As you may imagine, basically everything we ate in Vietnam was unreal. Vietnam food is so varied and delicious! So naturally, boiling it down to just 10 highlight moments is a little tricky... so in this post it'll be a mix of raving about my favourite dishes as a whole, alongside some particularly notable dining experiences. Whenever I write these food highlight posts I think not only about what food taste the best, but also where weve has the best eating experience, such as down a small side alley in a super local spot, or the way it was presenting, or just that it was ridiculous affordable!
So, here are my top dishes and food experiences from Vietnam:
Pho Nam (clear) and Pho Bo Kho 79k (£2.50) each - Ho Chi Minh
This was our first meal in Vietnam. A pretty popular spot in the center of district 1 of Ho Chi Minh. We went for Pho Nam, a variation of beef Pho and also Pho Bo Kho which is quite a different type of Pho. Its referred to as Vietnamese beef Stew, and I can see why. Its maybe the closest thing we'd had to a stew at home, it was tomatoes, richy and almost like a gravy taste with big chunks of carrot ans potato cooked in it too. Its described as spicy, but it definitely wasn't haha. However, it was DELICIOUS! A greay way to start our vietnam food adventure🫶
Bun Bo Hue, food tour - Ho Chi Minh
(Location unknown)
One of the best things we did in Vietnam was a foor tour with two university students in Ho Chi Minh. I wrote more about it in this blog post. While on thay tour they introduced us to two dishes which soon became some of our favourite vietnamese dishes, one being Bun Bo Hue, which translates to noodle beef Hue. Essentially, a pho originating from Hue in central Vietnam, with noodles and Beef. The noodles in Bun Bo Hue are quite unique to any other noodle soup on Vietnam as they're thicker, a little more like udon noodles. The soup itself is quite different to other Pho, its a bit more sour and savory from the ceab meat and crab cake that comes with it, and has a slightly more tomatoes taste to it too.
Overall I suppose I loved it so much as I found the flavours to be more complex and richer than some other Phos we'd have, and I really enjoyed the thicker noodles!
Im not sure how much this dish was as it was paid for as park of our tour, but we'd seen other places sell a bowl for anywhere between 30k-60k (£1-£2)
Cao Lau, 40k (£1.28) per bowl, Hoi An
Cao lầu, an absolute love affair. Quite possible one of the best dishes I've eaten on this entire trip. SO good. Its hearty, filling, comforting, yet refreshing, crisp and flavourful. Just all of the good things!! It's a dish only found in Hoi An, and boy did we make sure to make the most of that! I think we had about 6 bowls of while in Hoi An.
It's made with a base of thick, udon like, egg noodles, topped with pork, crackling, fried wonton skins, beansprouts and herbs, which then has a few spoons of a thick and rich stock poured over the noodles. So its arguably a dry dish, but the small amount of stock adds just enough moisture. It's just delicious!
The spot pictured below was our final bowl of Cao lầu before we left Hoi An. We stopped at one of the most popular spots for it in Hoi An, and also ordered the famous "herbal drink" from the shop next door, Mót. The main ingredients of Mot Hoi An are lime and lemongrass, along with famous herbs such as licorice, jasmine, chrysanthemum, lotus leaf, ginger and cinnamon. It say it kind of just tasted like a sweet iced tea, but it was lovely and refreshing nonetheless.
Apparently part of the reason its only found in Hoi An is due to the fact local water and trees are used in the production process, which is pretty fascinating!!
According to the local legend, the water used for cooking the noodles comes from the ancient well in Hoi An.
People believe that the water has certain properties that makes the noodles just the way they are. Hence no Hoi An water, not real taste.
Also, it is said that the noodles are soaked in the wood ashes (together with the water from the well) taken from the Cham Island, so, again, difficult to find elsewhere.
Although we may not be able to replicate the exact recipe outside of Hoi An, we will sure be giving it a go making this bowl of goodness at home when we're back!
