A small house, a warm meal
In the heart of Hue City, where the streets still retain their peacefulness, there is an address called Com Nha - a small family restaurant opened and maintained by Ms. Hong Van for over a year. Previously, the restaurant operated in Dong Da apartment building, but has now moved to a new address in lane 17, house number 7, Doi Cung street. No big sign, no flashing colored lights, this place is just a small, bright level four house, which Ms. Van herself decorated with flower pots, wooden boards and red flags with yellow stars fluttering in front of the porch.
The home-cooked meal is located at the end of a small alley in a residential area.
The interior space is about 40 square meters wide, painted white, with simple wooden tables and chairs, the layout reminiscent of an old but cozy kitchen. Ms. Van did not demolish the entire partition like many modern restaurants, but only knocked down a part to open small brick windows - a strange combination of old and new. There is no background music, not too crowded, this place keeps just enough silence for people to clearly hear the sound of spoons hitting the clay pot of rice, or the gentle wind blowing through the white curtain in front of the porch.
The space inside the shop is simply decorated with white walls and wooden tables and chairs.
Home cooked meals from parents' hands
No chefs are hired, no pre-orders are made, each meal here is the result of an early market visit and experienced hands in the family kitchen. Ms. Van's parents, two elderly people who have cooked for decades, still regularly go to the market early in the morning to buy ingredients, then directly cook each dish. Every day, the menu will change according to the season and ingredients, and Ms. Van will post it on Facebook for customers to refer to in advance.
A meal for two costs 70,000 VND, usually with 5 dishes: main dish, soup, stir-fry, pickles and fruit dessert. The rice is cooked with fragrant sticky rice, served in a hot clay pot, served with familiar Hue dishes such as: braised pork with radish, boiled vegetables with shrimp sauce, pickled papaya fish sauce, braised mackerel, banana flower soup with shrimp, braised pork with bean curd, braised silver fish with chili... and typical Hue fish sauces.
The restaurant's menu is usually Hue dishes that people eat in their daily meals, prepared by the shop owner's parents, Ms. Van, who goes to the market and prepares them.
The two most popular dishes are boiled meat with sour shrimp sauce and egg with sausage, which are often on the menu. If you want to eat more, you can order individual dishes at affordable prices, such as fried eggs for 15,000 VND or boiled meat for 25,000 VND. Each portion is carefully prepared, not fussy about presentation but always eye-catching because of the sophistication in color and flavor coordination.
Boiled pork with sour shrimp sauce
Scrambled eggs with side dishes and desserts
Eat a meal, remember an old kitchen
The restaurant's opening hours are from 10am to 2pm and 5:30pm to 9pm. In addition to food, the restaurant also sells coffee, juice, tea, milk tea and some bottled drinks at reasonable prices from 12,000 to 28,000 VND. The small, quiet, clean space, friendly staff and owner are what make many people come back, not only because of the delicious food but also because of the feeling of entering here like returning to an old kitchen in memory.
One foreign tourist wrote: “We stumbled upon this small family cafe and couldn’t have asked for a better place to have dinner. The owner was very friendly and despite the language barrier, we were able to understand each other. We sat down and marveled at the delicious food, which was different every day. Rice, soup, vegetables, meat and fish were all prepared as soon as we walked in.”
Not only the food but also the family atmosphere is recreated at Com Nha when many diners and their families come here to enjoy.
Many foreign tourists have visited, enjoyed and shared it as a precious discovery. The couple Jurlendy & Rodolphe - who came to Hue for the first time - called this "the cutest cafe in the city", while female tourist Senne Caroes shared: "A hidden gem, located in a small alley. We had a meal with delicious broth and some meat and fish dishes. The drink menu is also very rich, especially the lemonade".
Korean tourist Kim Young Soo has a sentimental comparison: “If you are Korean, you must try Vietnamese food here. Go a little further in the alley, a table like prepared by your maternal cousin is waiting for you.”
The restaurant space is small but clean, the minimalist decoration gives a spacious and airy feeling.
Not focusing on form, not following the trend of strange dishes or elaborate decoration, Ms. Hong Van's small restaurant chooses the slow path: cooking with family love, serving guests like serving relatives. And it is that simplicity that touches the emotions of many people.
“I found the restaurant clean, the food clean, the space quiet and comfortable. The food came out quickly, looked delicious, tasted good, very worth the experience,” a Vietnamese diner shared. It felt like being invited to a meal at a grandmother, mother or sister’s house, where not many words are needed but full of care.
Ms. Hong Van - owner of Com Nha restaurant
In the noisy world of ever-changing culinary trends, there is still a place where home-cooked meals are not made to attract a lot of customers, but to preserve a slow pace of life, a way of eating that is typical of Hue.
