HANOI Food Guide 2026 | 30 Vietnam Must-Eats w/ Prices! 🇻🇳

Xin chào everyone, fancy seeing you here and welcome to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. I have never visited a more violently food-centric city where the choices of food that spills out into the streets, alleyways and sidewalks and those iconic plastic stools almost outnumber the scooters that blitz through these streets. So today we're going to be taking you through everything white here in Hanoi from back alley sticky rice, warming bowls of pho and of course a lot of Vietnamese coffee. So without further ado, let's go. Let's start with the soup that'll probably be at the top of your eat list in Vietnam, pho. There are countless restaurants selling pho but few are Michelin Bib Gourmand worthy like Pho Khoi Hoi. Unsurprisingly, being named in the Michelin Guide means this place gets packed during the lunch rush. We waited around 30 minutes for our table so we could sit inside and close view of the chefs preparing our pho. We got two types of pho. One was the Pho Loi Gao Xon which is their signature clear beef broth topped with rare beef and crispy cooked beef brisket. It's a simple but high quality broth accompanied by bouncy rice noodles and a good heaping of herbs. We also ordered a unique version of pho called Pho Sot Vang where the beef and broth is tinted with a dash of red wine to give it a bolder yet still light flavor. Do not forget to order some Khoi which are these Vietnamese breadsticks you'll see everywhere for you to dip into the broth and some beer and tea to wash it all down. Although beef pho is more well known, chicken pho or Pho Ga is also well worth checking out in Hanoi. We hit up Pho Ha Hang Hom in Hanoi's Old Quarter for breakfast. As soon as you approach the restaurant, you can hear the sounds of glistening poached chicken being chopped up for your chicken pho. A chicken broth as clear as this leaves much room for personally pimping your pho with table side condiments like chilies, citrus, vinegar and pickled garlic. They even do a dry pho called Pho Ga Tron seasoned with fish sauce which is especially handy during hot days when you don't feel like a steamy broth. You know what, I also needed Kumquat tea. This popular drink in Hanoi became a quick favorite for us so you'll be seeing a lot of this in this video. And if you don't feel like noodles, why not try their Soi Ga which is chicken on top of sticky rice. There's just something about the simplicity of seasoned sticky rice, crispy shallots and tender chicken that made this so easy to scoff down. If pho is on the top of your Vietnam eat list, then I'm betting banh mi will be a close second. Although banh mi is more ubiquitous in Southern Vietnam, Hanoi still has a few banh mi stalls like Banh Mi Mama. It's right next to the St. Joseph's Cathedral and is one of the most popular with tourists. It's a humble street stall selling affordable banh mi with a variety of fillings. They press theirs down in a sandwich press to give it a panini-like thinness and crisp. I got one filled with nem loi which are lemongrass pork skewers and AJ got one filled with sausage, egg, pork and pate. As far as banh mi goes, these ones were actually kinda average. We wish the banh mi wasn't so pressed down in that it had more pate and mayo but I guess as far as its price and central location, you can't really complain for a quick snack. That's alright. We wanted to avenge our banh mi mom experience so we made sure to save stomach space even an hour before our next dinner for one more banh mi at Banh Mi Thiet Noi. As soon as that first lather of pate and mayo went down on that baguette, we knew this was gonna be elite. Yes, sure, it was almost double the price of Banh Mi Mama but as soon as we bit down on the crisp yet fluffy baguette filled with layers and layers of Vietnamese cold cuts, herbs and pickles, we knew we found something special. I mean, look at that cross section. If you're extra hungry, they also do steamed buns called banh bao. This one was filled with pork, mince, salted egg and cheese. Vietnamese coffee culture is one of the most special in the world so for the MySpace era millennials who can't be spoken to before their morning coffee, Hanoi is just the place for you. The first coffee shop we visited called Tornado Coffee ended up being our favorite. I mean, 666 reviews later and they still have a 5-star Google rating? That is almost unheard of. If there's one coffee to get in Hanoi, it is egg coffee which was invented in this city as a reaction to milk scarcity in the 1940s with a whipped egg mixture replacing the foamy milk. Their egg coffee was so smooth and luscious with a marshmallow-y consistency that complemented the strong and punchy coffee underneath. Meanwhile, Alianna's love affair with salt coffee started here too. This is topped with a condensed milk foam with a touch of salt to make for an elite sweet and