Pho chicken, 30k (£0.95k) per bowl - Hoi An
There was this tiny little restaurant right next to our hostel in Hoi An, and we ended up visiting three times.
It was a super homely joint, ran by the sweetest old man. You did have to wait quite a while for the food but given it seemed like there was only one person in the kitchen, we absolutely didnt mind! The food itself was really tasty, and affordable!
Our first visit here was when I was poorly, so I kept it simple and had a chicken Pho. The Pho was quite different to what I'd had previously, it was much more buttery and creamy? Almost like how a chicken soup can be creamy. This is something I found often with chicken Phos, they are creamier, rather than the deep rich flavour of beef Pho.
It was definitely what my poorly body needed, and was so good we kept coming back. They also did an unreal Cao lầu, which Chris has everytime! And at 30k (£0.95) per bowl of Pho or Cao lầu, served by the sweetest man, how could we have turned it down!
Banh: Beo, Ram It, Nam Li. 105 VND (£3.50) all the food for two. Hue
We had the best, most unexpected lunch ever. Found this tiny little local spot down an alley way. We turned up and there was no menu, just the sweetest Uncle who made us four different dishes and showed us how to properly season and eat each one. Three were rice cake and shrimp based, the last tapioca based. Each one (except the tapioca shrimp one (I couldn't stomach the texture)) was so tasty and unique! All washed down with some Ginger Tea🤩
All this for £3.50 for us both! We tried to tip and he refused, so we sneakily left money on the table as we left and Uncle literally chased us down the road to give the money back and shoved it in my bag🥺 Vietnamese hospitality is second to none!
Wonton noodle soup, dried noodle pork and fried wonton, 155k VND (£4.50) total, Hanoi
Everytime we walked back to our hotel in Hanoi we walked past this super local Chinese Fujian noodle soup shop and it smelt UNREAL! It smelt of that strong startchy smell you get from fresh egg noodles, but with a hint of bbq'ed pork with it too. We knew from the second we walked past the first time we'd have to try it out.
Being a very local spot, there was no english menus, which of course is fine, but means we'd do some prior research. Whenever we go to these local, none english speaking places, we look them up on google first to try and find a picture of the menu so we can google translate it. Of course, thats not always possible, nor does it always help... we often find we get a translated menu that looks a lot like: "noodles soup, soup noodle, noodle and soup and pork, pork and soup". Which isnt always helpful! But it gives us a sense of sorts. What can also be helpful is to see pictures people have shared of their food sometimes with captions as to what it was called etc.
So adequately researched we wandered down to a packed, bustling restaurant. We ordered what the menu translated as "dried noodles", "wonton noodles" and "fried Shui Jiao"(which we beleived were wontons). Of course, in true british style though, embarrassingly pointing at the menu, badly pronouncing the words and smiling through the pain!
Confusingly, when our food first came out we has one fried dry noodles, tick. One big bowl of noodle soup with wontons, pork and egg in, tick. Plus, a small bowl of the same noodle soup... so we assumed we'd ordered wrong, found it funny and cracked on enjoying the food. Ten minutes later though, they brought out a plate stacked with fried wontons. Success. We had ordefed correctly, just maybe got a free bowl of noodle soup too?🤷🏻♀️
We we're not complaining though. Every single dish was absolutely delicious. It taste just as good as it smelt everytime we walked past. My wonton noodle soup had a very weird spongey like thing in it which I didnt love but still ate, and later learnt it was fried fat layers of pig. Interesting! The fried wontons were incredibly! So crispy and moreish... (so moreish I think weve had them about 10 more time's across Indonesia were we next found them!)
I absolutely loved this meal, I just regret only going once!
Bun Cha, 50k (£1.60) per bowl, Hanoi
Bun Cha, one of our favourite dishes in Vietnam! We first tried on in Ho Chi Minh, but they are a northern vietnam dish so we wanted to make sure we’d try atleast one in Hanoi too. I think I had around 7 Bun Chas during our trip to Vietnam though, all slightly different but equally delicious!
