The alley at 189 C\u1ed1ng Qu\u1ef3nh Street in central Ho Chi Minh City was a corner locals had long called \"Dog Meat Alley.\" That changed around the 2026 Tet (Lunar New Year): the roughly six dog-meat shops that once lined it have vanished, converting mainly to grilled goat and goat hotpot, along with pork and hotpot shops. For anyone traveling in Vietnam, this isn't just the story of a single alley. It's a record of a shift in values about what kind of food a city is known for, and at the same time an entry point to a new way to enjoy the city\u2014\"where to eat goat in Saigon.\" If you're unsure which shop to pick,The Vietnamese yardstick: judging a good shop by its share of locals<\/a>is helpful, but the change on this alley shows that the tastes of those very local customers have shifted.<\/p>\n What Dan Tri and Thanh Nien reported one after another in July was that the last dog-meat restaurant in the alley at No. 189 had closed, and dog-meat shops had vanished from the lane. Shops long synonymous with 'dog-meat alley' swapped out their menus one after another after Tet.<\/p>\n Tr\u01b0\u1eddng, an established shop of more than 30 years, has stopped serving dog meat and reinvented itself as \"Tr\u01b0\u1eddng 2,\" serving hotpot and grilled dishes. Xu\u00e2n B\u00ecnh, with more than 20 years of history, swapped its sign for \"D\u00ea quay H\u01b0\u01a1ng S\u01a1n (Huong Son grilled goat).\" Huong Son is a district in central Ha Tinh Province, a land known for raising goats. With the owner choosing his hometown's specialty for a new business, the trend of bringing hometown flavors into the cityThe food trend of gathering in Ho Chi Minh City for a regional bowl<\/a>overlaps with this as well.<\/p>\n Behind the switch, two forces work at once. One is the change in foot traffic. The owners say, \u201cTimes change. Nothing lasts forever\u201d and \u201cAmong the younger generation especially, dog meat is no longer supported,\u201d and, knowing they would lose regulars, they steered toward a different meat.<\/p>\n Another factor is a government push. Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has discussed a roadmap goal of phasing out dog- and cat-meat sales by 2030, and that trend has also encouraged shops to switch trades. On the public side, a 2023 survey made the decline in support for eating dog meat clear. The sight of city residents saying they've 'come to see dogs as pets, as family' is of a piece with a pet-keeping culture spreading fast in urban areas.<\/p>\n Lay out how the lineup along the alley has changed and the speed of the shift comes through clearly.<\/p>\nThe day the last shop in dog-meat alley changed its sign<\/h2>\n
\u201cDogs are family\u201d\u2014values that changed the street\u2019s scenery<\/h2>\n
The \"Alley's\" Change, by the Numbers<\/h2>\n