Westerners tell us the secret to eating out in Vietnam

Many restaurants in Hanoi are located behind someone's front door, and the owner will serve you food right in the family's living room.

Chris and Danika, a married couple from San Francisco (USA), were famous for quitting their jobs and selling all their possessions to travel. During their trip around the world, they visited Vietnam, spending 3 weeks traveling from North to South, through major cities such as Hanoi, Ha Long, Hue, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta. In addition to admiring the beautiful scenery, Chris and his wife did not forget to take a food tour along the country with typical flavors of each region.

Ready to try food on the go.

Here are Chris and Danika's top tips for eating out in Vietnam:

I really like Vietnamese food because of its creative blend of sweet, sour, and spicy flavors. Wherever we go, we order familiar dishes like pho and bun cha, but of course each region has its own way of preparing and seasoning. This is really interesting, we were lucky to have 3 weeks of "eating Vietnamese food, sleeping in Vietnamese houses" so we can somewhat feel this sophistication and difference.

A bowl of pho in the North is very different from a bowl of pho in Saigon. The food culture in each place is also very different. In Hanoi, crowded places to eat are usually small, independent street stalls. In the Central region, we can find more concentrated food markets. In Saigon, the most bustling city, all kinds of food can be found on the same food street.

We quickly realized that eating at traditional Vietnamese restaurants is very different from eating at European and American restaurants.

Dare to adventure

Many restaurants in Vietnam (especially Hanoi) don’t look like regular restaurants. Sometimes they’re located behind someone’s front door, serving you food in your living room. Many eateries are just carts with a grill on the sidewalk. We’ve walked up to the people sitting on plastic chairs on the sidewalk many times, ordered the same food as them, and had a really great meal.

Try bun cha right on the street.

Learn from the locals

A golden rule that applies in most places in the world, especially in Vietnam, is to never go to restaurants that only have Western customers like you. Such restaurants are usually very clean but the prices are expensive and the quality is not excellent. Be bold and follow the locals, stop by a restaurant that is crowded with locals. Don't worry too much if they don't have an English menu, look at the dish that looks the most delicious, or is being ordered by the most people and use body language to express it to the seller. These places always have delicious food with local flavors at a fraction of the price compared to restaurants for tourists.

Don't expect a menu.

Because most sidewalk restaurants in Vietnam only serve one dish, for example, they only sell pho, they only sell vermicelli... You usually only have time to turn around and grab a chair and in less than 30 seconds someone will bring you something from the restaurant, it could be pho, vermicelli with grilled pork, skewers...

Bustling food street in Hanoi.

Drink beer

Vietnam is very hot, so a glass of beer will quench your thirst immediately. In the summer you can see beer sold everywhere. We bought beer from an old woman who sells beer in front of her house. My husband and I sat next to her on plastic chairs, watching people go by. Beer in Vietnam is very cheap, and it is very good.

Don’t just drink bottled beer, though, try bia hoi, a very cheap local Vietnamese beer. The two words mean “fresh beer”, meaning we’ll be drinking glasses of beer straight from the tap, brewed in the morning and sold out the same day, served with lots of ice. It’s a great feeling to drink bia hoi on these hot and humid days.

* Favorite dishes of the couple:

- Hanoi: vermicelli with grilled pork, pho, salad, bread, mixed sweet soup.

- Hoi An: Cao Lau, Banh Bao Banh Vac, Chicken Rice.

- Hue: banh bot loc, banh beo, banh khoai

- HCMC: grilled pork vermicelli with spring rolls, pho, iced coffee.

See more: Western tourists 'whisper' to each other about the best food in Vietnam

According to VNE