Hanoi, which is the heart of Vietnam, is well-known with over 1000 years old of history, besides that its own gastronomy also is the best to be experienced, especially Hanoi Old Quarter’s Street food. Let Hynam Travel giving you Top 5 best street food in Hanoi Old Quarter.
On the other hand, a visit to Hanoi won’t be completed without a taste of Hanoi local cuisines with well-known street foods which you will never forget
Top 5 best street food in Hanoi Old Quarter
Table of Contents
In fact, Hanoi has been through a ton of immigrated Influences, from China to Western-style, this historical city has been standing still with so many wars and fighting so It is not too difficult to understand Hanoi having a multi-culture Cuisine. Hanoians like to eat and drink, there are 3 main meals and 3 brunches per day. Practically, that fact gave the best experiences for tourists to discover. In every single corner or alley, you see people drinking and eating, probably. Let’s having the top Must-try street foods in Hanoi.
Pho Hanoi noodle soup
It is going to be a big crime if we don’t mention the most popular dish “Pho”. In fact, nobody can be sure who made “Pho” or where it come from. The word “Pho” first appeared in a Vietnamese dictionary in 1930 (Vietnamese is about a 350 years old language, dated back in 1651). Follow some researches up on now, people believed that “Pho” was appeared the first in 1900-1907 in northern Vietnam, southeast of Hanoi in Nam Dinh province then it was popularized through the rest of the war by refugees after the Vietnam war. Nowadays it became the most popular dish for Hanoians and tourists.
“Pho” is a noodle soup consisting of rich broth, rice noodle, a few herbs and meat, primarily beef or chicken (only from 1939). There are disagreements over the culture influences of its development in Vietnam. The Hanoi and Saigon styles differ by noodle width, sweetness of broth and choice of herbs. Broth-the most important part of a perfect “Pho”. Different stalls making different flavor for the broth.
The broth for beef “Pho” is generally made by simmering beef bones, oxtails, flank steak, charred onion, charred ginger and spices. For a more intense flavor, the bones may still have beef on them. Chicken bones also work and produce a similar broth. Seasonings can include Saigon cinnamon or other kinds of cinnamon as alternatives (may use usually in stick form, sometimes in powder form in pho restaurant franchises overseas), star anise, roasted ginger, roasted onion, black cardamom, coriander seed, fennel seed, and clove.
The broth takes several hours to make. For chicken “Pho’’, only the meat and bones of the chicken are used in place of beef and beef bone. The remaining spices remain the same, but the charred ginger can be omitted, since its function in beef “Pho” is to subdue the quite strong smell of beef.
The spices, often wrapped in cheesecloth or a soaking bag to prevent them from floating all over the pot, usually contain cloves, star anise, coriander seed, fennel, cinnamon, black cardamom, ginger, and onion.
Careful cooks often roast ginger and onion over an open fire for about a minute before adding them to the stock, to bring out their full flavor. They also skim off all the impurities that float to the top while cooking; this is the key to a clear broth. Nước mắm (fish sauce) is added toward the end.
When eating “Pho” at the stalls, customers usually asked what kind of beef they would like.
The following list is top must-try noodle soup in Hanoi
Located in Bat Dan Street, right in the center of Hanoi old quarter. “Pho” Bat Dan is a well-known beef noodle soup
Opening time : 6h30-20h30 everyday/ ( 1 hour break at noon from 12h00-13h00)
Price : Ranges from 2usd-2.5usd/ bowl, depend on what kind of meat
Address : 49 Bat Dan street, HoanKiem district, Hanoi
“Phở” Sướng -24B Trung Yen alley
“Phở” Sướng Cô Mười
Pho SuongNguyen Hong Street Hanoi
Thin noodle soup in Lo Duc Street
13 Lo Duc street, Ngo Thi Nham, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi
Ly Quoc Su noodle soup
“Pho” Ganh – a normal traditional noodle of Hanoi, but a special way and time to try. Customers get to see a traditional way to carry stuff by a bamboo stick with 2 big bamboo baskets on the sides. Everythings for a bowl of Pho has been carried in that 2 baskets.
“Pho Ganh” only be served from 3AM to 7AM in the morning at the beginning of Hang chieu street, this Pho is mostly targeting for the night-shift employees. You are going to see a very vitality atmosphere of Hanoi early in the morning, without traffics and people, a very different Hanoi. (Costs 2.5-3usd/bowl).