salty combo. And don't be surprised if Vietnamese coffee gives you an extra kick because Vietnam predominantly grows Robusta beans which compared to Arabica beans has a higher caffeine concentration and a stronger flavor. It's perfect to wake you up even from the sleepiest of mornings. If you're looking for more coffee after your visit to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum then hit up Extra Shot please which is down an unsuspecting residential alleyway. A lot of establishments in Hanoi are like this. They really take the meaning of hidden gems seriously here. They're a specialty coffee shop who've won competition awards in the past. To cool off, I got their white coffee or Bạch Siêu which is milk, condensed milk and coffee brewed with a phin or their traditional coffee filter. Again, the Robusta beans were strong and cut through the condensed milk sweetness nicely. And like a moth to a flame, Alianna got another salt coffee or Cà Phê Môi. This was yet another banger. Such high quality brews I might say. This coffee shop at the northern border of Hanoi's Old Quarter is as much museum as it is café. This is Angles Coffee which is the result of a British antique collector's failed attempt to open a museum to show off his artifact collection and instead opening up a coffee shop that just so happens to have thousand-year-old Vietnamese artifacts inside. They have an old school menu of classic Vietnamese snacks from refreshing and light mulberry yogurt, little cubes of powdery sweet bean cakes, this unique dracontomelon juice that had a citrusy sour taste and of course strong milk coffee made with Robusta beans again. The staff said these were childhood favorite snacks and drinks of theirs, quite the fitting nostalgic vibe to accompany the antique decor. Right in the French Quarter is another coffee shop down another alleyway where it once again makes us ask, you sure it's down there? This is 186 Coffee Roasters and unlike other cafes, they mainly use Arabica beans with different origins available to choose from. And despite the searing heat, I tried to get hot coffee at least once with their cappuccino. The coffee was excellent and it even had the authentic circular capuchin monk cap latte art. In a major plot twist, Eliana got their iced bak siu white coffee, only cause they didn't have salt coffee in the menu. But hey, this was another goodie to cool off from the heat. One thing you'll notice about Hanoi is that the streets are filled to the brim with scooters. Hanoians use these to get everywhere, chaotically dancing and weaving through the streets. As much as we'd love to experience this firsthand, us driving scooters would probably result in our untimely demises. So we did the next best thing, a scooter food tour through Hanoi. This was a great way to explore the city streets and we had some amazing tour guides with us. First stop on our tour is the famous Bun Cha Hoang Lien, or more commonly known as Obama Bun Cha. Obama. Obama Bun Cha. And yes, this is the very spot where Anthony Bourdain and Obama shared a plate of bun cha, which is a dish of smoky grilled pork patties and slices in a tangy dipping sauce called nhop cham. He paired it with fresh noodles and herbs to make for a bite that has it all, from sweet, smoky, fresh, herbaceous, and most importantly, delicious. This was also me and AG's first taste of Hanoi beer, which AG had a lot of in Hanoi. Our next stop in the scooter food tour took us to the iconic Train Street. What's great about these scooter tours is that they coordinate the tour based on the train arrival time. Once you get to Train Street, each side is effectively rows and rows of cafes and bars serving identical menus, so it doesn't really matter where you sit as long as it's next to the train tracks. We were guided to a random cafe and took a seat with our Hanoi beers and Coke Zeros to witness a spectacle unlike anything we've ever experienced. Videos don't do justice to the thrill of having a gigantic train whiz past you, potential near-miss accident with a side of beer, sign me up. For a little sweet treat intermission, we were brought to Minh Chi Che Suoi, a local favorite serving Vietnamese-style flan. We got a few flavors to share with our tour group, including flan in a bed of brown sugar black pearls for extra sweetness and bounce, another one with mango and evaporated milk, which I loved because mango is my favorite fruit, and another one with jellies throughout. What's unique about this is that locals would add some ice to their caramels to make this dish extra cooling. The way our tour guide described this next stop threw us off guard a bit, but this is Vietnamese sushi and pizza from Ban Trang to Saigon. The names are a bit tongue-in-cheek, but in reality, these are just unique rice paper dishes. The sushi is rice paper rolls stuffed with a tamarind sauce, green onion, pork, mayo, and crispy onion on top, while