Vietnamese Poke Bowl with all kinds of colorful grains and vegetables.
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Wondering what kind of Vietnamese food you will find if you visit? Come along for a visual tour that will get your taste buds buzzing!

Here’s all the Amazing Traditional Vietnamese Food We Ate in Vietnam

During our month in Vietnam, we had a chance to try a wide variety of delicious foods, many of which were completely new to us. And it was all prepared with lots of fresh meats, vegetables, noodles, rice and sauces. The way they season the Vietnamese food makes it taste sooooo good!

I hope these photos will give you a taste of the culinary experience and entice you to come explore the vibrant flavors of Vietnam.

As Bill and I travel the world, the Vietnamese food (and lodging) prices are among the most affordable we have found. Our most expensive dinner in Vietnam cost $17 USD for two and the majority of our dinners were under $10 for two. Our hotel lodging ranged from $25 to $38/night. Vietnam is definitely suited to a long-term stay if you are trying to lower your travel costs.

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Da Nang Restaurants

We tried several different restaurants during our almost 2 weeks in Da Nang. But we went back to this one four times!

It’s called the Vietnom Eatery and it features four different restaurants in the same space.

They have a great outdoor seating area where we met up with friends and watched the people walk by.

A building housing four Vietnamese food restaurants in one place with tables and chairs out front.
A plate full of flat noodles, beef strips, bean sprouts and onions, with a fork along the side.

This is the Vietnamese food version of Drunken Noodles, one of my favorite Thai dishes. It has charry beef, flat noodles, sprouts and onions.

It was fantastically delicious and this huge portion cost approximately $3.30 USD!

Rainbow Poke Bowl – featuring salmon and brown rice, along with Tobiko, wakame salad, edamame, tamago, cucumber, corn, radish, pickled onions, pico de gallo, quail egg, guacamole, gari ginger, roasted sesame, crispy shallots, and nori seaweed. Cost was approx. $7.

Vietnamese Poke Bowl with all kinds of colorful grains and vegetables.
A white plate containing Barbecue ribs, fat french fries, a purple and green salad, and a rectangle shaped bowl containing a yellow-orange sauce.

Bill had the BBQ Ribs which were also delicious and tasty.

Cost was approximately $10 – this was the most expensive thing we ordered during our whole time in Vietnam.

Two hard shelled beef taco, loaded with onions and lettuce and cheese sprinkled on top.
Tacos
A black metal basket with an assortment of a dozen fried spring rolls.
Spring Rolls
Chicken pieces in a bowl with bok choy, onions and lots of broth.
A white bowl contains chunks of beef in a broth with lots of green vegetables and rice noodles.
Vietnamese Pho Soup
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Ha Long Bay Cruise

Our 3-day cruise on Ha Long Bay provided the fanciest food we ate in Vietnam, including lots of fresh seafood, caught and prepared just for our meals. With multi-course meals, we never went away hungry! Here’s a sampling of the menus and the delicious food:

A printed lunch menu showing Starters, Main Dishes and Dessert.
A bowl and spoon featuring thinly sliced carrot, papaya and other vegetables in a salad
A bowl and spoon with Roasted chicken with Ginger sauce and thin sliced vegetables.
A printed dinner menu showing the offerings for Starters, Main Dishes and Dessert.
Grilled Oyster meat arranged on 4 Oyster Shells with a decorative rose made from tomatoes.
Two fried King Prawn pieces on a square plate with roasted melon pieces and parsley.

Our Vietnamese Food Tour in Hoi An

We signed up for an evening Vietnamese Food Tour in Old Hoi An which introduced us to a whole variety of new Vietnamese street foods. Tommy was our guide and he led us to 7 stops where we got to sample various traditional Vietnamese food.

Sometimes, they demonstrated how to make the food. Other times, they walked us through the steps to prepare the food for ourselves.

Small bowls of Bahn Beo, a popular street food in Vietnam.
Bahn Beo

Made from a combination of rice flour and tapioca flour, Bahn Beo is a popular street food in Vietnam.

Usually eaten as a snack, it can also be eaten as lunch or dinner.

Cao Lau is a regional Vietnamese noodle dish that is a specialty of Hoi An. It has pork and greens on a bed of rice noodles,

These noodles are made from rice which has been soaked in lye water, giving them a unique texture that sets the dish apart from other Vietnamese noodle dishes.

White bowl with noodles, pork and greens - a popular Vietnamese food called Cao Lau.
Cau Lau
A cut away of the Bahn Mi sandwich, with thick pieces of bread, stuffed with meat, pate and vegetables.
Bahn Mi

The famous Bahn Mi sandwich is widely available in Hoi An and all throughout Vietnam.

This one is a baguette stuffed with pate, pork, chicken, cheese and fried egg. Yum!

Our guide Tommy demonstrates how to make Bahn Xeo, a crispy, stuffed rice pancake that is super popular in Vietnam. The pancakes are stuffed with fried meat and vegetables, then rolled up.

Click to watch the video.

Then we had to make our own Bahn Xeo – they came out pretty tasty!

