15 Best Restaurants in Hanoi, Vietnam

This simple eatery compensates for its lack of sophistication with giant-size portions of the delicate banh cuon, steamed rice rolls stuffed with ground pork and chopped wood-ear mushrooms. Watch the resident cooks painstakingly roll out their sheets of rice noodle and spoon on the filling and feel your mouth start to water. There are three options: chicken, pork, or shrimp and pork. All three are worth trying.

This venue is spotlessly clean, and despite its popularity with tourists is still very much the real deal. Like all the best restaurants purveying local favorites, this place specializes in one dish only: bun bo nam bo (a southern beef and noodle dish). Translated as "southern style rice noodles with beef," this mixture of vermicelli noodles, beef, lettuce, cucumber, shallots, bean sprouts, cilantro, and chopped peanuts is more commonly found in Ho Chi Minh City. Be sure to mix the concoction thoroughly with your chopsticks to experience the alchemy created by the small serving of broth-drenched greens at the base of the bowl.

Serving countryside dishes with a refreshing modern twist, Luk Lak is a welcome addition to Hanoi's dining scene. Many of the dishes are head chef Madame Binh's take on recipes from a particular part of the country, such as the ga nuong Tu Le (grilled chicken with sticky rice from Yen Bai Province) and tom xoc toi Quang Tri (prawn with lemongrass and chili from Quang Tri Province). The minimalist design with flashes of Hanoi's colonial heritage serves to enhance an already exceptional dining experience.

When it comes to street food, Hanoians don't go in for much ostentation and the eating area here is decidedly prosaic; just a few communal tables under a couple of bare lightbulbs. What matters is the expertly judged broth, the light rice noodles, and the delicious meat, which is peeled in strips from hulking slabs of brisket then dunked in the broth for seconds to cook. Don't worry too much about identifying the restaurant: you'll recognize it from the long lines of people waiting outside.

Drawing crowds with enormous servings of bun cha (grilled pork with rice vermicelli), Bun Cha 34 does not fail to deliver good quality bowls for a mere 40,000d per dish. Customers rave over the charred pork and fragrant herbs. You can also order a serving of fried spring rolls on the side. Be prepared for a street food experience, as the tiny tables and chairs regularly spill out onto the sidewalk.

Bun Cha Huong Lien has wholeheartedly embraced the alias Bun Cha Obama since 2016, when the erstwhile president visited Hanoi and dined here with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. The bun cha (grilled pork and rice vermicelli noodles) and nem hai san (seafood spring rolls) are decent, but it's worth visiting just for the photography documenting the occasion. It's plastered all over the eatery.

Serving high-quality northern Vietnamese food to a loyal following of locals (and the occasional tourist from the attached De Syloia Hotel), Cay Cau has a broad menu of meat, fish, and vegetable dishes. The tofu is particularly tasty.

This restaurant has plenty of gluten-free options and specializes in cooking classes. They operate two farms near Hanoi and grow most of their own food. They have a special vegetarian menu, and the setting is cozy, with exposed brick and bamboo furnishings. It's a nice place to sit down and enjoy a break from the frenetic pace outside.

Colloquially known as "Chicken Street," this is the place to come for delicious barbecued poultry served right off the street. The street is lined with vendors working near-identical alchemy with a limited menu of grilled chicken wings, legs, and feet; sweet potatoes; and bread that's been brushed with honey before being toasted. The resulting dish is served with chili sauce and pickled cucumbers in sweet vinegar and washed down with icy bottles of local beer.

Aimed more at tourists than at local clientele, this restaurant within a renovated French villa provides a good introduction to Vietnamese cuisine. Just bear in mind that portions of the tasty and beautifully presented dishes, such as beef in coconut milk, can be disappointingly small.

Popular with tourists and native Hanoians alike, this is one of the few restaurants in the Old Quarter that manages to unite the two demographics. There is an à la carte menu as well as set menus, but locals usually prefer to go for the "popular" dishes, which involves pointing at steaming vats containing things such as noodle soup, eggplants with salt, and fried pork ribs. The food is freshly cooked and regularly replenished, and is reliably delicious whichever way you order.

More of a snack and less of a fully fledged meal, pho cuon (fresh spring rolls with beef) is a Truc Bach specialty. This family-run eatery serves up some of the freshest and tastiest rolls in the neighborhood on a handful of tables that occasionally spill out onto the street.

Known among Hanoi locals for its vast menu, this eatery has specialties from northern, central, and southern Vietnam. It's almost as popular for the old courtyard setting as for the decent food. The restaurant has additional branches in Ho Chi Minh City and elsewhere in Hanoi.

Quan Cu means "old restaurant," which is a misleading title for this clean, efficient, and well-organized Vietnamese restaurant. The staff speak little English but an attractive picture menu makes ordering easy; try the grilled chicken, any dish with tofu, and the fresh morning glory stir-fried with garlic. Strangely, the dish for which Quan Cu is most famous for is bun thang (a chicken noodle soup dish different from pho), and yet it is decidedly mediocre.

This modern restaurant serves traditional cha ca (pan-fried fish with rice vermicelli) to multi-generational tables of lively locals. Reservations are almost essential, but if you can't get a table confirmed you can find a handful of other Vua Cha Ca locations across the city.