10 Vietnamese Dishes You Might Have NEVER Heard Of (Better than Pho and Banh Mi in my opinion)

If you come to Vietnam and only eat pho and bánh mì, you're missing a huge part of Vietnamese food. As a local Vietnamese and a travel vlogger for the past six years, today I'm gonna show you 10 must-try dishes from different parts of Vietnam. And the amazing thing is that you can find them all in Saigon aka Ho Chi Minh City. And trust me, number 9 might be the most underrated Vietnamese dish on this list. So watch until the end to find out. Oh, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and turn on the bell so you won't miss any local food and hidden gems in Vietnam. Thank you so much. Now, let's go. Let's start with a dish that an Australian food critic called it one of the best things on the planet. Bò lá lốt, grilled beef in lola pepper leaves. The funny thing is that not many foreigners have heard of this dish and it's honestly one of my favorite dishes in Vietnam. It has a nice aroma lingering with it. Lingering, lingering with it. Lingering in my mouth. It is so good that it makes my tongue twisted. What I love the most about cuisine is that you can learn a lot about the history and the culture of a country. So I just learned from the Oxford companion to food. Vietnam learned how to use leaf wrap from Indian, specifically Bengalist who adapted the technique from Middle East where dishes like dolma use grape leaves to wrap meat and other ingredients. This technique reached Bengal and eventually Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. However, Vietnam's tropical climate wasn't ideal to grow grapes. So that's why Vietnam cooks adapted to the technique of using lá lốt, a leaf indigenous to Southeast Asia that share the same heart shape. The filling is ground beef mixed with garlic, shallots, black pepper, fish sauce, sugar, and often lemongrass. It gets rolled tightly inside the leaf like a cigar, then grilled directly over charcoal until the leaf char slightly. And the beef inside stays juicy. As it grills, the leaf's aromatic oils infuse directly into the meat. It's typically served with a mountain of fresh herbs, rice vermicelli noodles, and a dipping sauce called mắm nêm, a funky fermented anchovy sauce that sounds intimidating. But when paired with the smoky beef, it creates pure chemical magic in your mouth. The pepper leaf is smoky, peppery, minty aroma, slightly crispy, and incredibly fragrant. Local tip, never unwrap the leaf before eating. It is not tamales. The leaf is edible and a part of the dish. Eat the whole roll in one or two bites so you can get the beef and the leaf together. The best place to get bò lá lột is from this little food cart right in front of the local market. Trust me, it's not hard to find. Your nose will find it before your eyes do. The smoky aroma of grilled beef fills the air. In the afternoon, you'll see locals lining up to grab these delicious beef skewers as a quick daily snack. And the best part? It's incredibly affordable, so pretty much everyone can enjoy it. She sells only from like $3.30 to around $7, done. My favorite bò lá lột place is bò lá lột Cô Liêng. You can also find the address in my Ultimate Vietnam Guidebook. Check it out in the description below. I'm Vietnamese, and honestly, Vietnamese people don't walk that much. You can see everyone is driving here now. So I'm gonna book a hailing service. But if you travel to Vietnam and you want to book a hailing service, access map, or use Translate to talk to locals, you need a strong network connection. Even though Wi-Fi is everywhere here in Vietnam, but you can't rely on Wi-Fi all the time, right? So one of the eSIM companies that I usually recommend to my friends is Silly, who I trust to be the sponsor for today's video. I always tell my audience not to wait until you see the foreign dish and later find out that you're allergic to the peanuts hidden in the food because you didn't have the network to look up the ingredients in the dish beforehand. Actually, setting up an eSIM is easier than you think and it can save your life. It literally takes less than two minutes to download the app, pick your plan, and follow some simple steps to install your eSIM. Plus, Silly provides affordable plans in over 200 destinations. You only need to install it once and it will automatically activate when you reach your destination. If you want to save more money, download the Silly app at silly.com slash pho and apply the code PHO at the checkout to receive the exclusive 15% discount. And now let's go to discover the second dish which will require you to use your network, which is Bún Mắm, the fermented fish noodle soup. If you ever travel through the Mekong Delta, this bowl might remind you of the lively river itself. The white rice vermicelli noodles look almost like fishing nets, while fish, shrimp, and squid are beautifully submerged in a dark, rich broth made from fermented fish paste called mắm. The cook balances that intense flavor with familiar ingredients like roasted pork belly, eggplant, and crispy pork rinds, which is my favorite. The result is sweet, savory, and deeply oceanic. So good, guys. And here's the fascinating part. Bún Mắm comes from the Mekong