Hanoi Food Tour Review: 6+ Local & Vietnamese Specialties
7 min read“I am SO stuffed,” I exclaimed, placing a sweaty hand on my tummy and leaning back in my chair. I didn’t quite realize how much food we would eat when...
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“I am SO stuffed,” I exclaimed, placing a sweaty hand on my tummy and leaning back in my chair.
I didn’t quite realize how much food we would eat when we signed up for a food tour in Hanoi.
But this experience became one of our favorite memories of Hanoi, with a phone full of photos and videos of Hanoian and Vietnamese dishes to show for it.
No matter how long you’re in Hanoi, doing a food tour is a must!
On a Hanoi food tour, you’ll simultaneously learn about Vietnamese (and particularly Hanoian) cuisine while seeing (and participating in) how the locals eat.
We learned so much from our 4-hour food/walking tour that went above and beyond just names and locations of food.
Read more below for details on each dish, plus the exact locations of where we went on our guided food tour.
6 Vietnamese Dishes on Our Hanoi Street Food Tour
- Bún chả — barbecued pork and meatballs with fermented rice noodles
- + nem cua bể — crab spring roll
- Bánh cuốn nóng — steamed rice pancakes
- Bánh xèo – fried, sizzling pancakes!
- + nước mía — sugar cane juice
- miến lươn xào — stir-fried noodles with crispy eel
- Hoa qua dam kem — mixed fruits with coconut ice cream
- Cafe Trung — egg coffee!
Bún chả (Barbecued pork and fermented noodles)
- 📍 59 Hang Ma
It’s tangy. It’s sweet. It’s smoky. It’s bun cha!
Bun cha for breakfast, anyone? That’s how the locals do it, and precisely what we did, too.
Bun cha is a loaded bowl of barbecued pork, pork meatballs, fermented rice noodles, and herbs, all to be enjoyed in a sour, sweet broth.
It was the first dish we tried on our tour (at 11:00 am), and it became one of my favorites.
You can add as many herbs as you like to your bowl, but I opted out as they are a bit strong for me!
Minh added a spoonful of pickled minced garlic to my broth, which I discovered was the secret ingredient to unlocking the full flavors of bun cha.
Paired with our bun cha was a side dish of nem cua bể—fried crab spring rolls. In Hanoi, seafood is more common in Vietnamese dishes than usual, so the cuisine here often features shrimp, eel, clams, squid, crab, or other seafood.
The crab spring rolls had a unique flavor and paired well with the bun cha!
Bánh cuốn nóng (Steamed rice sheet rolls)
- 📍 12 Hang Ga
Banh cuon nong are steamed, rolled rice sheet “pancakes” typically stuffed with ground pork and wood-ear mushrooms.
Walking around Hanoi, you often see banh cuon being cooked on the street. Just look for the steam escaping the shopfront! The rice paper sheet batter is poured, spread, and then steamed over a boiling pot of water.
After filling it with ingredients, it’s rolled like a crêpe and topped with cilantro and fried onions. Ours came topped with shrimp “dust!”
The texture of banh cuon is unlike any other dish we tried; it is a bit glutinous but silky and buttery and makes for a tasty, savory snack.
Of course, like many Vietnamese specialties, banh cuon is served with a side of nuoc mam—a dipping sauce made of fish sauce, lime, sugar, and water.
Luckily, banh cuon is not as filling as bun cha, but it is another staple breakfast dish in Hanoi!
Bánh xèo (Sizzling, fried “pancakes”)
- 📍 79 Hang Dieu
An easy way to remember this next Hanoian specialty is to compare it with banh cuon. Banh cuon are the small, rolled, steamed rice pancakes while banh xeo are the large, folded, fried pancakes made of turmeric, rice batter, egg, scallions, and coconut!
Whereas bang cuon is the “light” snack, banh xeo is not for the “light-hearted”—this oversized pancake is exceptionally oily, crispy, and jam-packed with heavy ingredients such as pork and shrimp.
Maybe that’s why it’s so good!?
Instead of being rolled, this gigantic pancake gets folded over like an omelet and sizzles until extra-crispy. Ordering just one per group of four is recommended, as these things are enormous!
Once at your table, you can take lettuce/herbs and a sheet of uncooked rice paper and wrap it around a portion of the hot banh xeo for easy dipping in the sauce.
Near here, you can always try freshly pressed sugar cane juice (nuoc mia) across the street at 77 Hang Dieu.
