Vietnam's largest tourist city, Ho Chi Minh City, is atreasure trove of food.
Under the strong sunshine typical of perpetually summery Southeast Asia, streets where motorbikes never stop running are lined with people eating while perched on small plastic stools.
Meanwhile, the towering high-rises house upscale restaurants, and on their rooftops, sophisticated rooftop bars welcome guests. At their feet, old-school eateries do business, and a few meters down a side lane sit food stalls towed by motorbike — a city where old and new mix together, that's Ho Chi Minh City.
・What kinds of places make up Ho Chi Minh City's dining scene
・Never go wrong! Our 4 recommended Vietnamese eateries
・Practical tips and etiquette for eating out in Ho Chi Minh City
・How to spot a good place to eat
Styles of eateries
Dining spots in this city fall broadly intostreet stalls, eateries, and restaurants— three categories.
| Characteristics | Menu | Price range | |
| 1. Street stalls (roadside vendors) | Either takeaway-only, or with simple chairs and tables set out on the street | Snacks, Bánh Mì, simple noodle dishes, and the like | Around 150 to 350 yen |
| 2. Eateries | Often small, open-air, semi-outdoor places | Casual Vietnamese diners, drinking spots, and so on | Around 500 to 2,500 yen |
| 3. Restaurants | Indoors with proper air conditioning | Regional specialties and upscale Vietnamese cuisine, and the like | Around 2,500 to 10,000 yen |
1. Street stalls (roadside vendors)
In a style that's simply chairs and tables set out on the street,they appear at each of the morning, midday, and evening mealtimes.
Long-running famous spots do show up on Google Maps, but most aren't listed.
And since they basically operate on a sell-out basis, once they run out of ingredients they close and are gone.
2. Eateries
With an atmosphere like a Japanese casual diner,many are single-dish specialists, such as set-meal places or noodle shops.
There are breakfast specialists open from early morning, and at popular places the crowd often won't fit inside, so they frequently spill out and do business on the street.
By night they transform into drinking spots! Places where the cheerful voices of locals ring out.
3. Restaurants
are much the same as in Japan. Inside the air-conditioned space, the menu lines up plenty of dishes.
Being an international city, many of the staff are used to tourists, so they're easy to visit.
For Vietnamese people,a restaurant has the image of an upscale place to use on special occasions, and they're sometimes hosting parties for birthdays and the like.
Many places also have menus in English and Japanese
Compared with Japan, prices are roughlyhalf, or at most two-thirds.
The more local you go, the more you'll be amazed at how cheap it is.
Compared with Japan, Vietnam is a country where people eat out far more often.
There are many dual-income households, and because of housing conditions plenty of people have no kitchen at home, so eating out for every meal rather than cooking has taken root as part of the culture.
As a result, the range of meal prices is well stocked, from the very bottom to the very top.
PHO QUYNH, the pho restaurant that never sleeps
Located on Pham Ngu Lao Street, where backpacker hotels cluster,it's a popular spot open 24 hours.
. Beyond choosing from many kinds of pho at about 500 yen a bowl, you can order a simple breakfast of just a fried egg and bread for 180 yen — an oasis of a place for travelers.
The popular dish isPhở Bò Kho, a beef stew served with pho.
Though it's called a stew, it isn't as thick as the Japanese kind — it's a smooth, light broth.
Fall-apart-tender braised beef and the aroma of herbs that hints at Western cooking make it a distinctly Vietnamese dish evoking the era of French rule.
We recommend ordering bò kho with a bread set instead of pho!
Dip the bread in the broth and you'll find you can eat any number of pieces of the light bread.
You can also order extra bread on its own, so getting some after eating your pho is a nice idea, too.
