43 Best Restaurants in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

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.

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.

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.

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.