Heading to Vietnam? These are some of the foods to try whilst you’re there! 

I am a big foodie and I was looking forward to trying the Vietnamese food and it was some of my fave food whilst we were travelling around South East Asia. There’s a few dishes you might know if you’ve eaten in Vietnamese restaurants elsewhere but I’d not really tried a lot before we visited, so I definitely went in not knowing what to expect. 

1.Pho

Arguably the most famous dish from Vietnamese food. Pho is a broth typically with meat, veggies and noodles which is often eaten for breakfast and lunches. I devoured many many bowls whilst in Vietnam, I just loveeee it! You’ll be able to find all over Vietnam, but we found a lot of places that served just pho closed around lunchtime as they had finished serving for the day. One of the best we had was a little shop in Hanoi where the ladies cooking, were chopping the meat on the floor next to us and we were just sat on the smallest chairs watching the traffic go by. 

2. Banh Mi

If you’ve researched anything about Vietnam food, you’ll have likely also seen about banh mi’s. We ate nearly one every day! Banh Mi’s are thin baguettes filled with paté, meat, pickled veggies and corriander. You can get breakfast versions which have omelettes too. They are served warm and it just incredible. One of our faves was Banh Mi 25 which is famous in Hanoi and a bit of a touristy one. It was so good though, so we didn’t mind that it was touristy. It was run by a local family and they were delicious every time. We ate them from small market stalls and random shops all over in Hanoi, Hoi An, Sapa and Ho Chi Minh. Basically, where ever we could get a banh mi, we tried one. 

3. Bún Cha 

This was one of my FAVE dishes in the whole of Vietnam. The dish is especially famous due to a photo of Anthony Bourdain (a famous American chef) and President Obama enjoying a dinner of Bun Cha in Hanoi. We went to one recommended by our hostel and it was just so good. The dish is made up of rice noodles, sausage patties in a broth and green veggies, eaten by scooping the noodles into the broth as you eat. Annoyingly, I can’t find a good photo of this dish – I think it’s probably because I was too excited to eat it!

4. Com Ga 

The place to try this dish is Hoi An, as it’s a speciality there. A bit like a Vietnamese version of Hainanese chicken rice, if you’ve come across that! It’s a fairly simple dish as you’d probably guessed as it is just chicken with rice but it is so flavourful. We had it twice, at two different restaurants and they were both so good. It often comes with chicken liver or heart and a few sprigs of greens. 

5. Xoi 

One of the dinners I still think about now is the sticky rice dinner we had in Hanoi. I loveeeed it. The dish is really simple, you get a bowl of sticky rice and then order the toppings that want. We had a hard boiled egg, chicken, Vietnamese sausage just to name a few. It was one of the cheapest dinners we had in Vietnam but by far one of the best. We only knew about it as it was another one recommended by our hostel, so now I’m sharing it so that you can all enjoy the delicious delicacy! 

6. Summer Rolls & Spring Rolls

A classic part of Vietnamese food that I’m sure you’ll eat many of whilst visiting. Most SE Asia countries have some version of a Spring or Summer Roll. The Vietnamese ones are made with clear rice paper and filled with fish, prawns, crab, meat and comes with a dipping sauce – we had ones with satay and ones with garlic chilli sauce. Some of the best were the freshly cooked ones at The Duck Stop. 

7. Bun Bo Hue

This one I didn’t get to try in Hue as I was poorly but Mike did and he raved about it. The original restaurant was visited by Anthony Bourdain and theres a photo of him and the lady who runs the restaurant, still hung up and it’s how Mike knew he was in the right place. It was a bit tricky to find as it was at the back of a market and wasn’t super obvious. Filled with locals, this is definitely a spot to try when you’re in Hue! The dish is made up of a rich beef bone broth, with chunks of beef, noodles and fragrant lemon grass. 

8. Egg Coffee & Coconut Coffee

So this is not food, but I can’t not recommend the coffees in Vietnam. The famous Note Coffee is a popular spot to try the delciicay which is egg coffee. It was odd, but pleasant. A bit like drinking thick custard which was coffee flavoured. The cafe is so popular because you can write a post-it note message and stick it to the wall and the whole cafe – literally every surface, apart from tables, chairs and the floor, is completed covered in post-its. It’s a cute little spot to try and it’s fun to leave a little note whilst you’re there. 

We had the coconut coffees in a few places, one was in a cafe just up from the first hostel – Hanoi Buffalo Hostel, that we stayed in. Vie Coffee did the BEST iced coconut coffees as they are made with ice cream. I drank so many of these and had them for my dessert haha. Cong Ca Phe also did really nice ones! 

We absolutely loved the food in Vietnam, from eating in tiny restaurants on miniature stools and tables, eating freshly baked baguettes and endless Pho with vibrant flavours, filled with fresh veggies. You won’t have a bad meal here!