Com Tam 9

I enjoyed this noodle restaurant tremendously. It is difficult to give any restaurant a five star; however this place it terrific. If you are here, consider ordering their iced coffee. It is wonderfully made and very generous.

CA KHO TO
It had the right amount of salt and it was really good. The catfish was beautifully brown and moist.
CANH CHUA
This soup complemented the ca kho to so well because it was sour, sweet, and savory.
Overall experience: I don’t really trust their other dishes, but I’ll be coming back for these two.

It pains me to give this place a low scoring review, but it is much deserved. I been to this establishment on more than 3 occasions, each one progressively getting worse. First off the service, traditional seat yourself and server will be with you. Our server on every occasion had to constantly repeat or ask what was our order. Once my family order a smoothie with our meal, the meal came out first, but our smoothie never came out until we payed even after asking about it constantly during the meal. Secondly the food, the «house» special fried rice is so bland; Panda Express have more flavor than this dish! It sadden me that this local place is progressively getting worse, but I can no longer be silenced by their terrible service and management.
TL;DR don’t go here period.

Nothing wrong with the banh mi here. Also nothing I’d write home about.

Okay I have to go back and give this place an update on their review. Their services actually improve a lot since they opened. Give them a break guys, they were swamped when they first opened so it was hard but they are now doing a lot better and try their best to accommodate the customers. Their foods are also a lot better and taste very good among the «com tam» places around North area that I have tried. My boyfriend loves coming here and eat their special rice every time he is in town. My favorite dish to eat here now is «hu tieu dai kho» … it is delicious. You should definitely give it a try. It is dry noodles that been dip in boiled water and serve with pork, shrimps, and their special soy sauce :) I love my food very spicy so I add green jalapeños to mine :) … also try their thai tea!!! It is very milky and yummy

The service was above 2 stars but not 3 stars, food is the same.
We had Bun Rieu and Combination rice plate with pork, egg, and pork skin. The rice is actual broken rice so I like it. They gave you a small bowl of broth with rice plate so it’s nice. I did not like the spring roll, they were very bland and not enough ingredients. Not just meat, but the whole combination of ingredients to make a good spring roll.
Prices is average as other restaurants around.
We were hungry so it was good. But we have not been back at all, even tho we pass by it many many times.

The service here is pretty good so I have no real complaints. The food here is good. I got a banh mi and it was pretty good. The rice platters were decently portioned and tasted fine. The rice noodles honestly could’ve been a bit better but everything else is good. The price is also pretty good so I might come back and try some other dishes.

Expect no service and top off that with rude sever. Messy and unorganized on the counter. Can’t image how the kitchen look.
Enjoy your meal

We went to com tam 9 on Sunday morning. There are about 5 or 6 tables fill up. They had a lot of choices like sandwiches, spring rolls, noodles, broken rice or family dishes.
The table are not clean well, it is full of oil and sticky.
— Food: ³⁄₅
We ordered grilled pork spring rolls, beef stew noodle, combination sandwich and grilled pork sandwich.
”Grilled pork spring rolls was good and cheap. 2.15 dollars for 3 pieces of rolls, it was not bad. It tastes delicious. Sauce was good.4/5
′‘Beef stew noodle: beef and carrot was soft but broth was oily and not flavorful, I just could finish half of bowl. ³⁄₅
′‘Sandwiches: sandwiches was fresh. My hubby love it, he would give it ⁴⁄₅. For me I just give it ³⁄₅ bc it lacks of butter and pâté, their pickle is not good enough for me. It is one of the cheapest Vietnamese sandwiches in Houston 2.77 for 1 sandwich, normally it costs 3.5 and up to get one.
— Service: food come out quick. Not too bad service.

Waitstaff was not well train. Found him digging for gold up his nose while standing behind the counter. Did not take our order correct. For took forever. 1 persons didn’t get food till when we almost finished. Fresh veggies still dirt stuck on them. Not a place to I recommend to anyone.

With so many great Vietnamese noodles houses in the vicinity, Com Tam falls short when it comes to food and service.
The location is the what this place has going for it. It is located next to a Vietnamese gambling «café» Tell tale signs are tinted windows, flocks of middle aged Vietnamese men, and dressing up as a coffee house. A lot of hungry gamblers drop by for a break.
Our waitresses were young women, probably high school aged. The service they provided was well, confusing. One one come over, try to take our order, and then a few seconds later, another would try to take our order. Apparently there are not assigned sections. There is either a tip pool going on, or they do not keep their tips… Not sure which because we kept getting both girls stopping by our table. One girl dropped off some napkins for the table, except that she dropped off one napkin… for two people. Erm… no.
Anyway, onto the food. The menu is very typical for a Vietnamese establishment… not as much variety as other places. We ordered the Mi bo kho, bun rieu, and eggrolls.
The crispy eggrolls were the best part of the meal. One order comes with four and a one giant lettuce leaf. The filling was very tasty. Could eat a few orders of these as a meal, and I would be happy.
The mi bo kho was okay… not horrible, but definitely not up to par with some of competition nearby. While the flavor was good, it was missing some of that deep aroma I love in a good beef broth. As a general rule, if I have to add a lot of condiments to the broth, it’s not as good as it could be, and I did doctor it up a bit. The bit of sweetness was pleasant though. The bun rieu was not good at all. While you could taste the nice crabby flavor, the soup itself was on the bland side, and after a dousing of salt, it was still just not very good, which is a shame because this is one of my favorite soup dishes.
Left not very satisfied, but it wasn’t the worst I have ever had. Try one of the many other noodles houses close by for a real treat.