Miến lươn xào (Stir-fry glass noodles with eel)
- 📍 10 Lý Quốc Sư
Our collective favorite dish to try was this one—mien luon xao! Or, stir-fried glass noodles with crispy bits of eel. Yes, eel!
I was hesitant at first, too, but once you try it, you’ll quickly become addicted. This dish is surprisingly light even though it’s stir-fried, thanks to the airy glass noodles.
The locals eat mien luon xao with a squeeze of tiny lime and chili oil.
Hoa qua dam kem (Coconut ice cream with fruit)
- To Tich street
Coconut ice cream with chunks of fresh fruit? That’s hoa qua dam kem!
In fact, it’s more than just coconut ice cream. The Vietnamese love to put condensed milk in everything and this sweet treat is no different!
The fruits of this ice cream include watermelon, jackfruit, papaya, strawberry, and mango, and you might even find some clear jellies in the mix.
The dessert was honestly not my favorite (but I’m not a huge dessert person, anyway). However, the cute atmosphere made this stop memorable, with its tiny plastic stools and small tables. Very Vietnamese-like!
Cà Phê Trứng (Egg coffee)
- 📍 13 Dinh Tien Hoang
Last but not least, a must-try in Hanoi is egg coffee!
Ca phe trung is one of the most popular dishes of Hanoi (and even across Vietnam), but did you know that egg coffee was born in Hanoi?
We climbed up to the 2nd floor of the founder’s cafe, Cafe Dinh, located right beside Hoan Kiem Lake, to try this famous drink, which didn’t disappoint.
So, what exactly is egg coffee? It’s not what you think!
Egg coffee is made from Vietnamese robusta coffee, topped with a very sweet and fluffy whipped mixture of egg yolk, condensed milk, and sugar.
It tastes more like a dessert with a dash of coffee than coffee with an egg, in my opinion. 😅
Finishing the tour with this specialty was perfect, though, since we could have an afternoon coffee before continuing our day by visiting the lake and Hanoi’s Old Quarter.
Where to Book Your Hanoi Food Tour
We booked our food tour with Minh on Airbnb and had a wonderful time!
She met us near our accommodation in the Old Quarter, and off we went on foot to our first Hanoi food location.
Minh was extremely friendly and laid-back and enthusiastically answered all of our questions! 😊
If you’d like to book with Minh, she runs two daily tours and alternates the itinerary for each group. Note that some locations may vary from this itinerary.
Other food tours in Hanoi we were looking at booking are available on GetYourGuide, Viator, and WithLocals.
I can’t speak from firsthand experience what these tours were like, but I checked several listings beforehand and would love to go back and try different tours to discover even more dishes and places I didn’t know about!
What to Know Before Doing a Food Tour in Hanoi
Here are some quick take-away tips if it’s your first time doing a food tour.
Here’s what to plan and keep in mind!
🍲 Book a food tour on your first or second day in Hanoi: This way, you can have ample time to visit other recommended eateries and places your tour guide will tell you about! See below for the recommendations Minh gave us.
💵 Take cash: Tours are all-inclusive of food prices, but if you want to stop and get something extra (or leave your guide a tip!), pack a little extra cash.
🌿 Vegetarian options: Vietnamese cuisine is heavily meat or seafood-based, but alternative options on most tours are available. Just ask your guide before booking!
🍚 Opt to share: If you are a small eater, a food tour might overwhelm your stomach (like mine!). Instead of taking one portion for yourself at each pitstop, ask to share with a friend.
More Food & Places to Eat in Hanoi
A well-guided food tour will be slow-paced enough so that you can enjoy, digest, and have flexibility.
You won’t get to try everything in Hanoi, so there’s still much to discover after your tour.
Our guide, Minh, sent us her local recommendations so we could enjoy them throughout the rest of our trip.
- Net Hue Restaurant – 198 Hang Bong
- Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) – 61 Đinh Tiên Hoang
- Bun Bo Hue (specialty beef noodle soup from Hue) – 60 Bat Dan
- Duong’s Restaurant – 101 Ma May
- Bun Bo Nam bộ (beef noodle salad) – 75 Hang Dieu
I’ll add Banh Mi 25 to that list, as well! This was a yummy (and famous) spot in Hanoi for banh mi (baguette sandwich with barbecued pork and pate).
PS. Another place to eat in Hanoi, even though it’s not a Vietnamese specialty, is iVegan. Whether you’re vegan/vegetarian or not, it’s a great spot for health food and views in Hanoi’s Old Quarter.
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