We Tried Hanoi’s MOST FAMOUS Street Foods 🇻🇳

We’re officially back in VIETNAM and exploring HANOI for the first time! 🇻🇳 Today, we’re spending the day in Hanoi’s Old Quarter, trying some of the city’s most famous food and coffee, visiting historic landmarks, and searching for jackets before our upcoming Ha Giang Loop adventure.

We start our morning with two freshly toasted bánh mì sandwiches from Bánh Mì Mama. Tanner tries the classic pork bánh mì, while Sierra orders chicken with cheese. With crispy bread, generous fillings, and plenty of sauce, it’s the perfect way to begin our first day back in Vietnam!

Just around the corner, we visit St. Joseph’s Cathedral, one of Hanoi’s most recognizable landmarks. Built in 1886, its European Gothic architecture feels completely different from the busy streets surrounding it.

Next, we head into an unassuming building to find Loading T Café, where we try two of the most unusual coffee combinations we’ve ever seen: BANANA COFFEE and LIME COFFEE. 🍌🍋☕ One tastes like a banana milkshake with espresso, while the other combines lime, cinnamon, and coffee into a drink we still aren’t entirely sure how to describe. 😂

Once we’re caffeinated, we begin searching Hanoi’s Old Quarter for power banks and affordable rain jackets for the Ha Giang Loop. We visit multiple stores looking for jackets, but the prices are much higher than expected, with one shop asking 2.4 million Vietnamese dong!

After striking out on the jackets, we walk across the bright red Huc Bridge to Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake. Inside, we learn about Hanoi’s famous giant turtles and the local legend of a magical sword being returned to the Golden Turtle God.

Of course, we couldn’t explore Hanoi without visiting Café Giảng, which is widely credited with inventing Vietnamese egg coffee in 1946. Tanner loves the thick whipped egg yolk and coffee mixture, while Sierra has a slightly harder time getting past the strong egg flavour. ☕🥚

Finally, we end our food adventure at Phở 10, a restaurant featured in the Michelin Guide. We try traditional northern Vietnamese phở with a light, clean broth, plenty of chili sauce, and fried dough sticks given to us by the friendly people sitting beside us.

From bánh mì and unusual Vietnamese coffee to historic landmarks, shopping, egg coffee and Michelin-recognized phở, our first day exploring Hanoi’s Old Quarter was packed with surprises!