what I had paid for. No more, no less. However, the funny thing about consumer economics that this is not what you’re after. A happy customer is one who feels that they have received *more* than what they paid for.
There are two solutions to this problem. Either keep the price the same and include more food, or put the price down. In the case of their com tam dishes, the first option seems entirely workable. Two or three more chunks of meat, two egg halves instead of one, a slightly larger portion of rice, and the entire situation would change, and probably not cost them a massive amount more to make. Unfortunately the bahn mi would probably have to be priced down, unless they can find a source of slightly larger baguettes. I appreciate would be a pain to do on account having to change all the publicity material, but might be necessary.
They also seem to have had the misfortune to land a rather difficult location. The shop is tiny, with only enough room to fit three two-​person tables, and I don’t think eating there would be that comfortable unless you’re ok with being right under the noses of the staff. They don’t appear to offer a delivery service, so it seems most ideally geared towards the lunchtime take-​away market. On that basis, it seems absolutely crazy that they’re open until 10 every night.* If you can’t sit in, and it’s not suitable delivery food, I have no idea who their evening customers are going to be. In addition, it’s completely obscured by the railway bridge when you come out of Holloway Road tube, so unless you’re always heading north you could easily never know it was there. If you do go north from Holloway Road station, you’ll probably find that you’re on the wrong side of a very busy road.
I really would like this place to succeed, as they do make nice food. They are obviously very new, and few things are perfect right from the beginning. However, they will need to make some changes to become very good. The location is obviously fixed for now, but they can aim for a more suitable market, and certainly change price/​quantity ratios. If these issues are addressed, then they will have every right to four– or even five-​star reviews.
*It has since occurred to me that this might have something to do with the student residence just across the road.