the pizza is flat rice paper topped with fermented shrimp sauce, coconut, mayo, amongst others, in a unique flavor that I could only describe as… Miscellaneous umami. I can't really make it up. While I got another bia hoi, Yambie was on that kumquat tea grind yet again. What a way to spend an evening sitting roadside eating your sushi and pizza in Hanoi. Our final scooter tour stop brought us just a stone's throw away to Khoa Nem Nui Ba Trai. This restaurant specializes in two dishes that you can see being grilled fresh outside the restaurant. First one is Nem Nui, which are fragrant yet smoky grilled pork skewers that I wish I could eat hundreds of, and Bo La Lot, which is grilled beef wrapped in lolot leaves. Our tour guide did a demo of how to assemble our Bo La Lot by wrapping it with rice paper and stuffing it in some spicy peanut sauce, fresh herbs, pickles, and of course your grilled beef to make for a refreshing meaty bite. Besides the meat, what I love about Vietnamese cuisine is the prevalence of fresh herbs served with every meal. It makes eating out a million times a day seem less gluttonous, you know. If you thought we were done with coffee spots, think again. I'm telling you, Hanoi coffee culture is elite. Here's four more for you starting with Black Market Coffee. Again, if it wasn't for the big Black Market Coffee sign outside, I'd walk straight past this unsuspecting alleyway. They do unique drinks like their Caramel Cloudy, which is coffee mixed with a perfectly sweet caramel cream, while I opted for their Pine Forest Drink, a tropical matcha latte flavored with pineapple and mango. Best of all is that they roast their own unique coffee bean blends, two of which I brought home as souvenirs. I mean, have you ever heard of a lemon tart flavored coffee blend? Or even a melon blend that smelled like ripe rock melons? We were so excited to use these for our espresso machine back home. For a modern coffee spot near the Temple of Literature, check out Phin Refined. It's named after Vietnam's traditional coffee filter, or phin. This cafe is as sleek and stylish as a moody cocktail bar with excellent coffee to match. To no surprise, I saw salt coffee on the menu and didn't hesitate to order it. It was quite the velvety drink and even had a salt brim, which is funny because my favorite cocktail is also a margarita. AG got a coconut coffee, which comes pre-made, a very tropical tasting coffee with that coconut milk. And because AG doesn't care about no heart palpitations, he even got a second coffee, and this time a phin-based coffee. This had an intense but balanced robusta bitterness, and even though it's a small drink, you just pay a donation for this one. This is one of the more trendy but still great cafes in Hanoi. This is Egg Yolk Coffee. They have three branches in the city, but their OG branch is yet again down some random alleyway. It's like playing hide and seek with those coffee shops, I swear. Of course, being named Egg Yolk Coffee means we gotta get their signature double egg yolk coffee, with an extra thick layer of egg foam on top. No one is escaping the egg foam mustache here. Got milk. I'm not gonna take it off just for you guys. If anything, I'll go do some more. I, on the other hand, got their limited edition egg crack coffee, so let's have a taste, or should I say... You want me to crack crack into it? And that chocolate shell is why it's called the egg crack coffee. Decadent and refreshing. For our last coffee spot, let's throw it back to the OG. This is Cafe Giang, a must visit in Hanoi. This is where egg coffee was invented. It's a large upstairs cafe, and even though they have a pretty big drinks menu, it's the egg coffee that we wanted. Again, it had that marshmallowy egg foam on top of strong coffee. Even though this wasn't as good as the one we had at Tornado Coffee, we had to pay respects to the OG. And if you're a degenerate who likes to mix substances like my brother, no, not those substances. I just meant their egg beer. How wild. It's as you'd expect, you just pour a beer on top of the eggy foam and mix them to make a beer that just tastes slightly sweet. Not for me, but definitely a unique experience. Every coffee needs its coffee snack, and why not try some from King Roti Hang Gai. It's a popular corner stall selling freshly baked buns with a variety of flavors. The coffee butter flavor is simple and filled with butter, and I like how it's baked with a coffee crust that infuses a light coffee aroma to the buns. The coffee chocolate bun is filled with a lightly sweet chocolate filling that makes these simple buns slightly more decadent. Our Filipino blood takes the phrase rice is life seriously, so it was really in our DNA for Soy Ong Huat to end up as one of our top three bites in Hanoi. Out of all the alleyways, this one was the most unsuspecting and narrowest of them all. If it wasn't for a staff member telling us it's