Vietnam is full of incredible cuisine; however for the uninitiated it can be a bit daunting to access. For one thing, the English language has not “penetrated” as deeply into the culture (at least in the north, where we traveled) so very often you won’t see any English at all on front-facing signs. To go along with this, the places that do have a lot of English (front signs, menus, etc.) tend to be more “touristy” and less authentically Vietnamese:
Secondly, most of the restaurants you’ll find throughout Vietnam all look very similar – unassuming, with steel tables and plastic chairs, and either a kitchen right out on the street or just back inside the building. Ultimately, some of the best food you can find in a city like Hanoi comes out of places that look like this:
When presented with this culinary landscape, you have a few options. One is to recoil in fear and stick only to places you either know (there are some international chains you can find), or serve western food you recognize from English language menus. This is definitely an option – plenty of places for pizza, pasta, burgers, and even tacos! in a city like Hanoi – but you’re definitely not getting the best/most authentic food available. We will confess to doing this occasionally – proof of Mexican food in Hanoi:
Another option is to just dive in and take your chances. Locals are usually helpful with getting you to (at least mostly) understand what’s what on unfamiliar menus, you can also observe what’s being cooked before you decide. A tip from us would be to look at the lines/crowds outside of a place – if its packed with locals, odds are its a winner. This strategy generally works well in a place like Hanoi where almost anything you’ll find in the main busy areas is high quality, but you do run the risk of a bad experience or accidentally getting something you don’t want. We used this method when scoping out places for Pho during our time in the city.
A third – and we’d say the best – option in this situation is a food tour with a local guide. This option is inexpensive (your booking covers all food), customizable to your tastes/desires, and allows you to enjoy amazing dishes you might never have even thought to try (much less actually found) during your visit!
We took a food tour through Hanoi’s Old Quarter with Son, a native of the city, and Alex and Catalina, two new friends from Romania we’d met during our motorbike tour in Ha Giang. This was so worth it, and one of the best things we did while in Hanoi.
Okay enough preamble, on to the food!
Taking the Tour
We met up with Alex and Catalina at a specific meeting point, then were picked up by Son to drive to our first location:
This restaurant served Bún, a soup similar to Pho but distinguished by the noodles – Bún noodles are round (think vermicelli) while Pho noodles are flat. Everything was being cooked to order in a huge pot at the front:
You can order your Bún plain (veg only) or with a variety of meats – sausage, pork, chicken, and even 2 different kinds of snails! Kaitlin opted for the vegetarian route here, which came with extra tomato:
They also had an option with all of the meats. I took that one:
The soup comes with chili to add to taste, fresh local herbs, and quay – fresh crispy breadsticks for dipping. This was outstanding – yes, even the snails! Off to a great start!
Next we walked to our second stop, where we picked up something to eat later – Banh Com are Vietnamese desserts made from green sticky rice and mung beans. These treats originated in Hanoi and are a must try for anyone visiting the city.
As a food tour advantage, Son knew and took us to the original location for Nguyén Ninh – the original creators of the snacks dating all the way back to 1865. You’ll find imitators of this brand throughout the city; however we were certain we got the real deal.
We ended up taking ours home after the tour, and ate them the next 2 days. These are made fresh daily, so we had to eat them quickly – not that we had any problem doing so!
We walked on to the third stop of our tour:
This place was called Bep Me Soi and served a dish called Nem Nuöng Nha Trang, or as I’d translate it “build your own spring rolls.” As a table you’re served a huge platter with lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, rice noodles, herbs, and meat along with rice paper wrappers. Everyone also gets some dipping sauce. From there it’s up to you to put together and eat as many spring rolls as you want, exactly your way:
This was an excellent example of the value Son’s expertise and the food tour brought for us – I didn’t even know this type of dish existed, much less what it was called and where to find a good version of it. I am so glad I know now!
After stuffing ourselves with spring rolls, we took a bit of a walk down Hanoi’s newest established “walking street” and made our fourth stop. This one was pretty straightforward – one of Hanoi’s seemingly infinite trendy coffee shops for a quick drink. Alex and Son also took a field trip to go buy some beers for the group:
Finally, we drove to our last stop – actually a restaurant very close to our hotel, and one we’d walked past multiple times at this point in our stay. We’re definitely glad Son brought us in:
This place serves Pho, but in a unique way – the dish is actually served “dry” with all the ingredients separated from the broth. You can add the broth little by little to the soup yourself, or just take drinks of it separately. The place is always packed (this was outside at 11 pm):
And for good reason – it is delicious. We ordered some of the house specialty – pho gá (chicken) – here, and ate as much as we could manage – by this point our whole group was about ready to burst. As Son would put it, our gas tanks were full.
At this point we gave our many thanks to Son and he parted ways with us (on to deliver some pottery from a class he hosted earlier in the day – yes he does those too!) but we weren’t ready to end the night with Alex and Catalina! Fortunately we were staying at hotels in the same general area so were able to hang out for a while. We first went to a swanky bar (Son’s recommendation) to try their Pho cocktail – didn’t know what to expect at first, but we ultimately both ended up having 2!
From there, we made our way back to the walking street we’d passed through earlier and sat down at an outdoor table for more drinks – beer this time. This place did have food; but trust me nobody was hungry:
Hanoi is a city that literally never sleeps and we definitely lost track of time in conversation, so ultimately when we decided to head home it was after 2AM. We parted ways heading back to our hotels – Alex and Catalina to continue their adventure, and Kaitlin and I to continue ours!
A big thank you again to Son for hosting us on an amazing tour – everything we tried during the night was excellent, even things we’d never eaten before (or even knew existed)! I will link to Son’s AirBnB listing again here, he is also on Instagram. After talking with him, Son is also offering a 10% discount to anyone who books with him directly via this blog – just mention the code “WALLEYE” when booking.
Anyone visiting Hanoi should seriously take a food tour; and we recommend Son as the best guide you can find!