In the hilariously named «Hung Dong» (on Google Maps it’s Hong Dong, but that’s not what the sign says) Market shopping center, Com Tam #9 resides in the corner by the 3D Café. I walked in with a friend and although both of us are Asian, neither of us speak Vietnamese.
There was a bit of a struggle to figure out where to sit and what to do. Like other Vietnamese restaurants, they expect you to seat yourself and a waiter will be with you in a moment.
I ordered the meatless com tam because some days I just don’t feel like eating meat, but the lady (much in Himalaya style) told me that I needed meat and instead changed my order to the House Special com tam. I have to say, she was right. The pork chop was slightly sweet and cooked to just the right point. The meat was done, but still juicy and tender. The egg cake is like a block of oven-​cooked scrambled eggs with bits of salty goodness hidden inside.
The crushed rice seemed to soak up the fish sauce in a completely different way than regular rice and created some sort of alchemy that drove me to keep eating despite being filled to the brim. The bits of shredded pork skin and fried egg might have had something to do with my unending appetite, because we all know that everything is better with a fried egg on top.
On another occasion, I had the opportunity to try the banh mi. I tried the BBQ Pork with a fried egg (see above paragraph) and it was really delicious. I enjoyed the pickled vegetables rather than the plain Jane julienne carrots that typically adorn this sandwich. The mayo wasn’t as addictive as Don’s Café or Nguyen Ngo 2, but it held it’s own and had a bit of unctuousness that I can’t quite place.
The French Iced Coffee with Condensed Milk (what I call Vietnamese Coffee, but they just look at me weird when I say that) comes already mixed up in a glass full of ice. The amount of coffee is pretty small and it was only decent. They have a lot of different drink options and all sorts of jellies, but I haven’t tried any of them. If they’re anything like the iced coffee, I wouldn’t say you get a big bang for your buck.
The service here is sadly lacking for the delicious fare that’s offered here. The servers are slow and tend to ask a few times what your orders are. Also, I wouldn’t expect that they remember what your order is either, so be prepared to remember your order, since you may be presented with food that isn’t yours or is just wrong.
The food here gets 4 stars, but the service gets 2 stars. I’ll average the two and say 3 stars overall.

We ordered Com Tam Dac Biet and Bo Kho. My husband like his dish (com tam). Mine was so so. Nice amount of meat. Flavor is just ok.
While eating I thought I might have to give this place a 3.5 star. I didn’t want to give them a 3 stars, but I could not go up to 4 stars neither. Until I took my last bite… Bam! I found a bug in my bowl… yuck! Drop down 1 — 2 stars!!! Since they apologized, I gave them 2 stars. We told them about bug in the dish to let them know they have to be more careful for the next time, of course, we didn’t expect NOT to pay for it. However, Com Tam 9, please take my recommendation seriously… next time DO NOT CHARGE your customer for your bug dish! That’s how business should be run in this country.

Food here is ok. They offer a large variety of different foods from banh mi to bun thit nuong to crispy Vietnamese eggrolls. Food here is pretty good and they can certainly hold their own against other Vietnamese restaurants on the 249 corridor. I wouldn’t say the food here is spectacular, but it’s pretty decent. On par with the typical things you can find at Kim Son. This restaurant does have one standout that would keep me coming here: sugarcane drink. It’s super-​sweet as you can imagine, but so good. I prefer phở next door at Phở Dung 3, but would swing by here for my favorite dessert drink in town, nuoc mia (sugarcane juice)

Among the Vietnamese restaurants along 249, there are plenty of options for phở, bun, and com dishes. But there was only one choice when it came to banh mi until Com Tam came along.
My order of spring rolls came out quickly, and these were some of the fattest little rolls I’ve gotten in the area, stuffed with pork and shrimp, without an excess of filler like lettuce and vermicelli.
The banh mi came out looking like those I’m used to from the mom-​and-​pop shops over on Bellaire, and the price reflects it. At only $ 2.50, these are tough to beat, and the place across the street is going to have to take this into consideration. At Com Tam #9, the thit nuong is the more traditional chargrilled pork when compared to the sort of Asian BBQ glazed version at Phở 45, though more sparsely loaded, so perhaps there is room for both price points. The customary cucumber, cilantro, carrot, and jalapeño were all fresh, and stuffed into a crispy, slightly chewy baguette spread with a bit of the homemade Vietnamese mayo.
This was an excellent, quick, cheap, street-​style banh mi that I look forward to revisiting. There are a plethora of Vietnamese eateries along 249, but I’m glad to finally have another banh mi option.