Pho Ganh Hanoi
A big influence of the French. During when Vietnam was a colony of French, we got a lot of influences from them, but there are 2 big remaining ones till today, baguette and coffee. They can be found everywhere throughout Vietnam from the North to the South, the local Vietnamese people have been very creative in making different Baguettes and Coffee by making that into different local styles.
Basically, BanhMy is becoming a very common breakfast in modern life, every corner you can grab a BanhMy. We are stuffing whatever we want, like charsiu pork, pate, tuna, ham, pickled cucumber, slices of tomatoes,….depends on your flavours.
There are some famous branches in Hanoi you can search for: BanhMy 25, BanhMy Pho, BanhMy HoiAn, BanhMy Chao…
Coffee has been brought to Vietnam in 1888 by the French. Just like BanhMy, it has been becoming very popular in Vietnam by its own specialization. Vietnamese love coffee, we drink it all day long, throughout all the big cities from North to South. We have been farming mostly Arabica, Robusta and Lyberica…. Especially, Vietnam has been exporting a lot of coffee to the world.
Egg coffee, a special coffee has been inevented in 1946 by a local which nowadays becoming very popular for everybody who loves to try Vietnamese coffee. There are 2 trusted addresses you can try for the egg coffee.
# Caphe Giang – Located in 39 Nguyen Huu Huan street
# Caphe Dinh – Located on the 2nd floor in 13 Dinh Tien Hoang street ( Don’t be afraid of the small and narrow entrance. Costs 1.5usd/glass)
Hanoi Egg Coffee – Best coffee to taste in Hanoi
Vietnam is a tropical country, it is gifted by nature mother, we have a lot of seasonal fruits all year round. One of the foods you should try is “ Hoa Qua Dam” – fruity Salad. That dish is a real mix of all different pieces of fruits and coconut milk with mince ice. A perfect snack in a hot and humid day or just chilling around with friends and families.
# Number 8 To Tich street –“ Hoa Beo”
Bun Cha : Rice noodle with BBQ pork and fresh green Hanoi
Nobody can be sure where this comes from, but Hanoians eat and love it for a long time, a different style of Noodle. This dish contains a portion of vermicelli, bbq porks and a special dipping sauce ( mainly fish sauce, chopped garlic and fresh chillies and especially pickled papaya) with a lot of local herbs…..that’s simple but delicious. Just within a few meters away from the stall, you already smell it, when you step inside you see it and i am pretty sure nobody could refuse to have a try on that dish. The most well-known Bun Cha in Hanoi locating in number 1 Hang Manh street, costs around 3-3.5usd/portion. Try it!
Hanoi Grilled fish – Cha Ca
Cha Ca is a speciality in Hanoi Foods, this dish is a magical combination of fish ( Lang fish or snake-head fish) vermicelli and herbs( a lot of spring onions and dills). First of all, you need to prepare the fish and marinate with spices, grill it on charcoal first and then when you serve it you do stir-fry on a hot pan. The most special sauce here is the shrimp paste, the local people we love it ( if you are not a fan of the smelly sauce, it is ok to change into a light fish sauce or soy sauce).
When you eat this, all the pieces of everything going into a small bowl, sprinkle on top some broken peanuts, that how we eat that. The freshness of herbs and Vermicelli, the fragrance of grilled fish all make the show. It costs around 7-8usd for 2 people. Nowadays you can find down this in 2 main restaurants in Hanoi
# Cha Ca La Vong – 14 La Vong street
# Cha Ca Thang Long – 31 Duong Thanh street
# Pictures were taken from google.com.
# Prices and locations can be changed depends on the season
# If you like it please visit Hynam Travel for more information
# Give it a share if it is helpful
Traveling with kids, especially young kids under 7 years old. There are a lot of troubles and...
This article gives you everything you need to know for Vietnam Tours for Israeli family with...
Shalom, Ani Noam, the man behind Hynam Travel which offers you the best suggested Vietnam itinerary...
Shalom! Ani Noam from Hynam Travel, who wrote this down-to-earth article to provide you with the...
Hynam Travel offers the best Vietnam package tours for Israelis. We offer a variety of package...
Wondering how to plan a dream trip to Lang Son, North Vietnam about 170 kilometers (100 miles) from...
Address: 6th Floor, Viet A Tower, No 09 Duy Tan Street, Dich Vong Hau Ward, Cau Giay Dist, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Customer support 24/7
Hotline: +84 974 313 104 (Whatsapp, Telegram, Line)
Email: sales@hynamtravel.com
Hynam Travel © 2022. All right reserved.
