Ruggedly wholesome, slightly sloppy, and generally delicious Thuan Kieu Com Tam stands out in the dizzying Houston Vietnamese restaurant scene (the gargantuan lettering on its strip-mall storefront certainly helps). The large hall and community tables make family-style dining totally attractive.

There are many options on the menu—really, every possible permutation of soup, noodle, rice, pork, chicken, beef, and seafood. But stay calm: at dinner, you need only order one of the set menus, which will get your per-person average to as low as eight bucks. Tableside hotpots are strong, particularly one teeming with fish chunks, taro leaf, and tomatoes; its spritely lemongrass-and-basil-perfumed broth wakes up the senses and readies you for more. Hainan chicken isn’t the best, filled with annoying bones, and yet somehow lacking the juiciness that bone-in cooking usually preserves. But the catfish clay pot, steeped in a savory caramel is possibly the best rendition in town, an indulgent balance of sweet and savory. Each bite of this normally bland and muddy fish is studded with crispy bits of pork fat.

If you do find yourself dining alone, go for the eponymous com tam (broken rice) dishes. While their varying grilled-meat-and-egg toppings are welcome additions, the expertly cooked, fluffy rice could be good enough on its own. But you really should bring people for more dishes and more flavors to sample.