A tour guide in a gray shirt holding up a piece of fried pork on a stick and an array of ingredients spread out on the table before him.
The Making of Bahn Xeo
Food tour participant works with the ingredients in front of her to create her own Bahn Xeo.
A hand holding a rolled up Bohn Xeo pancake stuffed with meat, pate and vegetables.
Bahn Xeo
A Vietnamese lady wearing white gloves selects ingredients from the many bowls spread in front of her.

This Vietnamese lady demonstrated how to make another delicious dish for us. Sadly, I forgot to write down the name of this one. Oops! Click to watch the video.

The final product. It was delicious, whatever it’s called. 😉

A white plate on a red table features cut up vegetables, lettuce and other ingredients.
Two blue and white small bowls with spoons, and one red bowl contain black sesame soup.

Our next stop featured Sweet Black Sesame Soup. The Main ingredients are black sesame, sweet potato starch, sargasso, centella and traditional Chinese Herbs. It is said to be sweet, tasty and also good for your health.

Our last stop was at the Hoi An Night Market to get some dessert – Vietnamese Ice cream on a stick!

A long slender, light brown shape of frozen ice is an example of Vietnamese ice cream on a stick.

There are lots of Vietnamese Food Tours to choose from in Hoi An, including these highly rated ones:

Ninh Binh/Tam Coc Restaurants

The second part of our Vietnam stay was up in the Ninh Binh/Tam Coc part of the country. We sampled foods from several different restaurants, some better than others and the prices ranged from $2.60-$7.00 per person per meal.

In our opinion, the best option was the Mango Restaurant, located on the main road going into Tam Coc. We ate there several times during our stay and it offered great food at excellent prices. The only problem was it took a very long time for the food to arrive, even when the restaurant wasn’t that busy. So bring along something to do while you wait!

Thin rice Noodles, stir-fried chicken and vegetables served on a white plate.
Bright pink shrimp served with noodles, vegetables and a lime.
Chicken, beans and lettuce on a bed of white rice.
Noodles, cilantro and beans in a creamy white sauce.
Fried noodles with lots of colorful vegetables on a white plate.
Chicken Fried Rice on a white plate.

The Bahn Mi Queen in Hoi An

The Madam Khanh Restaurant store front with glowing neon letters.

On our last night in Da Nang, we took a Grab back to Hoi An to find this one restaurant that had rave reviews for their Bahn Mi sandwiches. Some said it was the best Bahn Mi in all of Vietnam? So we had to check it out.

The restaurant is called Madam Khanh – the Bahn Mi Queen and it pretty much has only one thing on the menu. It offers a counter service for the long lines of people wanting Take Away, as well as a large eat-in seating area in the back.

The packed seating area had no empty tables to be found. While we waited for one to open up, we admired the efficiency of the operation. The sandwiches were being delivered about 90 seconds after being ordered. That meant most tables turned over every 7-8 minutes so we didn’t have to wait very long to find a table.

Breaded sandwich wrapped in a paper bag that says Madam Khanh - the Bahn Mi Queen
The sandwich features a thick baguette with meat and pate inside of it.

The best part? Super affordable! 25,000 Viet Dong equals $0.98 USD and 30,000 Dong equals $1.17. Even with a beverage, our total bill came to $3.80.

However, Bill pointed out that we spent $12 each way on a Grab to get from Da Nang to Hoi An, so that somewhat negated the “bargain” aspect.

If you find yourself in Hoi An, we highly recommend checking out Madam Khanh’s for some of the best Bahn Mi around!

Menu for a restaurant showing different choices for sandwich fillings.
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Stone Sizzling Steak

When you’re ready for something different than noodles and rice, try a stone sizzling steak. We stumbled on this busy steakhouse called Sumo Chou Steak in the Old Quarter of Hanoi during the lunch hour. Busy is always a good sign, right?

Each meal offers a choice of meat (steak or salmon) cooking on a hot stone, a baguette, pate and a choice of sauces. We had to ask the people sitting next to us how to put the meal together, but it was really, really good!

Another great example of Vietnamese Food is salmon sizzling a hot stone, to be eaten with pate, a baguette and a creamy white sauce.

Vietnamese Coffee is Fantastic

Bill and I are don’t drink coffee (anymore), but we hear that Vietnamese Coffee is pretty darn fantastic. Our friends Joanna and David said their favorite thing to do in Vietnam is visiting all the fun cafes and coffee shops, sampling the many different types of Vietnamese coffee to find their favorite ones.

My friend Scott also said that he doesn’t drink coffee anywhere in the world, EXCEPT in Vietnam because it tastes so good.

If you find a really spectacular coffee in Vietnam, let me know and I can feature it here for others to try.

Conclusion – Is the Vietnamese Food Really as Delicious and Affordable as People Say?

It most definitely is! Always made fresh, always seasoned and way cheaper than the food we’ve found in other parts of the world. This is why many long-term travelers choose Vietnam for months-long stays. Healthy food, combined with lots of walking to explore, was a great combination for us.

So book your ticket now and make your way to beautiful Vietnam so you can partake in these culinary delights!

More Vietnam and Da Nang Posts

Here are links to some more Vietnam posts, including some that I’m still working on. If you want to subscribe to our newsletter that shares when new posts are published, just fill out the form above. We’d love to have you traveling along with us!

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