Hanoi Restaurants

Old Jun 13th, 2011, 06:39 PM
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Hanoi Restaurants

Hi,

We are going to be in Hanoi for 3 nights in late June. We have the fodor's book, but were interested in any suggestions for good dinner experiences - good food (pretty authentic, although not too out there), nice atmosphere - maybe 1-2 moderately priced places and 1-2 nicer places. Taking a quick scan through various posts, I've seen La Badiane and Green Tangerine appear a couple of times. Any thoughts much appreciated

Thanks
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Old Jun 13th, 2011, 06:48 PM
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the ly club was the best meal we had.... across from the american ambassador's house.... suggest res...
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Old Jun 13th, 2011, 07:00 PM
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I enjoyed the Green Tangerine, but my favorite place in Hanoi was a real hole in the wall kind of place - (see the description below) You may want to consider this for lunch one day. The food was so good that I ate there three times.

Bun Bo Nam Bo: 67 Hang Deur Street - typical Hanoian 'ambience' This eating hole is a long, deep narrow one, smeared stainless steel tables and wooden benches to sit at and carpets of discarded banana leaves to kick at underfoot.....the few moments for your bursting bat (bowl) of Asian flavour. Here's the drum from the bottom up: a decent fistful of lettuce and herbs, the essential noodles, a scoop of beef and bean shoots sauteed with garlic, and the one, two, three of crushed nuts, dried shallots and thinly sliced triangled pickles of young papaya and carrot. A ladle of warm, sweet sauce is tipped over to finish this fine noodle nosh off. (great reviews on various sites) “Cheap, delicious”
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Old Jun 13th, 2011, 07:02 PM
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By the way, the Bun Bo Nam Bo restaurant is in the old Quarter, not far from the Hotel Elegance 4. Lunch for two with two drinks was under $6.00.
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Old Jun 14th, 2011, 06:54 AM
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We're not really foodies, but we were blown away by the freshness and value of the places we visited (including Bun Bo Nam Bo). Here's an excerpt from our recent trip report:

Quan An Ngon – A huge and wonderful place, it’s comprised of a large central courtyard with individual stalls around the perimeter cooking local specialties, all surrounded by interconnected buildings. There is a huge seating area with tables in the courtyard, plus even more tables set up inside the buildings. Despite the high volume of seating, there are lines to get in the place during lunchtime and dinner… undoubtedly due to the vast menu, tasty offerings and dirt-cheap prices. We ate here twice, once for lunch with the Hanoi Kids and once for dinner on our own. And I’m fairly confident that you could order randomly from their Tolstoy-esque menu and be satisfied. Quite possibly the best sheer value of any restaurant we’ve ever been to… ms_go, correct me if I’m misstating the case.

New Day – The only other place where we ate twice, this busy three-story restaurant sits directly across the street from the Hanoi Elegance Emerald hotel in the Old Quarter (about a 15-minute walk from our hotel). The service staff is friendly and not shy if you ask for a recommendation, the food is fresh and flavorful, the beer is cold and the price is right. The marinated barbeque pork and Shanghai-style sea bass were memorable dishes. Two appetizers, three mains, drinks & tax… about $15 total.

Bun Cha Dac Kim – This place is definitely nothing fancy, but what an experience! This is a very popular lunch spot, and it’s about 40 yards away from our hotel’s front door. They serve exactly two dishes, bun cha and fried springrolls (nem), and you don’t actually order… they point you to a table and just start bringing you food soon after you sit. You get a massive bowl of grilled pork in a tasty broth, an even more massive plate of fresh greens (including thai basil, cilantro, lettuce, etc.), fresh rice noodles (which they cut up with scissors for you), a bowl of zesty dipping sauce for the nem, a bowl of chopped red-hot chilies and garlic, and an empty bowl for each person to mix stuff up in. How you choose to eat it all depends on your chopstick skills. It’s all delicious, far more food than we could possibly eat, and cost less than $9 for the three of us (plus drinks).

Bun Bo Nam Bo – Two or three short blocks away from our hotel was another notable lunch spot, which serves just bun bo… which is a big, savory bowl with thin rice noodles topped with marinated beef slices, cooked torn lettuce, basil, cilantro, lettuce and peanuts. Small pitchers of spicy peanut sauce are also provided (and recommended, btw). You just sit down at a communal table, tell them how many bowls and what drinks you want, and it appears a minute later. Mix it all up with your chopsticks, and dig in! It’s not quite as well known among tourists as the bun cha place mentioned above, but the value and deliciousness are pretty much equal.
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Old Jun 14th, 2011, 08:34 AM
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We enjoyed La Badiane very much, but I wouldn't call it "authentic" -- it's very modern inventive cuisine, not Vietnamese. Plus, although it's not expensive by San Francisco or New York standards, it's very expensive by Hanoi standards. I think our dinner for two, with two cocktails, two appetizers, two main courses and one dessert was about $80.00.

We never made it to either Bun Cha Hac Kim or to Bun Bo Nam Ho (we tried, but were never in the right place at the right time). But Bun Bo and Bun Cha are very high on our list of favorite dishes we discovered, and we've had both on more than one occasion since we returned home (including last Friday night).

