Where there is smoke, there is grilled pork. This is indeed very true for Hanoi. It’s so easy to spot a restaurant that serves grilled pork (for example, bun cha) – you’ll either catch a whiff of BBQ or see smoke on the streets.
And that was how we discovered this place.
Com Suon Nuong
73 Quan Thanh
Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: +84 91 748 0399
Opening hours: 7.00am to 10.00pm daily
This guy did the BBQ right at their shop front. Very smoky but smelled really good!
There wasn’t any seating space on the ground floor (no outdoor tables/stools too) so you’d have to go upstairs.
Be careful ‘cos the spiral staircase was quite small and narrow.
We picked a table by the window on the second floor. There wasn’t any menu here as they only served one dish i.e. Com Suon Nuong or Grilled Pork Rib Rice. The moment we were seated, we were served two bowls of vegetable soup that was light and not overly salty.
It didn’t take long for our rice dish to come. This was their Com Suon Nuong (35,000 VND) that consisted of grilled pork rib (no bones, only meat), potatoes and kangkong (water spinach). The pork had an excellent smoky flavour with its charred edges. Perfectly cooked as the meat wasn’t tough but still had a slight chewy bite. There was a good ratio of meat to fats too.
The potatoes was braised till they were absolutely tender and almost melted in the mouth. Even the kangkong was nicely stir fried and still had a fresh crisp/crunch.
Some savoury sauce was doused over the rice so the entire plate was really flavoursome.
While we were tucking into our rice, one of the service staff came over and asked if we would like some tea (either hot or cold). We thought the tea was chargeable but turned out that it was complimentary. Nice.
Beneath one of our plates was this slip of paper which we had to bring downstairs to make payment when we were done with our meal. At just under SGD2.20 per plate of pork rib rice that included vegetable soup and tea, it was definitely a value-for-money meal. I don’t recall seeing many Com Suon Nuong eateries around so this dish was probably not as common. If you love the mixed rice (‘chap chye png’) style of meal, you shouldn’t miss this out as it is way awesome than you think. 😉