282 Best Restaurants in Vietnam

Inside Sailing Club Resort Mui Ne, in a high-ceiling Balinese-style pavilion overlooking the sea, Sandals has long been considered one of Mui Ne's best dining options even if you're not staying there. The menu is diverse, with everything from lighter poke bowls and seared tuna salad, to heartier dishes from the grill.

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.

For those craving a taste of the USA, Scott’s Kitchen serves big portions of soul-satisfying, home-cooked comfort food. There are more than 20 variations of mac-and-cheese alone on the menu including fun additions like Korean-style fried chicken, tuna melt, and BBQ pork. While the menu is unabashedly not aimed at the calorie-counting crowd, there are salads (but with ranch and blue cheese dressings) and the Nashville Hot Chicken can be made with tofu.

There are times when only a good old-fashioned curry will do, and the talented Indian chefs here make some of the best. Highlights of the menu include anything from their tandoori oven, soft buttery naan, mixed vegetable or meat grilled dishes, and tikka. For vegetarians the channa masala and paneer dishes come in belt-slackening-size servings, and for upset stomachs, the honey lassi is a great cure.

Sindbad's short and sweet menu of fresh, tasty kebabs, salads, and dips is widely celebrated in the area. The staff is friendly, and the service is generally quick.

Serving a mishmash of international, Tex-Mex, and Vietnamese fare, Snap is an open-air family-oriented café-restaurant set in a large thatched hut overlooking a children's playground. Popular with the local expat community, Snap caters to nonfamilies with its quieter library section tucked away on one side beside a manicured tropical garden. The restaurant tries hard to please all comers, with burger nights, quiz nights, live music, and an extensive menu. The staff is friendly, especially to kids. Snap is located in a complex with boutiques and other dining options, so leave some time to wander.

This hidden gem serves gourmet burgers named after the greats of America's soul scene, such as the James Brown (200-gram house-ground U.S. beef glazed with sweet and spicy brown sugar barbecue sauce, topped with pulled smoked pork shoulder, cheddar cheese, crisp beer-battered onion rings, and a creamy coleslaw). Order a side of beer-battered onion rings and wash it all down an ice cold beer. No one will mind if you serenade your meal with that classic James Brown line: "so good, so good, 'cause I got you ... dant-dant-dant-dant."

Sunsea Resort's small oceanfront restaurant, Sukhothai, serves authentic Thai favorites, including som tam papaya salad, chicken laab, and a range of delicious curries.

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.

Curiously, there are two Surf Bars under the same ownership within 100 meters of each other, and they are among the few businesses permitted on Quy Nhon Beach. The turquoise wooden chairs and string lights add a casual tropical feel, and either bar is a nice place to have drinks with your feet in the sand.

This West Lake institution serves some of the best, and best-value, Japanese food in Hanoi. The city has a sizeable community of Japanese expats, which means that this venue is reliably packed with homesick salarymen and women looking for an authentic taste of home.

This small Japanese restaurant has long been a Nha Trang favorite, so much so that they've opened a second location, the more refined Kiwami 2, but this place is still packed nightly. Expect to be elbow to elbow, and note that reservations are essential.

A pretty pink café specializing in cupcakes and macarons, Sweet and Sour supplies many cafés and restaurants around town. Sweet and Sour has a little dollhouse to keep kids happy and a Champagne menu to keep the parents happy. They also serve great coffee. Elaborate cakes can be ordered with a few days' notice if you'll be celebrating a special day while you're in Saigon.

In a tastefully restored former teahouse, this café-restaurant is the perfect place to unwind over a coffee and French pastry or a cold beer during a busy day of sightseeing. For people-watching grab a balcony table; for shady seclusion there's a quiet courtyard garden; and for rainy days there's a pool table and games room. Despite a promising dinner menu offering both French and Vietnamese delights, meals can be a bit disappointing.

Sample some of Ho Chi Minh City's best street food from the vendors at the front of Tan Dinh Market (Cho Tan Dinh). The bun rieu (noodle soup with rice paddy crab and tofu) and suon nuong (grilled pork) are especially recommended, as is che, the Vietnamese dessert-in-a-glass that's a popular afternoon snack. The vendors here have limited English but they are familiar with the fine art of point-and-order.

If it's hearty Western comfort food in a lively atmosphere you are after, there is no better place in Haiphong. All the staples you would expect, such as pizza, steak, chicken wings, tacos, ribs, and nachos, are present and correct. To please everyone, a few European favorites like fish-and-chips and some Vietnamese dishes are also featured on the extensive menu. They have other branches as well: TexGrill 2 at 111C, Van Cao, Ngo Quyen; TexGrill at BH03-23, Manhattan 10, Vinhomes Imperia; TexGrill at Lot T213 Aeon Mall Hai Phong.

Walk through a boutique shopping arcade and be transported to the streets of Bangkok with Thai Street’s kitschy yet fun decor (think tuk tuks and a pay stand dressed up like a money exchange booth) and its authentic Thai street food dishes. Overseen by a Thai chef from Isaan, the dishes are prepared on the spot, so spice levels can be adjusted as well as made into vegan and vegetarian versions. The presentation is purposefully no frills, but the flavors are bang on. The weekday combos are an especially good value.

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.

This vegetarian food stall is located right on the edge of Hue's Night Pedestrian Zone. This is the cheapest food stall in town with tasty plant-based dishes starting from 10,000d. It's overcrowded during full moon and new moon days (on the 14th, the 15th, the last and first day of each lunar month) when most of the Buddhist local people have vegetarian meals for religious purpose.

For an overpriced Vietnamese coffee, tea, or beer, you can sit at the water's edge and enjoy views of Xuan Huong Lake, which is pretty both in the daylight and at night.

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).

This bright and cheerful three-story modern café-restaurant has friendly service and a large menu of popular Western and European dishes and brunch classics, making it a solid pick whether you come for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

This two-story, open-air restaurant has been the go-to place for domestic tourists to Con Dao for years. Select from clearly priced fresh seafood that's costed by weight and cooked to order; there's also an extensive menu of reasonably priced Vietnamese dishes including rice, soups, vegetables, and seafood. The specialty is oc hoang hau (trumpet snails) in a spicy sate sauce.

This giant café, set in a replica open-air ancient house with a garden and man-made pond, is not a bad spot to enjoy one of the vast array of coffee drinks, and if you're peckish, desserts.

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.

Belly-filling fish-and-chips, pork pies, battered black pudding, beef and ale stew, with sides of mushy peas, curry sauce, and Scotch eggs—you can't get much more British than that. Union Jacks's Fish & Chips is a firm favorite with Saigon's expats seeking a taste of home (and curious locals) and some "kettle is always on" hospitality. The Sunday roasts are especially popular.

Uu Dam Chay elevates vegan food with fruity salads, interesting tofu dishes (try one of the stuffed varieties), and creative mocktails. The restaurant is huge, but bookings are still recommended.