If you happen to be at the Temple of Literature around lunchtime, I would recommend Koto, which is a restaurant that employs and trains street kids to work in the restaurant industry. The food is very very good. $17 for lunch for two -- too much food and two soft drinks and a capuccino, we could easily have gotten out of there for $10-12.
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Old Jun 14th, 2011, 01:30 PM
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here are a couple more:

mediterraneo at 23 nha tho st, just across from the catholic cathedral---fantastic

koto restaurant, 59 van meiu, down the street from craft link and across the road from Temple of Literature---excellent and unique---school training restaurant

quan an ngon, 18 phan boi chau... central court eating surrounded by "street food vendors", but food is delivered to and ordered from your table. cheap and fantastic.

Little hanoi cafe, 23 hung gai st

all of these were excellent, better than excellent in fact, but ly club is where we had the best meal overall.
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Old Jun 14th, 2011, 01:44 PM
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If you can spare half a day during a short stay, the Hanoi Cooking Centre runs eating tours devoted to street food. It includes a market visit to discuss ingredients and finishes with exotic drinks in a venerable coffee house. It's four-hours-plus of solid eating, sometimes with stuff you would never have thought to put in your mouth. http://hanoicookingcentre.com/
Food is an essential part of Hanoi life and you can Google to find more cooking schools.
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Old Jun 14th, 2011, 06:00 PM
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Thanks for all the great suggestions, I wish we had more time in Hanoi. I never feel great relying on the hotel or guidebooks for restaurant suggestions, so these are great.

Any suggestions for HCMC too? We are there effectively only one day/night, so any lunch or dinner suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thanks again for your thoughts, this forum has been incredibly helpful in planning our trip.
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Old Jun 14th, 2011, 07:48 PM
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Can't recommend any Vietnamese restaurants in HCMC, but we had a good Indian meal (Tandoor) and a good pizza (La Hostaria)! We also enjoyed a drink at the rooftop bar at the Hotel Rex.
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Old Jun 15th, 2011, 12:01 AM
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Sushi Bar in Le Thanh Ton (Little Tokyo) has some great suhi & other japanese cuisine and there are plenty of other decent places close by.

The foodstalls in Ben Thanh market offer a wide variety of traditional vietnamese food (fresh spring rolls and the ubiquitous Pho arfe good here. Just take a seat choose dishes from any at any of the stalls.

Saigon Saigon Bar the rooftop bar at The Caravelle is great for sundowners.

Square One at the Hyatt is expensive but good for the theatre as you can see the chefs in action.
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Old Jun 15th, 2011, 06:04 AM
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HCMC: we liked the temple club, 29-31 ton that thiep st..
for a change we wanted italian and really liked la hostaria where we went twice: 17b Le Thanh Ton St
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Old Jun 15th, 2011, 07:42 AM
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Here are some more suggestion for you:

Club de L'Oriental at 22 Ton Dan st
Wild lotus : 55A Nguyen Du st
Wild Rice: 06 Ngo Thi Nham st
Madame Hien: 15 Chan Cam st
Seasons of Hanoi: 95 Quan Thanh st

Madame Hien will be my suggestion...

enjoy your time in Hanoi
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Old Jun 20th, 2011, 12:46 AM
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1 vote for Quan An Ngon.
It is highly recommended by a lot of travelers because its service and price.
Other places:
Little Hanoi on Ta Hien Street, I tried this restaurant, it is small, food is good but staff seems to be not very professional.
City view cafe: it is good address if you want to enjoy romantic time because from there, you can see all Hoan Kiem Lake
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Old Jun 20th, 2011, 10:40 AM
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I too vote for quan an ngon in HCMC, temple club for me was only so so but this was because of the lousy service.
I too loved La Badiane and Green tAngerine in Hanoi and for lunch Little Hanoi and Cha ca la vong. We actually ate bun bo nam bo at Koto which was delicious.
We also at at square one and the eastern restaurant at the Hyatt ( sorry can't remember name) and as Crellston said expensive but the food was very good.
I hated the bar at the top of the Rex, VERY touristy with awful cocktails, liked the one at the top of the Caravalle ( which is still super touristy but IMHO a better bar)
I actually regret not doing more local places in Vietnam but we ran out of time, so we plan to go back.....but for us the food was still fantastic in VN
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Old Jun 20th, 2011, 11:33 AM
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Which goes to show, it's all personal preference (Smeagol and I both liked La Badiane, Koto and Little Hanoi, but she liked quan an ngon, and I think it's "just okay", nothing to write home about, and we enjoyed the bar at the Rex, and she didn't).

FWIW, most of the cocktails we had in SE Asia were lousy!
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Old Jun 20th, 2011, 11:44 AM
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To true SF, and the service you receive on the day can make all the difference..... For to die for cocktails in VN I would recommend the bar at the Hyatt. Out of curiosity SF which Quan did you go to? I only went to the one in HCMC as we ran out of time in Hanoi. I still dream about their chilli beef
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Old Jun 20th, 2011, 12:55 PM
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Actually, we went to both Quans - Hanoi and HCMC. It may well be that we didn't much like what we ordered (particularly in Hanoi), but we definitely had better food elsewhere. It's definitely a good value, though -- we ran into people in Hanoi who ate lunch there every day.
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Old Jun 20th, 2011, 02:20 PM
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We also ate in the HCMC & Hanoi Quans (the Hanoi Kids took us to the later one) and we were not impressed either time.
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Old Dec 16th, 2011, 02:09 AM
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My husband and I are in Hanoi and searched for Bun Bo Nam Bo at 67 Hang Deur Street today in the Old Quarter and could not find that street on a map. We asked several people about the street and were told there is no such street. Could someone check the address for us or give us more clues to finding this little restaurant. There are also several Elegance Hotels in the Hanoi and some have been renamed. Help would be appreciated as I must try this place. Thank you.
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