Its essential a sweet broth/dipping soup, that comes with pork patties, bbq'ed pork, pickled veg in the broth and a side of rice noodles. Its kind of like a make your own dish, as you combine some noodles, some pork and some veggies in one bitesize peice and dunk it in the broth before eating. Some people also have an additional bowl that they construct their mouthfuls one by one. Its quite involved but quite fun to eat!
Theres a spot in Hanoi that was made very famous by the famous foody Anthony Bourdain taking Barack Obama there in one episode of his tv show. The table they sat at has now been preserves in a plastic box in the restaurant 😅 we had every intention to visit this Bun Cha spot, but had heard reviews from people we met that it wasnt actually that good, and quite overpriced now it's super famous! So, ended up trying two different spots in Hanoi. One that almost made it to my top spot, a restaurant in the old quater, it was packed and very popular. Had a really lovely vibe and inventive seating area with sunken seats in the floor, plus delicious Bun Cha! We had a fairly big portion but my only negative was that the broth was just to sweet for me. It was still wonderful though!
On our last day in Vietnam though, following the recommendation of someone on our cooking class, we visited a super local street food Bun Cha joint. It was excellent! It consistended of two small tables on a street corner, surrounded by marker stalls and other street food vendors, and a man sat infront of a small bbq grilling the bbq pork. We sat on the tiny iconic Vietnamese stalls for one last time and tucked into our big bowls of Bun Cha for just 50k VND/£1.60. The meats came served in the broth this time, which meant they soaked up loads of that flavour, it came with a side of fresh and delicious herbs and greens to add to the broth if you like (I do like) and a massive bowl of noodles. The broth was the right level of sweetness, the pork was cooked and seasoned beautifully, and we had some lovely interactions with passing by locals who were surprised to see us there!
An absolute Bun Cha highlight for sure and a great way to wrap up the Vietnam trip!
Banh Xeo, 20k(£0.64) each, Hanoi
Now, this wasn't actually my favourite Bun Xeo, ironically given this post is my best food moments? But the dining experience was fab and I had to mention it.
My favourite Bun Xeo was actually on our food tour in Ho Chi Minh, where I also had the chance to cook some myself! They were the most delicious, but I've already talked about that experience in my Ho Chi Minh post.
The place I'm talked about here is a small local spot in Hanoi old quarter. I was desperate for some more Bun Xeo before we left Hanoi, and this place like the Bun Cha came as a recommendation from our cooking class!
Banh Xeo in its basic for is a crispy fried rice pancake that has a pork, shrimp and bean sprout filling. It’s served with lettuce leaves and greens, rice paper and fish sauce. I did find the pancake in this place a little too soft and not crispy enough but the portions were huge and it was still lovely. What I enjoyed most though was the hustle and bustle of this place! Other than one group on a food tour, we were the only foreigners in the place, it was packed with locals which is always a good sign. The turn over of food and customers was crazy crazy quick, with staff running hundreds of plates of food back and fourth every second. It was also super cheap at only 20k per pancake/bun xeo, which is about 60p. We weren't actually super hungry so ordered one pancake each, and a portion of our favourite fried wontons! Which were also 20k! So just under £2 for all our food.
I just loved the pace of the place, the authetic eating atmosphere and some pretty good food too!
Vietnamese donuts Banh Ram, 5k (£0.16) each, Hanoi
The biggest travesty of our whole trip is that we only discovered these delicious treats two days before we left Vietnam. Although, maybe for our health and bodies thats a good thing!
They were SO GOOD!! The thought of as the Vietnamese equivalent of a donut, with a deep fried crispy ball, that has a filling of sweet mung bean, and a crystalised sugar coating on the outside - a little like the glaze on a glazed donut.
