282 Best Restaurants in Vietnam

Like most of the restaurants in Sapa, Viet Emotion has a typical Western and Vietnamese blended menu, but they go out of their way to make the building bright and colorful. If you’re hungry, try the Hunter’s Meal, which is sticky rice and pork marinated in a bamboo pipe. They also have a second (smokier) location at 17 Xuan Vien.

Australian celebrity chef Luke Nguyen has given this longtime tourist-centric restaurant a remake with an innovative "modern Vietnamese" menu and a stylish refit of the interior. The name, the central location, and the beautiful Art Deco building remain the same, but everything else is fresh and exciting.

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.

This local restaurant specializes in cha cuon ca, deep fried herring rolls wrapped in rice paper wraps you make yourself. Fill it with rice noodles, fresh herbs, cucumber, and mango, before dipping it in nuoc cham—a delightful textural feast.

This modern restaurant serves traditional cha ca (pan-fried fish with rice vermicelli) to multi-generational tables of lively locals. Reservations are almost essential, but if you can't get a table confirmed you can find a handful of other Vua Cha Ca locations across the city.

This arty and uncluttered space has tasty drinks and souvenirs made by local artisans. Vui, which means "happy" in Vietnamese, is a calming escape from the chaos of the Old Quarter, but probably won't fit groups bigger than four or five comfortably.

Trung and Linda Nguyen accomplished a dream by opening this excellent restaurant and coffee shop across the river from Bai Chay in Hong Gai. The couple purchases their beans from the mountainous Dalat region and roasts them on-site. Their big goal is to improve coffee culture in the city and show Vietnam how other countries drink coffee. The staff loves to help travelers discover the area.

This restaurant chain does a surprisingly good take on traditional Vietnamese street food, of which many dishes require wrapping or rolling. If actual street food freaks you out with its proximity to traffic, noise, and dirt, this is a quiet, clean, lime green, and air-conditioned alternative. Its menu includes more than 40 items and 9 dipping sauces.

Cantonese cuisine is renowned as one of China’s great culinary traditions thanks to its emphasis on high quality produce and ingredients. And the qualities of traditional Cantonese cooking are to the fore in Haiphong at Yi Ling Ling, the signature dining venue at Sheraton Hai Phong. Dishes run the gamut from delicate dumplings to heartier braised offerings.

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.