{"id":5110,"date":"2026-09-15T20:02:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T11:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/?post_type=news&p=5110"},"modified":"2026-09-29T23:34:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:34:55","slug":"thuykhue-banh-cuon","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/news\/thuykhue-banh-cuon\/","title":{"rendered":"An 86-Yen Plate of Banh Cuon in a Hanoi Alley, Kept Alive by a Couple for 70 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thuy Khue Street, near West Lake in central Hanoi, walk about 50 meters down the alley at No. 29 and you\u2019ll find a small stall with steam rising from a white steaming cloth. The banh cuon (a Vietnamese-style crepe made from thin steamed rice flour) served here costs 15,000 dong a plate \u2014 about 86 yen. While the same dish nearby runs around 30,000 dong (about 171 yen), you can get breakfast here for half that. As VnExpress reported, what draws people to this couple\u2019s shop isn\u2019t the price itself so much as the fact that they\u2019ve kept it unchanged for 70 years. It\u2019s a useful pick for Japanese visitors staying in Hanoi who want to experience a local morning at non-tourist prices.<\/p>\n

\"\u30cf\u30ce\u30a4\u306e\u8def\u5730\u3067\u84b8\u3057\u5e03\u304b\u3089\u8584\u3044\u30d0\u30a4\u30f3\u30af\u30aa\u30f3\u306e\u751f\u5730\u3092\u7af9\u68d2\u3067\u3059\u304f\u3046\u5973\u6027\"<\/figure>\n

A couple run separate stalls deep in the alley at No. 29<\/h2>\n

Running the shop are Nguy\u1ec5n Th\u1ecb Thu H\u00e0 (61), who steams the batter at the entrance of the alley, and her husband Ph\u1ea1m V\u0103n Chinh (65), who mans a second stall more than 100 meters away. Though it\u2019s a single family business, the couple takes the unusual approach of each making the same banh cuon at a separate location. The aim is to spread out the morning crowd and catch regulars at both ends of the alley.<\/p>\n

H\u00e0 stretches a white cloth over a pot of boiling water and spreads a thin layer of rice flour batter mixed with water over it. After the batter steams for a few dozen seconds, she lifts it off with a bamboo stick and rolls it around pork stir-fried with wood ear mushroom. She also makes the fried shallots herself. Every step is done by hand, giving a thinness in the finished product that mechanized, mass-production shops can\u2019t match.<\/p>\n

15,000 dong, barely changed in 70 years<\/h2>\n

This stall\u2019s origins go back to the 1950s. It was first opened by Chinh\u2019s mother, and the couple took over the business in the mid-1980s. Counting from the mother\u2019s generation, that\u2019s about 70 years of history; even counting only the couple\u2019s own run, it\u2019s nearly 40 years. Hanoi\u2019s prices have risen many times over during that span, but the price per plate has only crept up very gradually.<\/p>\n

The foundation of the low price is a family-run operation with no labor costs and minimal, self-managed sourcing. Banh cuon alone costs 15,000 dong, and the side of meatballs (ch\u1ea3) costs 5,000 dong (about 29 yen). A dish that would run tens of thousands of dong per serving at a tourist-oriented shop is kept at a price local office workers can afford to stop by for every morning. They wake before dawn at 4 a.m. to start prepping, and the stall is open from 6 a.m. until 11 a.m. or noon. The busiest time is 7 to 8:30 a.m., when regulars stop by one after another on their way to work.<\/p>\n

How cheap this plate is, compared with the going rate nearby<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s where the price stands, alongside a rough yen conversion. As of September 2026, the exchange rate used is approximately 1 yen = 175 dong, or 10,000 dong \u2248 57 yen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>\nPrice (dong)<\/th>\nYen guide<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
This shop\u2019s banh cuon<\/td>\n15,000<\/td>\nAbout 86 yen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Side of ch\u1ea3 (meatballs)<\/td>\n5,000<\/td>\nAbout 29 yen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Average going rate for the same dish in Hanoi<\/td>\nAbout 30,000<\/td>\nAbout 171 yen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hours<\/td>\n6 a.m.\u201311 a.m. or noon (busiest 7\u20138:30 a.m.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Share of regulars<\/td>\nAbout 70% of customers have been coming for decades<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Lining up the numbers shows this plate sits at half the going rate, while still involving the labor of hand-steaming each portion. The low price isn\u2019t a compromise on quality \u2014 it\u2019s made possible by the family handling every step of the process themselves.<\/p>\n

A 4.7 rating on Google, yet still described as \u2018cramped\u2019<\/h2>\n

Reviews of the shop are mixed. On Google it scores a high 4.7 out of 5, with many comments noting the quality relative to the price. Customers who\u2019ve been coming for decades make up about 70% of visitors, and trust in the taste and price has built a base of loyal regulars.<\/p>\n