down there, I wouldn't have guessed. They specialize in one dish, and that is soy or sticky rice topped with a variety of meats. We ordered the most expensive plate with all the toppings. I'm talking Chinese sausage, super umami pork pate, bouncy meatloaf, and incredibly tender braised pork with sauce that soaks into the sticky rice. It's also topped with a perfectly blistery golden fried egg, and you better be sure to enjoy that cause boy is the old man proud of his eggs. We didn't even ask for a photo, he just came out of nowhere wanting to show off his golden eggs. Despite the richness of this bowl, they do offer tea to cut through all that meaty heft. Yeah, cancels out the calories. Now that we had our bun cha fix at Obama Bun Cha, here's a spot that we actually enjoyed much more at Bun Cha 41 Khoa Dong. This spot sums up what we love about Vietnamese street food. A specialty stall with a small menu, short roadside plastic stool seating, cold drinks, and a good view of the cooking right in front of you. They grill the pork roadside with these handheld metal grills, and unlike Obama Bun Cha, they wrap each patty with lolot leaves to give it an added minty freshness. Dipping the fresh noodles and herbs into the nuoc cham and eating it with the grilled meats in the low plastic stools was such a great experience. They even do chunky spring rolls filled with meat and vermicelli. They're wrapped in crispy rice paper and light in flavor, so dipping them into the nuoc cham is key. Apart from your typical pho, Bun Rieu is another must-have soup in Hanoi. We went to Bun Rieu Khoa 41 Quang Trung that only served this soup. Bun Rieu Khoa is a clear pork stock soured with tomatoes, flavored with crab mints, and topped with items of your choosing. I got a more modest Bun Rieu Khoa bowl which is broth, crab, tofu, rice noodles, and beef. Aji got one with all the toppings called Bun Rieu Tap Cam Octo which basically has everything from sausages, beef, pork, tofu, and even snails. Don't forget your pieces of kuih to dip into your soup and to customize your Bun Rieu with condiments such as calamansi, chili, fermented shrimp paste, and pickled garlic to really personalize your Bun Rieu into your own. If you're craving pho but not as you know it, why not try Pho Quan at Pho Quan 40? The neighborhood where the restaurant is just to the east of the West Lake is where Pho Quan was invented. It's rice rolls stuffed with beef, vegetables, and herbs, and the flavor is fresh, meaty, and enhanced by a sweet dipping sauce with green papaya. For a contrast, we also tried their very unique Pho Chien Fung which are square rice noodle pieces, deep fried until they're puffy and crisp on the outside and still bouncy on the inside. It's topped with a savory gravy, beef, onions, and veggies. This fried dish made for the perfect 333 premium export beer, Beer Mate. I especially love the atmosphere of this restaurant. It's just in the middle of an intersection as you sit down, plastic stools, and fans try to wick your sweat away. Keeping with the rice roll theme, we have another must-eat dish in Hanoi, Banh Con. This dish originated in Northern Vietnam and is steamed rice rolls filled with a mix of ground pork, wood ear mushrooms, and topped with crispy shallots. We got our fix at Banh Con An Thu, west of the main Hanoi train station. We accompanied it with two types of pork, one was grilled and the other in meatloaf form with a delicate cinnamon flavor. These rolls are way too easy to eat because they're just so light and delicious. And again, a bundle of herbs to the side to dip into the sauce. I love it. If you want more than Banh Con, they also do black chicken. It's a literal black meat chicken stewed in a bunch of herbs and spices to give it a light and pleasant medicinal taste. We love breakfast food for dinner so we carried on with that theme with Vietnamese rice porridge Unlike other rice porridges or congees, the consistency of this is more of a smooth, liquidy paste. It has pork ribs for extra meaty flavor and even pork mince and meat floss on top too. The flavor is simple but it's really up to you to customize with the table side seasoning. Make sure to get some kuey to dip into your chow, meaty sausage to the side, and especially their grilled lemongrass pork skewers. These were absolutely fatty, fragrant, and addictive. This dish is a real Hanoi original. This is cha ca or grilled catfish marinated in turmeric and galangal that we got from Cha Ca Lang Non. We sat on some roadside plastic stools where the staff cook and prepare your fish for you. Mixing it with oil and herbs such as scallions and dill, it's then served with rice noodles, fresh herbs, peanuts, and nuoc cham for extra saucy action. It's really up to you to make your perfect bite. The fish is meaty and moist and we even accompanied it with fish guts. It's really not that intimidating at all. It's just bouncy pieces of fish