Vietnam, Where to Eat Now: Spilled Milk #326

My guide to 54 restaurants in Hanoi, Huế and Ho Chi Minh City serving everything from bún bò Huế and banh mi to egg coffee and rice rolls.

Join me in Vietnam! From February 27 to March 9, 2026, I’ll be your guide on this incredible journey with Modern Adventure. We’ll slurp street-side phở, steam through Ha Long Bay, cook with aunties in Hoi An and more! For all the details, click here.

You need help planning. You need help stepping out of your travel rut. You need to travel and not be a tourist. Come travel with me to Vietnam. Seriously, with me.

There are links everywhere on this page. This trip will sell out fast, so get your reservations in now.

All week we will be talking about this amazing country, one of my favorite places on earth. The country that my friend Tony Bourdain told me after his first trip there, “If I could, I would move to Vietnam and live ferally...”

There is no place like it, that’s for sure.

So we always like to get a list going to start the week, and here is mine for three Vietnamese cities. I could have listed 100 street food stops in one city alone, so remember, just dive in when you get there. Have a plan, but be flexible enough to toss that in the garbage on any given day. Just remember to fish out the list you tossed later on. You will need it.

Vietnamese cuisine is a gorgeous, chaotic collision of flavors, cultures and colonial hangovers. Picture this: a kitchen where the French left behind buttery pastries, the Chinese dropped off noodles, the Desi countries tossed in a handful of curry and the Vietnamese—like the BRILLIANT culinary alchemists they are—turned it all into something unequivocally their own.

Let’s start with the North, the birthplace of pho, that brothy love letter to beef and rice noodles. Hanoi’s cuisine is elegant and restrained, a Zen monk compared to the fire-breathing dragons down south. The North loves balance: not too sweet, not too spicy, just right. It's all about clarity, the pure distillation of a few good ingredients. Pho ga, bun cha—they’re sexy poems composed in a bowl.

The central region laughs in the face of restraint. In Huế, the old imperial capital, the food is a royal banquet of colors and spices. This is the spicy, herb-packed epicenter of Vietnamese cuisine, where dishes such as bún bò Huế arrive red-hot with chili and lemongrass. Blame the royal court for this opulence: They demanded elaborate feasts that required an absurd number of small, artfully plated dishes. We are its beneficiaries.

Head south to the Mekong Delta and Saigon, and things get sugar-soaked and full-throttle. Here, the French left their mark in the form of crispy baguettes stuffed with pickled daikon and pork pate, the beloved banh mi. The South has a shameless sweet tooth, adding sugar to everything from dipping sauces to noodle soups. And with a climate that churns out fruit like a botanical slot machine, why wouldn’t they?

And then there’s the Highlands, where the weather drops in temperature and the food warms up. Think: hot pots and grilled meats. The French influence is strongest here, with coffee shops doling out thick, dark brews that could jumpstart a corpse, sweetened with condensed milk because, well, why the hell not? I’m addicted to the stuff.

Vietnamese food is beloved because it’s the ultimate balancing act. Heat meets sweet, savory meets sour, crispy meets silky. It’s food that’s as vibrant and full of life as the country itself. And if you’re planning a food pilgrimage, go to Vietnam. Go now. Go with me. Because this is a place where every meal is a masterclass in how to turn hardship and history into a bowl of something that’ll make you want to weep.

Here are some recommendations for the major places you will go regardless of itineraries. And do consult the Michelin Guide, smart blogs and vlogs, follow Vietnamese chefs on social and cross reference. Ask the doormen at your hotel where THEY go for a snack after work or a for a date on their nights off. Go to every market you can and overorder in all the restaurants. Trust me here, I know what I speak of. If you like to eat strictly in sit down restaurants, there are many here. But remember, the best food in Vietnam is most often found in humbler places.

Here is my list of 54 must-eat stops in Hanoi, Huế and Ho Chi Minh City.

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