Hanoi Street Food

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“Fried dumplings, meat pies and snacks”, that’s how you’ll find this spot on Google Maps… and that sums its essence quite well. It’s a very popular destination for a quick, tasty, fried snack, usually there’s a small queue outside.Believe it or not this fried cakes and dumplings, reminded me very much to the typical South American “empanadas”, I felt like home. Inside you have the menu in a slate translated into Enligsh, but if in doubt about the options, ask a local, they are very nice and they will gladly help and share eating tips!

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Bia Hoi is fresh draught beer very popular in Vietnam. These two corner bars are perfect for a light beer with a local vibe touch, here you get to actually slow down a bit although everything around is still super hectic, Hanoi-style. I don’t necessarily recommend the food in any of these two places, didn’t try it, but both bars are ideal to have a couple of these beers with some peanuts!

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In Bún Bò Nam Bộ you can have one really mean beef noodle salad. It comes with a refreshing and generous amount of lettuce, fresh vegetables, fried onion, roasted peanuts, crispy bean sprouts and fresh cilantro. They say that the key to its flavour is using sauce instead of pho broth for the noodles. The sauce is a secret combination of sugar, lemon, chilli and fish sauce. Beef is also well soaked in sugar, fish sauce and pepper and other seasonings. Make sure you mix everything very well before digging in!

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Chả Cá is an iconic and delicious dish from Hanoi that is grilled white fish, fragrant with tumeric, fish sauce, ginger and garlic, is tossed together with dill, spring onion and roasted peanuts. In this place you’re given a pan and you finish cooking the fish with fresh greens. It was really surprising and one of my favourites new Vietnamese fish!

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This place is famous for its banh cuon, that is a soft rice pancake filled with pork, chicken, shrimp or mushrooms. I tried the mushrooms and the pork one, and they were absolutely delicious. There are other options on the menu but I just tried their famous bahn cuon, totally worth it!

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Vietnamese coffee is an institution and an absolute must-try-several-times kind of coffee. Is strong, deep, fragrant and sweet, while I was there I enjoyed several cups a day and brought some home (I bought the ‘Weasel’ kind). In all the places I had a cup the coffee was really good, including this nice Hanoian cafe franchise called Cong, they serve typical Vietnamese coffee and food in a very special setting as it is decorated as like a Vietnamese coffee shop in the 70s. The name “Cộng” was taken from Vietnam’s official name: CỘNG HOÀ XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM (The Socialist Republic of Vietnam).One of the most popular coffee in Vietnam is the egg coffee, but I prefered the black and the coconut coffee, this last one for desert, as I don’t eat that much sugar and they are very very sweet!There are many Cong Ca Phes around the city but the one in the minimap is located right in front of the Hoan Kiem Lake and it has a nice little balcony overlooking the main street and the lake.

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I think is not that well known outside of Vietnam (at least I didn’t have a clue) but the Vietnamese are very much into desserts and this little corner seems like a nice place to give them a try! Here you can taste a combination of fresh fruits, jelly, pudding, yogurt and tapioca pearls, is very colourful, sweet and tasty. You can have a look here… enjoy!