kinda similar to chicken hearts. A must order I say. For another delicious noodle soup to eat in Hanoi, check out Bun Moc 21 Hang Han. They serve Bun Moc which is a pork meatball vermicelli noodle in a clear and delicate pork broth flavored with mushrooms. This place does a bunch of different toppings but ours came with pork meatballs, pork meatloaf, chicken shreds, tofu, and scallions. The broth is slightly sweet and overall just a light and refreshing soup to eat for breakfast. Again, if you've got a soup, that automatically means ordering kueh. Dipping kueh into some soup might just be one of my favorite pastimes in Hanoi. What I love about Vietnamese cuisine is how light on the stomach a lot of the food is which is fine by me because that just means more room for dessert at Che Ngon. This is a local dessert spot away from the touristy old quarter where we got their Caramel Tak Tran Chau which is jiggly flan topped with coconut cream, toasted coconut, every jelly color you could think of, and tapioca pearls. Vietnamese flans are lighter on the sweetness but this combo of creams and jellies was still very delicious. Although I didn't put in the ice as the locals would just so I wouldn't dilute that sweetness. Vietnam may be known for growing exceptional Robusta coffee but the country is also a renowned producer of chocolate with many bean-to-bar producers highlighting Vietnamese cacao beans. None are more popular than Maison Maru and they have a small souvenir shop and cafe right next to St. Joseph Cathedral. You'll see their chocolate all over tourist souvenir stores but don't bother cause it's the cheapest at their own store. I left with probably over 100 New Zealand dollars worth of chocolate plus a decadent and luxurious iced coffee for the road. Cadbury ain't got nothing on this. Beer particularly Bia Hoi is a bit too affordable in Hanoi than my liver would like. This type of draft beer is the most popular in Vietnam. It's usually on the lighter side at 4% alcohol so it's very easy to down as well. We went to Bia Ba Bat for a quick beer stop and it was the perfect way to wait out the rain. For a little beer snack I got myself a plate of sweet Chinese sausages or Lap Cheong topped with a bush of herbs. The freshness of the herbs mixed with the crisp beer did wonders in alleviating the fatty sweetness of the sausages. Before we cap off the night we thought we'd get a nightcap at Lang Thang Bar which was just around the corner from dinner. It's a popular bar with the inside being moody and intimate with vinyl players and a very open view of the master bartenders but the outside comes alive with people filling the seats to drink some refreshing cocktails in the balmy Hanoi night air. In predictable fashion, Alianna got a tequila based Mango Rita which was a spicy tequila cocktail that was everywhere from savory, sweet, spicy and tangy while I was feeling adventurous and got their Com Nho Com. It literally says hidden ingredients so I had no idea what was in it but I was getting some sweet panda nose on this one. Very glad I got this. But wait, the night isn't quite over yet and we've got space for a little nightcap. And what better way than with one of Hanoi's finest at The Halflington. Fittingly, this bar is down yet another dark alleyway where you question whether or not you're being led down to your personal auction block at the black market or through some magical doors to Narnia. Luckily it is the latter and as you enter this dimly lit room, you'll immediately feel like you've just walked into the Hanoi Natural History Museum where the walls are scattered with taxidermied samples of exotic flora and fauna. The Halflington is recognized as one of Asia's 50 best bars and it shows from the attentive service to the classy drinks. They start you off with a small snack while you peruse their menu that feels like browsing a tome of salves and potions more than anything else. For my nightcap, I got a Refreshing Snowball. This concoction felt like a creamy and minty palate cleanser made with brandy, mint liqueur, and Baileys topped with a sliver of dried apple for dramatic effect. While Alianna got a Green Fairy made with a magical mixture of rum, absinthe, midori, syrup, pineapple and lemon juice and champagne. A mouthful but a tasty one at that. This obviously isn't a cheap bar compared to your regular street side meal but it is absolutely worth it. Especially if you get to sit in their upstairs bar with a dinosaur skeleton overhead. Yeah, I know, a dinosaur skeleton. Alright, so that does it for our list. We thoroughly loved our time in Hanoi. It is both charming and hectic but is obviously the food that we loved the most. But of course, this is not meant to be a definitive guide but I hope you found the insights into the spots that we visited very useful. So go out there and explore and I hope you enjoy Hanoi's food scene as much as we did. Thank you for watching.