These were sweet without being too sweet, crispy and yet slightly chewy and just all round heavenly!! We'd seen them so many time's around Vietnam but never got around to trying them until our penultimate day, and boy do I wish I'd tried them sooner! We ended up buying an order of 4 that first day, and then another 6 the next day to take to the airport hotel with us. They were also only 5k VND each, which is about 16p!! Crazy affordable! Writing this now is making me miss them! I might try and make them at home, but we'll see😅
Pho Bo, 60k (£2) per bowl, Hanoi
This is one of those meals where it may not have been the most groundbreaking, song and dance meals, but the whole atmosphere of eating here was great. And at one of our favourite type of places, super local!
We saw this food spot while walking around on our first day, Pho Thin, tucked away down a small alleyway in old quarter of hanoi. I looked it up that evening and saw glowing reviews across the board so knew I wanted to go eat there.
A few nights later we went down, and through the old doorway was a small food cart, one metal table and 6 chairs next to it. As usual, the menu was small and specific, just beef Pho at various sizes with various cuts of beef on offer. We places our order and in seconds two bowls of pipping hot beef pho were sat infront of us. It was of course, absolutely delicious. It was certainly one of the cleanest broths we'd had in a Vietnam and the beef was so so tender!
While we sat and ate various locals came in and out ordering their own bowls of goodness and sitting next to us. Old Quarter of Hanoi is obviously a super touristy area with lots of restaurants catered to non-locals which of course we visited on our trip too. But it was nice to discover this small little street food spot and eat where the locals do.
Banh Mi Egg, 50k (£1.60), Hue
Banh Mi, a taste from home but even better. I could honestly write a whole blog post just on the various Banh Mi's we enjoyed along our 6 weeks on Vietnam. But I'll keep it to a few honourable mentions here.
The food in Hue in general was delicious across the board, but the Banh Mis were particularly good! We found a stall that sold various Banh Mis at different size options which was a nice change. We ended up going here twice as they were so good. I actually went for just a veggie and egg banh mi, with spicy sauce both times, and chris went for chicken once and pork the other time. I think what made these banh mi so good was the amount of veggies and salad that came with it! Its apparently a thing that the more north you get the less veggies there are in the Banh Mi's, which we definitely noticed! But as a big salad lover, I'm all heavy on the veg. This bread was also just the right level of crisp. It was just excellent and a good price given the size!
Mini Banh Mi, 15k each (£0.48), Hue
Also in Hue we found these wonderful little Banh Mi. They were only about 50p per one, they had a very small menu of either egg, chicken or pork, and the banh mi were very simple, but done so well!
Very different to the previous one, they had no salad, just really well seasoned meat or egg, a single slice of cucumber and a good serving of spicy sauce. There was something about these that we just loved! For the cost they were such an excellent no frills banh mi.
Banh mi chao, 69k, Hanoi
I'm not sure if you can really call this one a Banh Mi? But I guess it's almost just a deconstructed Banh Mi, and the closest thing we've had to a fry up since being away. So as you may imagine, we loved it!
For our choice, the main bowl includes a slice of pork pate, a homemade sausage, some unreal char sui pork, a fried egg, all coated in a thick meaty gravy. Then on the side we were given a bowl of pickled cucumber, and two massive baguettes each. I'm not super sure how you're technically meant to eat this, but we opted for a mix of dunking the bread into the gravy to soak it all up, or making our own sloppy banh mi bites! It was SO good! Very stoggy, warming and filling, exactly what we needed in the freezing cold (12°😅) Hanoi temperatures!
There is so much, almost too much unreal food to mention from our 6 weeks in Vietnam, but those were some (definitely more than 10) stand out moments. Of course I also can't not give an honorably mention to surprisingly nice egg coffee, and the pastries that Vietnam seem to do so well!!😍
Vietnam definitely stole our hearts, and our bellies and I can't wait to come back. I also can't wait to include more vietnamese cooking into our lives at home, maybe it's time to step away from Thai food about 5 days a week and include some Vietnamese too!
Until next tim Vietnam🫶🫶
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