Top Authentic Foods & Drinks to Taste in Hanoi

Vietnamese cuisine is more and more popular in the world as it mixes together a range of flavor and taste. To help you discover unique Vietnamese dishes and drinks, we have picked an essential Vietnam foods and drinks list you should not miss in Hanoi.

Top 6 Best Foods in Hanoi

Bun Cha – Barbecued Pork with Rice Vermicelli

It comes as a surprise to taste Bun Cha – one of the best Hanoi food. The dish is the main combination of grilled pork strips, ball, and rice vermicelli noodles. Accompanying the main ingredients in a bowl of dipping sauce made of fish sauce, vinegar, sugar, and lime. Especially, you can enjoy this amazing dish with optional herbs such as lettuce, purple basil, coriander, sliced green papaya, chili, garlic, etc. One of many good spots for Bun cha I recommend is Dac Kim which is at 1 Hang Manh Street in Hanoi.

Banh Cuon – Steamed Rice Rolls

It is a delicate and light dish usually served for breakfast in Vietnam. Banh Cuon is made of a thin rice sheet rolled and filled with a mixture of ground pork meat, shrimps, onions, various mushrooms, etc. It tastes the best when accompanied by a delicious sauce. The fish sauce is packed with a bit vinegar, kumquat, sugar, warm water, and chili. Biting one piece will promote you to taste more! The most well-known restaurant for the dish is Banh Cuon Gia Truyen at 14 Hang Ga Street in Hanoi.

Pho – Vietnam Traditional Food

Despite its outward simplicity, Pho is still international recognizable Vietnamese dishes with a complex arrangement of flavors and textures. Its ingredients are a white rice noodle and thin slices of beef or chicken, accompanied with some herbs. However, the key to make it the best is the broth which is sweet and aromatic. On a visit to Pho, you should not resist the delicious taste of Pho Ga (chicken) and Pho bo (beef) at 10 Ly Quoc Su in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Banh Mi – Vietnamese Sandwich

Anyone tasting Banh Mi will fall in love with it. Its origin is from French, but the Vietnamese have made it distinctive on our own. The sandwich is stuffed with pork, pâté, and Vietnamese herbs such as cucumber, carrot, radish, and coriander. Once biting, you will be impressed by all spicy, salty, sour, savory, sweet, and aromatic tastes. You can taste Banh mi at banh mi P at 12 Hang Buom Street in Hanoi.

Banh Xeo – Crispy Pancake

Banh xeo made of rice flour, coconut milk, and turmeric is full of vermicelli noodles, chicken, pork or beef slices, shrimps, bean sprouts, and mushrooms. Enjoy the food like a local by wrapping it in mustard leaf, lettuce leaves, lemongrass pork skewers, and basil before dipping in fermented peanut sauce. To taste the dish which the Vietnam youth is so addicted to, I truly recommend you should try the dish at 89 Nguyen Khuyen Street in Hanoi.

Xoi Xeo – Sweet Sticky Rice

Taste xoi xeo – a sweet-savory Vietnamese snack made from glutinous or sweet rice. It is blended with a great variety of beans and then topped with chopped peanuts, shredded coconut, and fried onions for a savory taste. Bite one piece, you will feel like tasting the whole flavor of our pastoral country. Local people always enjoy the street dish in the morning. You can try the dish along Hang Bai Street in Hanoi.

Top 5 Best Drinks in Hanoi

Sugar Cane Juice

This is a popular drink sold every street in the Old Quarter, especially near universities, schools, and markets. It is usually mixed with a sour flavor of lemon, which makes it more delectable. Travel in a hot day, you should sip some few sugar cane juice to get cooler.

Fresh Coconut

In Vietnam, you will not find coconut milk packaged like the ones in grocery stores. You can taste fresh coconut which vendors will chop off outer green hush, keep the small white inner shell, and chop a small hole on the top for a straw. Normally smaller coconuts get sweeter than larger ones. You can meet vendors who sell fresh coconut along the street in the Old Quarter.

Coffee

Never leave Vietnam without tasting some kinds of coffee which local people cannot resist the temptation. There is a wide variety of coffee in Vietnam such as iced black coffee, iced coffee with condensed milk, egg coffee, etc. Enjoy some few sips of coffee in the antique atmosphere at Giang Coffee or Cong coffee, bringing you the greatest favor of coffee.

Fruit Smoothie

Taste fruit smoothie in Hanoi as the best choice for the refresher. It is a combination of fresh fruit (dragonfruit, custard apple, jackfruit, orange, strawberry, etc), ice, and condensed milk or yogurt. Depend your favorite fruit to choose what kinds of smoothies you want to try. It is sold everywhere along the streets or restaurants in Vietnam.

Bia Hoi – Hanoi Beer

It is a big mistake when you forget to try “bia hoi” – the cheapest one in the world in Ta Hien Street, which is regarded as a never-sleep street in Hanoi. Take a sip of the freshest beer at the corner of the Ta Hien Street, enjoy the bustling atmosphere in Hanoi at night, making your holiday more meaningful and memorable than ever.