"Com tam banh trash" is a restaurant located in ward 13, district 4.

Previously, the restaurant was located right at the gate of Xom Chieu market, where vendors gathered their trash every afternoon to wait for the trucks to come and collect it. With this "identifying feature", no one knows since when customers started calling the restaurant "broken rice dump".

Later, the restaurant moved to Le Van Linh Street, about 1km away from the old location, but the unique, "smelly" name still stuck. The restaurant opens from 4pm the previous day to 2-3am the next day, and gets more and more crowded as the night goes on.

According to customers, the restaurant is located on a wide sidewalk and is kept clean by the owner. Food is placed on stainless steel tables, covered by glass walls, not scattered like before Covid-19. There is also no garbage dump near the restaurant.

This broken rice restaurant has a very diverse menu from ribs, baby back ribs, braised eggs, fried eggs, roasted pork belly, stuffed squid... served with scallion oil, radish, sweet and sour pickled papaya. Some dishes sold online by the restaurant include egg and sausage rice, pork chop and skin rice, grilled pork rib broken rice, stuffed squid rice, pig ear broken rice - fried eggs, average price from 50,000-100,000 VND/serving.

The restaurant has a diverse menu. Photo: My Nguyen/Saigonanuong

The two dishes most ordered by diners at the restaurant are traditional pork chop rice with egg and stuffed squid.

The ribs are marinated by the owner according to his own recipe, without using any ready-made sauce, thus creating a unique flavor. The piece of meat is considered quite large, thick, grilled just right, retaining moisture, sweetness, not dry or tough. However, the inside of the meat is not too rich, so diners must eat it with sweet and sour fish sauce. The fish sauce here is diluted and not sticky. The rice is cooked just right, not broken or loose, and has a chewy texture.

The restaurant's fried chicken and stuffed squid are both quite large, plump, and have glossy, eye-catching colors.

Although it is a sidewalk restaurant, the prices here are considered "expensive". A plate of rice with ribs, pork skin and sausage costs 90,000 VND, double the price of a normal plate of broken rice. Squid stuffed with meat costs 80,000-100,000 VND depending on the size. This price does not include iced tea, wet towels or extra rice.

Because of the high price of rice, the owner of the restaurant has long been called "Lamb-tongue Mrs. Bay" by locals and customers. Until now, the restaurant still does not have a menu with specific prices for each dish. When coming to eat, customers should ask for the price to avoid being "shocked" by the high price.

In recent years, "broken rice dump" has become increasingly famous on social media, especially when many famous people also checked in and praised Mrs. Bay's broken rice. There are hundreds of videos sharing their feelings about the restaurant's broken rice.

However, since becoming famous, the restaurant has always caused controversy about quality and price. Besides those who praise the food, there are many who object, saying that the price is too high for a sidewalk broken rice restaurant, without air conditioning, and with poor service.

A customer shared a photo of a rice dish with ribs, pork skin, sausage, eggs, and Chinese sausage for 200,000 VND. According to this customer, "the price is worth the quality". Photo: Lyvu0603

Despite the endless controversy, the restaurant is still crowded with customers. Many foreign YouTubers are also curious to come and enjoy the restaurant.

"Com tam gao ...

Mr. Choi commented that the restaurant's prices were high but he still nodded because of the taste of the food. According to him, the restaurant space was clean and not "a garbage dump as imagined".

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Mr. Choi nodded and praised the grilled ribs.

When he asked the owner about the high price, the owner did not hesitate to answer: There is also a 25,000 VND meal (rice with duck eggs) but you get what you pay for. According to the owner, broken rice with pork chop, pork skin and sausage costs 90,000 VND, if you add stuffed squid it will cost 190,000 VND.

Two Korean YouTubers enjoy "garbage dump broken rice". Photo: HanQuocBros

Kazuki Matsumoto (commonly known as Kiki), a Japanese YouTuber with a YouTube channel of nearly 150,000 followers, also enjoyed "garbage dump broken rice". He ordered a set of broken rice with pork belly. "Very delicious but expensive, 140,000 VND, very shocking", Kiki shared in the video.

In Ho Chi Minh City, there are many famous restaurants with "chilling" and curious names such as ancient tomb snails, cemetery beef hotpot or morgue sticky rice.