53 Best Restaurants in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

There are two parts to the night market, one section selling clothes and tourist items and the other serving sweet and savory treats from a variety of carts, with vendors who are well versed in the point-and-nod style of ordering. Most of the food can be munched while strolling and is more of a snack than a meal. Stalls start appearing at around 6 pm each day.

Choose fresh seafood, ribs, chicken, and vegetables from trays out front to be barbecued on sidewalk grills made from 44-gallon drums. The no-frills setting, corrugated metal roof, and chaotic service are part of the fun.

Funky wall art, exposed brick, and black metal gives character to this tucked-away vegetarian cafe where you can find healthy fare such as salads, sourdough toasts, and smoothie bowls.

Mango Bay Resort's in-house restaurant serves an ambitious menu of Pan-Asian and Western cuisine on their wooden deck perched on rocks that jut out over the water. The views of the sunset over the Gulf of Thailand are unparalleled, the cocktails delicious, the staff attentive, making it a popular spot with people coming from all over the island; reservations are essential.

Though overwhelmingly touristy, the night market's animated vendors and buckets of fresh seafood, which are cooked to order, provide some eye-catching visuals and seafood dinners here can be a memorable experience, especially for a group. There are also plenty of tantalizing snacks, from roasted peanuts and grilled meat skewers to tropical fruit.

A basic riverfront restaurant firmly targeted at the tourist trade, Phuong Nam does a range of fast, budget-friendly Vietnamese dishes. The interior is basic, with check tablecloths and chunky wooden furniture, and the fan-cooled restaurant is open to the street. The menu has vegetarian, seafood, pork, chicken, and snake dishes.

A plain and simple restaurant associated with Cuu Long Hotel across the road, the main reason to come here is for the riverfront location. The menu has a range of standard Vietnamese dishes, including hotpot, and a few Western choices, though the staff don't mind if you grab a riverside seat for drinks rather than ordering a meal.

An invitingly clean, calm, air-conditioned space is just one reason to eat at this vegetarian restaurant, which does plant-based versions of Vietnamese classics such as hu tieu rice noodle soup and com tam (broken rice with surprisingly tasty mock meat) for less than 25,000d, as well as hotpot ideal for two or more people.

The restaurant, which is close to the market and is popular with the locals, makes a delectable version of com tam ("broken rice") with charcoal grilled pork in a sweet, sticky glaze.

Alongside a French-colonial villa once home to a Nguyen Dynasty official, Mekong serves up fresh and tasty Vietnamese dishes, has an English menu, and serves cheap cold beers. The location could be described as a courtyard if it didn't look so much like a parking lot, and the metal tables and plastic chairs are basic, but the tablecloths do give the place a certain touch of sophistication. The menu includes southern Vietnamese staples such as seafood, eel, quail, and frog, and there are plenty of less exotic options as well.

Locals will tell you that this long-standing shop has the best pho (beef noodle soup) in town, though it has become a bit pricey by Vietnamese standards. Unusually, they are open for both breakfast and dinner.

From 5 pm on, a small outdoor market sets up shop along the riverside, where you can sit down on a little plastic stool with the locals and enjoy beer, grilled meat and seafood, and even hotpot.

This cute little café has an Asian fusion menu that has a vegetarian section and a good selection of drinks, including Pasteur Street craft beer on tap and a sizeable menu for wine by the glass. Brunch is their forte, with delicious eggs Benedict, as well as homemade granola. The array of baked goods changes daily.

In a superb riverside setting inside Can Tho's beautiful old market hall, Sao Hom is one of the only restaurants on the water's edge (or on the water, if you manage to get a table on their dock). The menu seems stretched trying to please everyone with its range of made-for-tourist Vietnamese dishes, including the local version of cha gio (spring rolls), as well as Western favorites. But with friendly, polite staff and an interesting location beside busy Ninh Kieu boat pier, Sao Hom is a great place to pause and watch the river with drinks or snacks.

This cozy steak house is a chance to get out of tourist center and enjoy a simple menu of steak (six cuts available) prepared to order, with choice of sauce, classic sides, and wine by the glass or bottle. Reservations are strongly recommended as seating is limited and it's popular with locals.

The menu is as thick as a book, but this modest family-owned restaurant has become extremely popular with tourists for their expertly prepared fresh seafood—especially the fish and prawns—and for their charcoal grill, which fires up every evening.

A Long Xuyen institution, Thang Loi is a large outdoor restaurant known for its seafood, although the spring rolls and beef dishes are pretty good, too. There is an English menu (and cheap beer) to make things easier.

Tran Hau Street, which runs east from the market, is packed with local mom-and-pop establishments. These small eateries usually specialize in one dish and are named after what they serve, so look out for all manner of delicious southern favorites, including hu tieu (chewy noodles with pork and seafood), bun ca (rice noodle soup with fish), banh canh ghe (thick tapioca noodle soup with crab), com tam (broken rice with grilled pork), and che (a Vietnamese dessert).

A basic eatery that attracts a good mix of tourists and locals, Truong Van serves standard but tasty noodle soup, spring rolls, fish soup, and grilled beef in a sweet-and-sour sauce. Vegetarians can tuck into mixed sautéed vegetables (cauliflower, baby corn, red and green peppers, morning glory) over wok-fried noodles. Toast to your trip with Saigon beer and finish on a sweet note with the excellent banana pancakes.

There are several chain-type dining outlets inside Vincom Xuan Khanh, a multilevel shopping mall and cinema adjacent to Sheraton Can Tho. Level 4 is where most of the eateries are, as well as an indoor kids' play center. Choices include Thai BBQ Buffet, GoGi House (Korean), Kichi-Kichi (Japanese), and dim sum/Chinese restaurant chain Crystal Jade Kitchen.

Make your way through the bustling local market to the food section at breakfast or lunchtime to find something cheap, authentic, and delicious such as banh uot, which translates literally as "wet cakes," steamed rice sheets topped with barbecued pork patties, pickled vegetables, and a tangy dressing. The market stalls start packing up at around 4 pm.

As you'd expect from a seaside town, Ha Tien has excellent seafood restaurants, most of which line the river. Vinh Map is a good place to tuck into fresh shrimp, squid, clams, sea snails, and oysters, which are usually sold by the kilo or half kilo. An English menu helps, but not as much as a bit of confidence and the ability to point at what you'd like to eat.

Pull up a stool at this sidewalk restaurant and pop open a Saigon beer while you look to see what the locals are eating. Chau Doc is all about seafood, and you can't go wrong with clay pot fish—unless you don't like fish sauce, in which case go for clay pot pork, with juices that taste great over white rice. There's not a lot for vegetarians, but the plates of sautéed vegetables—morning glory, baby corn, banana flowers—flavored with coriander go well with rice, and there is a vegetable soup.