Delta, particularly the Sapchang area, and reflects the culinary influence of the Khmer people who have lived in the region for generations. So you're not just eating a bowl of noodles, you're tasting the history of the Mekong Delta. I love that they have all the ingredients here. You see protein from shrimp, squid, and the sausages, and even the roasted meat. I really love the roasted beef and also carbs from the rice noodles. And then the vegetables, the fiber from the eggplants, the green onions. Bún Mắm can be intense if you're not familiar with it. But trust me, the more you try it, the more you love it. The first bowl can be, wow, that's strong. But the second bowl is like, okay, I get it. And by the third, you might be looking for bún mắm everywhere. Local tip, don't skip the herb plate. Mint, Thai basil, banana blossom, and water lily stems. Pile them into your bowl because fresh herbs balance out the intense fermented fish flavor. And if you're still nervous, add a little chili. Because apparently, Vietnamese people believe almost everything can be fixed with chili. Okay, enough about savory food. Let's take this tiny hidden alley that leads to a colorful, fun street to a dessert spot for something you've probably never heard of. Bánh tiêu kẹp bánh bò. Basically, it's a Vietnamese dessert sandwich made with two different types of cake. It smells so good that it attracts dogs too. Here's what's happening. Bánh tiêu is a hollow, sesame-studded fried dough. Think of it as a Vietnamese donut with a crispy, slightly sweet shell and a light, airy center. Then you have bánh bò, a steamed rice flour cake with the signature honeycomb texture. It's bouncy, slightly sweet, and has a subtle coconut and pandan flavor. Now, put the two together. Crispy on the outside, chewy, bouncy on the inside. It's a coconut milk, rice flour, and rice yeast that makes it crawl up or rise up. That's what the word bò is. Yeah, bò means crawl too. Bò means crawl in Vietnamese as well. Yeah, it's like rise up and then over, crawling out of the bowl. So it's like we call it bánh bò. But also we say bò, it's also beef or like cow in Vietnamese, right? Yes, yes. You probably won't find this on the restaurant menu. Instead, look for small street vendors around local schools in the late afternoon. When kids are getting out of school, for many Vietnamese people, this isn't just a dessert. It's childhood nostalgia in one bite. When you come to Ho Chi Minh City, you cannot skip cơm tấm, the Vietnamese broken rice. Why? Because you're not just eating a delicious meal. You're tasting a piece of Saigon's history in every bite. Cơm tấm originated in the Mekong Delta, where farmers would often eat the broken rice grains left over from the milling process. These tiny grains have a unique texture and are actually great at absorbing marinades and sauces. Over time, this humble farmer's mill made its way to Saigon and became one of the city's signature dishes. For many Vietnamese people, cơm tấm represents hard work, simplicity, and making the most out of what you have. Local tip! Order with a fried egg with a runny yolk. Break the yolk directly over the rice, then mix it with the sweet and savory fish sauce. That creamy egg yolk mixed with the grilled pork, broken rice, and fish sauce takes the whole dish to another level. Oh my god, you speak the right idea, yeah? The last dish from the South before we're moving to the central of Vietnam is hủ tiếu bò kho, Vietnamese beef stew. Think of French beef bougainvillea, excuse my French accent, but upgraded it with an endless list of other ingredients. To make a bò kho, you make this much spice. So complex, right? Star anise, cinnamon, clove, fennel seed, black pepper, coriander seed, cumin, cardamom, turmeric, bay leaf, ginger, garlic, onion. Hủ tiếu bò kho is a unique creation of old Saigon, combining Teochew-style rice noodles with beef stew influenced by French and Indian spices. It's not just a comfort food for the locals here, it's a bolt of Saigon's multicultural history. And honestly, that's what makes Saigon's food so fascinating. The reason why bò kho is natively to Saigon and not anywhere else in Vietnam is because we have one thing that other areas in Vietnam back then don't have as big, is we have a spice trade with the Indians. We have an area in District 5, like Chinatown, it's called Cầu Trà Và. That is where the bò kho got all the spice mix variation, so bò kho is natively a Saigonese dish. The broth is rich, savory, slightly sweet, and packed with the warm flavors. The beef is tender, the noodles are chewy, and every bite is hearty and confident. But what I love the most is that the flavor reminds me of Saigonese people. It's generous, warm, and full of character. There's a little sweetness, but it never overwhelms you. Maybe that's why this dish feels so comforting. It doesn't just taste like Saigon, it feels like Saigon, it feels like home. He's stuck in the traffic! Oh my knees! What's up with the sirens today? Yeah, that's when you come to Vietnam, you can hear like a lot of background noise. We're in the heart of District 1, at this tiny sidewalk spot called Bánh Mì Xíu Mại Đền Dầu, serving a taste of Đà Lạt right here in Saigon. Xíu mại are