Dining in Hanoi

Food bucket list in Hanoi:

— Pho (Northern Vietnamese noodle soup). You’re in the motherland of pho and can find it almost anywhere. You can partake in pho for breakfast (it’s normal here!).
–Bún Chả is barbecued Pork with Rice Vermicelli. The dish consists of grilled pork strips and balls or chả served over a bed of rice vermicelli noodles or bún. It’s typically accompanied with a plate of fresh Vietnamese herbs and a bowl of dipping sauce and pickled veggies like cabbage, carrots, onion.
— Bun nem (spring rolls)
–Nem Cua Be (crab spring rolls stuffed with crab and vermicelli). Great side dish!
–Bahn Mi (Vietnamese sandwich on a baguette), sold at stalls throughout the city.
–An iced coffee or egg coffee will help you shake your jetlag in no time!

Fine Dining/ Night out

Le Beaulieu
I hit my first food coma of Vietnam inside the Metropole Hotel and surprisingly, it wasn’t a noodle-induced. The five-course tasting menu here is a must for a special occasion – or a Tuesday. Every bite of food was surprising and elegant. The wine was perfectly paired and the bread from the pastry chef was unreal.

Street Food/ Bites

Bún Chả Hương Liên
I’m not one to celebrity stalk, but when my favorite food guru Anthony Bourdain and President Barack Obama sit on plastic stools and eat a $6 dinner of noodles, you go. Hanoi beer is a perfect compliment to cheap, but tasty bun cha and pho..

Cua Hang An Uong Mau Dich So 37
(otherwise known as State Run Food Shop No. 37)
At this communist-themed old house turned restaurant, you buy ration coupons to order food. The owner wanted young visitors to experience what it was like to line up for fuel and food rations. The dishes are served in tin bowls reminiscent of the old times when people would come to a canteen with their own bowls and chopsticks. My darling sister searched many city markets on a recent trip to located these bowls and we now have them in our houses!

Pho Thin
Authentic local eating experience, deemed best pho in the city.

Bahn Mi 25
Grab n’ go sandwiches served out of a simple stall. Either sit on a tiny stool streetside or take it next door to the little cafe and wash it down with an iced coffee.