282 Best Restaurants in Vietnam

American businessman Scott, who hails from Louisiana, decided to get into restaurants with his Vietnamese partner Olivia, and the result is a steak house devoted to Southern-style hospitality. Overlooking Han River, this brick-and-bamboo establishment caters to families and groups and has the best steaks in town, along with killer sides. After dinner, don’t be surprised when you are offered a shot of locally made chocolate vodka. The prices are high for Vietnam, but you get what you pay for.

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.

Even today, long after the war, you couldn't guess this little pho shop's secret: in an upstairs room here, a resistance cell planned the Ho Chi Minh City attacks of the 1968 Tet Offensive. After a delicious bowl of beef or chicken pho arrives, foreign visitors are usually presented with a photo album and guest book. It's usually possible to visit the humble room (for 10,000d per person), which remains much the same—except it now has the grand title, Command Post Office of Subdivision 6 in the General Offensive and Uprising of the Tet Offensive in 1968. The name of the shop, by the way, means "peace soup."

This local pho restaurant has the holy trinity: the northern-style pho is excellent, the restaurant is clean, and the owners are kind and welcoming in spite of any language barrier.

More of a snack and less of a fully fledged meal, pho cuon (fresh spring rolls with beef) is a Truc Bach specialty. This family-run eatery serves up some of the freshest and tastiest rolls in the neighborhood on a handful of tables that often spill out onto the street.

If you are looking for a truly local experience, then this is the restaurant for you. Pho Nui Son La boasts a menu with more than 100 entries and sources their ingredients from local highland stocks and farmsteads. Though they do offer regular beef, pork, and chicken, most of the clienteles come for the highland goats, pheasants, and mountain hogs. 

This opulent 40-seat restaurant is inside Ancient Hue Garden Houses. Blending cultural heritage and fine cuisine, it pays tribute to the last carving artists in Hue. The restaurant is famous for vividly recreating the authentic cuisines of Hue's royalty. Each dish is beautifully presented with vegetables sculpted into shapes of plants and animals. Expect an experience more than a meal with the Royal Court Dinner, an eight-course dinner with traditional music.

Reservations should be made at least four hours in advance.

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.

Located on the grounds of the JW Marriott Phu Quoc, Pink Pearl is one of the island's few true French fine dining establishments. Housed in a mansion where everything is in shades of pink, the setting is simply stunning with its high ceilings and eclectic yet tasteful decor. Diners can choose from set menus that feature premium ingredients artfully presented. Even the servers are dressed in pink flapper dresses with a feather or flower tucked in their hair to add to the refined ambiance.

The customizable poke bowls are loaded with fresh seafood and other toppings at this simple but cheerful joint, which also has smoothie bowls and delivery service.

Located on the street art alley, Primavera gives old-fashioned trattoria vibes with wood paneling, a cozy dining room, and outstanding pizza. Reservations and some patience are recommended; try to book a table on the upstairs terrace or front sidewalk.

Serving what is described as "redesigned" Vietnamese cuisine with a focus on fresh ingredients, the sleek and artsy Propaganda does nontraditional takes on traditional dishes, especially fresh spring rolls and healthy salads. Midway between the Reunification Palace and the Notre Dame Cathedral, Propaganda is the perfect spot to recharge during a long hot day of sightseeing, while admiring the spectacularly colorful murals of wartime propaganda art.

Known among Hanoi locals for its vast menu, this eatery has specialties from northern, central, and southern Vietnam. It's almost as popular for the old courtyard setting as for the decent food. The restaurant has additional branches in Ho Chi Minh City and elsewhere in Hanoi. Note that the restaurant prizes quantity and choice over quality.

No visit to Hue is complete without sampling the city's most famous breakfast dish, bun bo Hue, a glorious lemongrass-and-chili infused beef broth, served with slippery round noodles, beef, pork shank, and a fistful of fragrant herbs. It's not unlike fiery northern pho, and is best slurped from specialty kitchens; the best in Hue is Quan Cam, a tiny family-run noodle shop on Le Loi Street.

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.

Quan Cu means "old shop," which is a misleading title for this clean, efficient, and well-organized Vietnamese restaurant. The staff speak little English but an attractive picture menu makes ordering easy; try the grilled chicken, any dish with tofu, and the fresh morning glory stir-fried with garlic. Strangely, the dish for which Quan Cu is most famous for is bun thang (a chicken noodle soup dish different from pho), and yet it is decidedly mediocre.

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.

This Australian-owned, multistory bar has all you'd expect of a sports bar: a selection of cold beer, pub grub, live sports on TV, and live music nights. Gaze at ocean and traffic going round in the roundabout from the roof terrace.

It doesn't look like much from the road but at the back of the property is a bamboo and thatched roof Mnong house, built on stilts, where you can eat minority cuisine underneath, or inside if you can manage the traditional "stairs," a narrow plank carved with steps. Their specialty is com lam ga nuong, a whole barbecue-grilled chicken and rice.

Once the in-house restaurant at Cham Villas Resort, Ratinger Lowe's traditional German fare became so popular it had to move to larger premises on the street. The owner, hailing from Ratingen, oversees a bountiful menu of German specialties (including bratwurst and wiener schnitzel, of course) as a well as a selection of international and Vietnamese hits.

Don't be fooled by the street view. The (red) sky's the limit at this trendy restaurant with some of the best Western food in Vietnam. Start with the salmon tartare followed by homemade spaghetti carbonara. Straight from the grill are perfectly cooked mango chicken and Zurich tenderloin with mushroom and potatoes.

With prints and paintings of old Saigon, this stylish bistro pays homage to its historic location within the former La Manufacture d'Opium (built in 1881), yet the menu and the wine list are decidedly Continental. The Refinery's set lunch is great value, and its outdoor section is a great spot for a few sundowners. The menu often divides diners; some rave about the salads; and others the hearty mains. One of the few places in Ho Chi Minh City that does an authentic French steak frites.

The Italian menu at this decent little cafeteria is one of the best in the city—and the cheapest, too. Think plates piled high with herby olive oil–drizzled beef carpaccio, al dente creamy risotto, and real Italian pizza, each coming in at under $7 a pop. Nothing is served quickly (everything on the menu is made fresh to order), but the location in the bustling Night Pedestrian Zone makes it a great spot to kick back and people-watch when the sun goes down.

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.

Whether you're looking for some seaside relaxation, cool cocktails, or a thumping party, the Sailing Club has you covered with its prime beachfront location and wide-ranging menu serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After dark it magically morphs into one of the plushest clubs in Nha Trang. Daytime options include coffee and/or cocktails, while lounging in a cabana near the lotus pond or on a beach chair; the more upright options include dining, playing pool, or hanging out on a swing, all oceanside.