Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [26]
Throughout the Guide we’ve given phone numbers for those restaurants where it’s advisable to make reservations. While most eating establishments stay open throughout the year, some close over Tet (see "Festivals and religious events" for more on Tet). The Vietnamese eat early: outside the major cities and tourist areas, food stalls and street kitchens rarely stay open beyond 8pm and may close even earlier, though they do stay open later in the south, especially in Ho Chi Minh City. You’ll need to brush up your chopstick-handling skills, too, although other utensils are always available in places frequented by tourists – in Western-style restaurants you won’t be expected to tackle your steak-frites with chopsticks.
When it comes to paying, the normal sign language will be readily understood in most restaurants. In street kitchens you pay as you leave – either proffer a few thousand dong to signal your intentions, or ask bao nhieu tien? (“how much is it?”).
Eating and drinking | Where to eat |
Street kitchens
Street kitchens range from makeshift food stalls, set up on the street round a cluster of pint-size stools, to eating houses where, as often as not, the cooking is still done on the street but you either sit in an open-fronted dining area or join the overspill outside. Like the food stall, these streetside restaurants offer few concessions to comfort, but they are permanent, with an address if not a name, and serve basic meals for next to nothing. Some places stay open all day (7am–8pm), while many close once they’ve run out of ingredients and others only open at lunchtime (10.30am–2pm). To be sure of the widest choice and freshest food, it pays to get there early (as early as 11.30am at lunchtime, and by 7pm in the evening), and note that the best places will be packed around noon.
Most specialize in one type of food, generally indicated on a signboard, or offer the ubiquitous com and pho rice dishes and noodle soups. Com binh dan, “people’s meals”, are also popular. Here you select from an array of prepared dishes displayed in a glass cabinet or on a buffet table, piling your plate with such things as stuffed tomatoes, fried fish, tofu, pickles or eggs, plus a helping of rice; expect to pay from around 20,000đ for a good plateful. Though it’s not a major problem at these prices, some street kitchens overcharge, so double-check when ordering.
While regular restaurants in Vietnam are definitely improving, the food served at many street kitchens is often superior in quality and much cheaper; they’re also a lot more fun. All you need is a bit of judicious selection – look for clean places with a fast turnover, where the ingredients are obviously fresh – plus a smattering of basic vocabulary (see "Eating and drinking").
In a similar vein to street kitchens are bia hoi outlets. Though these are primarily drinking establishments, many provide good-value snacks or even main meals (see "Bia hoi know-how" for more on bia hoi).
For more on street food, (See "Vietnamese street food").
Eating and drinking | Where to eat |
Restaurants
If you’re after more relaxed dining, where people aren’t queuing for your seat, then head for a Western-style Vietnamese restaurant (nha hang), which will have chairs rather than stools, a name, a menu and will often be closed to the street. In general these places serve a more varied selection of Vietnamese dishes than the street kitchens, plus a smattering of international – generally European – dishes.
Menus at this level don’t always show prices, and overcharging is a regular problem, making for tedious ordering as you check the cost of each dish or risk an astronomical bill at the end. Another thing to watch out for are the extras: peanuts, hot towels and packs of tissues on the table may be added to the bill even if untouched; ask for them to be taken away if you don’t want them, and check the bill carefully. A modest meal for two should cost roughly 130,000