20 Best Restaurants in The South-Central Coasts and Highlands, Vietnam

This hip café would compete with the best in Ho Chi Minh City for both their passion for coffee and quality of arabica beans, which they roast in house—they even have a menu of beans from around the world. Though they do still offer Vietnamese phin filter robusta, this is the place to get your European-style coffee fix.

Banh xeo is a great example of how regional Vietnamese food is. These fried savory rice pancakes are a staple in Vietnam, but Binh Dinh Province's version are small, thin, crisp, and topped with fresh shrimp (beef, egg, or squid are also available). To eat, cut it up and wrap it in rice paper with herbs, lettuce, and green mango, then dunk it in some chili-lime-fish sauce and tuck in. It's mesmerizing to watch one woman manage a dozen pans over flames.

A quirky, fun little coffee shop serving coffee as well as tea, smoothies, and beer, Bicycle Up is a great place to hang out and recharge with a book or gawk at all the wondrous retro treasures.

This clean, cheap, cheerful joint serves a delicious bun cha Hanoi, rice vermicelli and fresh herbs you plunge into a brothy dipping sauce with little pork meatballs. Be sure to get bun cha nem truyen thong, which comes with a fried spring roll and charcoal grilled pork.

Opened in 1995, Banh Xeo Cay Phuong only serves Central Vietnam–style banh xeo (sizzling pancakes), meaning they are smaller and have less filling than southern-style ones. A default order at this local family-run shop is four palm-size pancakes, but you can order as many as you like for 10,000d each. Notice the original sign hand-painted in classic South Vietnamese typescript.

Kind service, a calm setting, and a big menu of simple plant-based dishes (including grab-and-go meat-free banh mi Vietnamese baguette sandwiches) are reasons to come to this vegan restaurant.

A baguette and home-cooked bo kho, a slow-cooked beef stew with obvious French influences, is the perfect breakfast for Dalat’s spring-like morning temperatures, and this shop of only four tables serves delicious bowls fragrant with cinnamon, star anise, and lemongrass. The shop is open until she sells out.

One of the most popular com binh dan (canteens) in town, Com Sau Thu has been making locals happy with their economical fare for over a decade. The husband and wife Sau and Thu have another shop, but locals agree the original one at this address remains the best. The daily options are displayed in a glass case at the front of the restaurant, so just point to what you want and then take a seat. Vietnamese usually eat family-style, ordering one meat dish, two vegetable dishes, and a soup, all placed in the middle of the table and shared. There's no need to order rice because it comes automatically.

Dalat's night market is famous within Vietnam, and evenings here soaking up the energy of all the happy tourists is a must. The market sprawls down an enormous staircase to the roundabout and down Nguyen Thi Minh Khai to the lake. Try Dalat "pizza," banh trang nuong, rice paper mounted with toppings and grilled over hot coals. Look for mobile vendors selling hot silky tofu in sweet ginger syrup, grilled corn, and kem bo (avocado mousse ice cream), 

A beautiful, restful garden café filled with tribal wood carvings, antique gongs, and art installations, this is the place to come for excellent coffee, sweet egg coffee (a Hanoi specialty of whipped egg yolk and coffee), and fruit shakes. The English-speaking owner, Mr. An, is a fountain of knowledge about the local area and can organize multiday treks or tours through nearby ethnic minority villages.

This bright, modern, clean restaurant serves flavorful Asian plant-based dishes, from noodle soups and tasty stir-fry, to rice dishes with soy-based "meat" and vegetable tempura. They have menus in English to boot.

This stunning café was designed by international-award-winning Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia, who specializes in structures made completely out of bamboo. Part of the Indochine Hotel, it's a local drinks-and-ice cream spot overlooking the Dak Bla River, with soaring inverted cone-shaped bamboo columns and many peaceful fish ponds.

This artsy little café fits right into the vibe of the street art alley it inhabits, and the owner-barista Huy crafts each cup of specialty egg coffee (hot coffee whipped with egg yolks, sugar, and condensed milk) with care.

Located a few steps from the beach, this Japanese-inspired café is a great place to refresh with a coffee, matcha, or a drink with house-made rice milk, joined by youth who use the space as a backdrop for kawaii photos. The café rents yukata robes to dress up in.

This basic metal-tables-and-chairs joint serves nem nuong (grilled pork sausage) with platters of rice paper, herbs, pickled vegetables, fried wonton wrappers (for crunch), fresh rice noodle, and other fixings, all to be rolled together and dipped into a pork-and-peanut sauce.

Qui Nhon's "food street" is short but packed with dozens of stands that come alive in the evening. Join Vietnamese tourists on plastic stools having snacks and desserts.

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.

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 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.

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.