At the same time, because it\u2019s a stall tucked deep in an alley, seating is cramped and the chairs are simple ones lined up on the street. Comments about the space feeling cramped remain. It\u2019s not suited for travelers expecting a clean interior or air conditioning. What happens here is a relationship where people satisfied with the taste and price just keep quietly coming back \u2014 this isn\u2019t a shop selling comfort. Knowing this gap in expectations ahead of time will save travelers from being caught off guard by this back-alley breakfast.<\/p>\n

How travelers can find their own go-to spot<\/h2>\n

What this shop demonstrates is a way to spot a satisfying breakfast in Hanoi. Lining up at a famous shop listed in a travel guide is one option, but alleys where local office workers stop by before heading to work still have shops that strike a good balance between price and taste. You can narrow the judgment down to three factors.<\/p>\n

First, are seats turning over with local customers between 7 and 8 a.m.? Second, is the batter being hand-steamed on the spot, or is it pre-made and reheated? Third, does the price fall within the local range (10,000\u201320,000-something dong) rather than the tourist range (tens of thousands of dong)? Hanoi\u2019s breakfast culture runs deep not only in pho and banh mi but in stalls like this one serving banh cuon. Visiting both the famous shops with lines and the alley shops that have blended into local life reveals the full range of food this city has to offer.<\/p>\n

In a Vietnam where prices keep rising and both ingredients and utility costs are climbing, keeping the price unchanged is a tightrope walk for the business. Even so, the reason the couple sticks to this price is probably that their long relationship with regulars forms the foundation of their sales. For travelers, it\u2019s an experience of being let in on that foundation, just once.<\/p>\n

When to visit, and how to find your way down the alley<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re visiting, go around 9 a.m. when the crowds ease up, or between 7 and 8 a.m. if you want to experience the liveliness. The location is about 50 meters down the alley at No. 29 Thuy Khue Street. Since the couple run two stalls, if you don\u2019t find one at the entrance, there\u2019s another further down the alley. Cash is the safest bet for payment, and having 10,000-dong and 5,000-dong notes ready makes checkout smoother. In Vietnam, motorbikes line the sidewalks along morning alleys, so it\u2019s safer to carry your bag in front of you as you walk.<\/p>\n

For those who want to dig further into Hanoi\u2019s breakfast scene, an article touring famous pho shops (Hanoi pho: lines stretched outside historic and Michelin-listed shops on National Day morning<\/a>) and a story about someone who took over the family food business (A 3-time-Michelin eel glass noodle shop taken over by a daughter who closed her US nail salon<\/a>) are also worth reading to get a sense of this city\u2019s food depth. If you want to compare the price gap between street stalls and shops with lines,A 2030-yen hot-plate banh mi in Saigon, 6 to 10 times the street price, still draws a line<\/a>that\u2019s another useful reference.<\/p>\n

Next time you wake up to a morning in Hanoi, consider skipping the hotel buffet and walking down to this alley instead. That 86-yen plate offers, beyond its price, a breakfast that lets you taste the time of someone who has put down long roots in this city.<\/p>\n

Sources: VnExpress\u300cH\u00e0ng b\u00e1nh cu\u1ed1n ‘v\u1ee3 ch\u1ed3ng’ b\u00e1n gi\u00e1 15.000 \u0111\u1ed3ng trong ng\u00f5 \u1edf H\u00e0 N\u1ed9i\u300d<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple\u2019s stall down an alley on Thuy Khue Street in Hanoi has kept serving banh cuon at 15,000 dong (about 86 yen) a plate. Here\u2019s the story behind the price, plus practical tips for travelers looking for their own breakfast spot.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"swell_btn_cv_data":"","ssp_meta_description":"\u30cf\u30ce\u30a4\u30fb\u30c8\u30a5\u30a4\u30af\u30a8\u306e\u8def\u5730\u3067\u30d0\u30a4\u30f3\u30af\u30aa\u30f3\u3092\u4e00\u76bf15,000\u30c9\u30f3(\u7d0486\u5186)\u3067\u51fa\u3057\u7d9a\u3051\u308b\u592b\u5a66\u306e\u5e97\u3002\u5024\u6bb5\u306e\u80cc\u666f\u3068\u3001\u65c5\u884c\u8005\u304c\u671d\u98df\u306e\u884c\u304d\u3064\u3051\u3092\u898b\u3064\u3051\u308b\u5b9f\u7528\u60c5\u5831\u3092\u307e\u3068\u3081\u305f\u3002","ssp_meta_keyword":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[426,19],"tags":[1082,574,22,960,610],"purpose":[],"keyword":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-5110","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gourmet","category-news","tag-1082","tag-574","tag-hanoi","tag-960","tag-610"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/5110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5110"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/5110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6116,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/5110\/revisions\/6116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5110"},{"taxonomy":"purpose","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purpose?post=5110"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=5110"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=5110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}