Vietnamese-style pork meatballs, likely descended from Chinese xíu mại traditions, but completely transformed here. The xíu mại is simmered slowly and directly in the broth rather than steamed, which gives the meatballs a soft, juicy texture and makes the broth incredibly flavorful. The key in making the perfect xíu mại is the white radish. White daikon radish minced, fine into a puree, and then they squeeze out all the water and then use that to mix into a meatball. Unlike other bánh mì versions, the bread is not stuffed. It comes on the side. You tear off pieces of bread, dunk them in the broth, and eat the meatball. It's part sandwich, part soup, part hands-on ritual. You've got that crunchy bread, tender pork, and that rich, savory broth all at once. Wow, you know what? This food will taste so good in the winter. And honestly, there's something really charming about this place. It's a tiny sidewalk stall with plastic stools and little oil lamps that give it that old-school Saigon street food atmosphere. That's actually where the name Đền Dầu, or oil lamp, comes from. It evokes the late-night food stalls of old Saigon. What I love the most about Vietnam is sharing is caring because whenever you eat at the local food stall, you're gonna share some of your personal space with strangers, like what I'm doing right now. If you'd love to know more about what to eat in Đà Lạt, the Central Highlands of Vietnam, don't forget to watch this video above and subscribe to my channel because I'm going to Đà Lạt soon. If you ever get a chance to visit Đà Lạt, you should definitely try bánh tráng nướng, which is often called Vietnamese pizza. It's grilled rice paper topped with things like quilled eggs, scallions, dried shrimp, sausage, and chili sauce. It's cooked directly over charcoal, so the rice paper gets super crispy while all the toppings come together into this delicious, slightly messy combination. But honestly, the most fun part is watching it being made. Every cook has their own technique, and watching them work the grill feels like watching an artist at work. Another Central Highland dish I want to show you is bánh ướt banh mì. Bánh ướt means wet cake, referring to thin, steamed rice flour sheets similar to a crepe, but softer and more delicate. Banh mì refers to Buôn Ma Thuật, the coffee capital of Vietnam. The rice sheets are impossibly thin and soft. Instead of pre-rolled rolls, they bring you a massive stack of warm, feather-like wet rice sheets, accompanied by grilled meat, green mango, pickled cucumbers, and distinct dipping sauces. You build every single bite yourself right at the table. It's fresh, it's interactive, and it forces you to slow down and enjoy the company. If you eat this with friends, dinner easily turns into a two-hour feast. First try and second try. So you've heard of beef phở, chicken phở, but have you heard of sour phở? Number nine is probably one of the most underrated dishes in Vietnam. This one comes from Lạc Sơn in northern Vietnam, and it's called phở chua, which literally means sour phở. Instead of a hot broth, you get chewy rice noodles topped with slices of shredded chicken, diced chicken innards, crispy shrimp chips, fresh herbs, and pickled young papaya. Then comes the magic, a sweet, tangy tamarind and chili sauce that brings everything together. And here's the local tip. Don't forget the tấm mỡ, those crispy little pieces of deep-fried pork fat. Mix everything together, and you'll get an incredible combination of textures. Chewy noodles, crispy pork, fresh herbs, crunchy peanuts, and that sweet and sour sauce. This is a perfect dish for a hot day like this, because when you eat phở, it's usually hot, right? And then you're slurping, and then you're sweating. It can be very uncomfortable. But with the sour phở, you can just enjoy it cold. It is such a good invention during the hot summer days. The portion is actually pretty small, which is perfect because you can order an extra bánh giò, a pyramid-shaped savory cake filled with minced pork, with a mushroom and mushroom, to enjoy on the side. These dishes are the ones I actively search for, because outside of northern Vietnam, it's much harder to find. So if you ever make it to Lạc Sơn, put this one on your list. To complete any meal, we need dessert. And one of the favorite treats among Vietnamese kids is Milo. Apparently, drinking it wasn't enough, so we turned it into dessert. This is basically a mountain of Milo powder, condensed milk, shaved ice, chocolate sauce, topped with a bouncy, creamy phở, and their own special ingredients. It's sweet, it's chocolatey, and it's ridiculously indulgent. What the phở cake? Is your mouth watering after watching me eat all of these foods? I'm sorry, but also I'm not sorry. Vietnam has an incredible variety of food, and the 10 dishes I just showed you are honestly just a tip of the iceberg. If you want to discover more Vietnamese food, fun history, and interesting stories, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and turn on the notification bell so you won't miss any videos. And if you're planning a trip to Vietnam, check out my ebook to make your trip a little easier. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next ones. Bye!