Restaurants in Hanoi
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Tamarind Café
A relaxed cafe-restaurant with lounge-around cushioned seating, plenty of space and wi-fi. Offers an eclectic menu but is best for tabouli, eggplant claypot and salads. Drinks include heavenly lassis, zesty juices and wine by the glass. Our only quibble is that it’s a tad on the expensive side and all prices are in dollars.
reviewed
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Pho Gia Truyen
The perfect broth for pho (rice-noodle soup) should look as though it was ladled from the river. It's opaque and brownish after beef bones have boiled in it for hours. Some places try to take the mystery out of pho by serving weak, see-through broths, but here you get the good stuff. Once you've experienced it you'll understand why some can't start their day without a bowl.
reviewed
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Vine Wine Boutique Bar & Cafe
Vine is widely considered to be one of Hanoi's finest restaurants. It certainly has the city's most comprehensive wine cellar. Gourmet pizzas are a headliner, but the menu also includes excellent steaks, burgers, clay pots and a smattering of Thai dishes. It may sound over-ambitious, but the kitchen manages to keep all balls in the air. Hybrid East-West décor creates a contemporary atmosphere.
reviewed
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Highlands Coffee
Aboard a big old ferry boat, Highlands gets you out on the water without actually setting sail. Its decks offer a fine vantage point and a chance to catch a refreshing breeze while enjoying smoothies, shakes and ice cream. You can also order a light meal or breakfast. The signature product, of course, is coffee.
reviewed
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Five
Occupying a tastefully restored old building this intimate restaurant is setting new gastro standards in the Old Quarter. It delivers a contemporary take on fine dining, with a short well-chosen menu of Western food including ravioli, lamb and very fine desserts (try the fig cheesecake). A selection of wines are available by the glass and the service is refined, pleasant and professional. There’s a little deli counter for takeaways, and it’s also great for breakfast: the eggs Benedict is absolutely legendary.
reviewed
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Kitchen
Truly a metropolitan animal, this hip basement cafe ticks all the right boxes with a mellow buzz and a creative, healthy menu of delicious sandwiches and salads sourced from ‘virtually’ organic ingredients. Also great for breakfast, a juice (try the ginger and watermelon tonic), or just a quick espresso. Prices are expat wallet–friendly rather than backpacker money belt–geared though.
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Nha Hang Phu My
It's tight quarters and flickering fluorescent lighting in this modest little joint, but the clientele is a happy bunch. Once you've ordered the house speciality you'll understand why. It's pho xao bo, which amounts to sautéed beef served on a plate of noodles with a thick, starchy gravy poured on top. The food is slopped onto your plate, but it packs lots of flavour.
reviewed
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Le Tonkin
The neocolonial dining experience is toned down at Le Tonkin. Its appeal is in the quiet, simple elegance of its setting, in a backstreet villa. You can take your leisure in the homey dining room or on the courtyard among leafy banana trees. Excellent food draws inspiration from the street and the country, and the cooks here don't meddle much with tradition.
reviewed
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Pho Thin
You'll get a very good bowl of pho in this family-run joint. Just be prepared for a down-home pho-eating experience: order yours on your way in, elbow your way into seats, and kick aside the little piles of tissues at your feet. Within seconds, the aromatic steam rising from your bowl will remind you why you came.
reviewed
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Luna d’Autunno
Well-established Italian restaurant that has good antipasto, fresh pasta (try the walnut and eggplant ravioli) but is really famous for its pizza, which is baked in a wood-fired oven. Service can be spotty, and at times seriously distracted.
reviewed
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Le Beaulieu Restaurant
Hotel restaurants don’t come much more elegant (or pricey) than this in Asia. Le Beaulieu is the home of fine French food, with gastronomic cooking, regular regional specialities, an epic cheese board and a professional wine list.
reviewed
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Café Smile
Part of the Hoa Sua family, this relaxed cafe-restaurant is renowned for its cakes and pastries, but also serves delicious Vietnamese (try the pho ) and Western dishes.
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Old Hanoi
A sophisticated little eatery with tasty Vietnamese specialities.
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Restaurant Bobby Chinn
Blending the best of East and West, owner-chef Bobby Chinn is part Chinese and part Egyptian and brings all his influences to bear in this classy setting. Try the superb salads or the fish with flair, chased down with a chocolate bomb. For an aperitif, coffee or even a sheesha (water pipe) with fruit-flavoured tobacco, move through the silk drapes to the chill-out cushions at the back.
reviewed
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Green Tangerine
Experience the mood and flavour of 1950s Indochine at this elegant restaurant, located in a beautifully restored colonial house, which has a cobbled courtyard and a formal dining room. Dine on inventive French, Vietnamese and fusion dishes; the set lunch (US$9) is a great value.
reviewed
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Hghway 4
Providing a memorable dining experience, this is the original location (inside a tottering old house) of an expanding family of restaurants that specialise in Vietnamese cuisine from the northern mountains. There’s an astounding array of dishes: from bite-sized snacks through to meaty dishes like lin luec mam tep (pork fillet with shrimp sauce) and true exotica like cha de men (meat patties with crickets…crunch!). Wash it all down with a bottle or two of delicious Son Tinh rice wine, which comes in flavours including mulberry and apricot. There is another branch away from the city centre, which has an atmospheric, sociable vibe, and decor that combines bamboo furnishi…
reviewed
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Bo Tung Xeo
It's undeniably cool having dinner on a covered rooftop along happening Pho Mai Hac De. Bo Tung Xeo is hard to find (walk through the downstairs pho - rice-noodle soup - restaurant and up the stairs at the back), which naturally adds to its appeal. The speciality is a marinated sliced beef dish, which you and your friends grill at your table. Along with cold beer it makes a hearty repast.
reviewed
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Green Mango
Probably Hanoi’s hippest hang-out, this highly successful restaurant-cum-lounge has a real vibe as well as great cooking. The stunning dining rooms, complete with rich silk drapes, evoke the feel of an opium den while the huge rear courtyard comes into its own on summer nights. Menu-wise there’s everything from pasta to mod-Asian fusion creations like red snapper with curried veg and fettuccini.
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Banh Cuon Gia Truyen
You might have to squeeze your way into a chair during the morning rush, but once you're settled, you'll simply have your food put in front of you, no questions asked. Delicate and tasty banh cuon (silky steamed rice crepes filled with minced pork, mushrooms and ground shrimp), served hot off the screen on which they are steamed, is about all they do here - and they do it well.
reviewed
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KOTO
Stunning four-storey modernist cafe-bar-restaurant overlooking the Temple of Literature, where the interior design has been taken very seriously, from the stylish seating to the fresh flowers by the till. Daily specials are chalked up on a blackboard and the shortish menu has everything from yummy pita wraps to Red River fish ’n’ chips. The bar also has a mighty fine cocktail list.
reviewed
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Ilu Lounge
On the 8th and 9th floors of the ILU office tower, this cool, contemporary space offers an upward escape from the hustling city below. However, panoramic windows and a rooftop terrace ensure Hanoi doesn't get completely blotted out. Vietnamese and pan-Asian dishes are prepared nicely, as are lunchtime tapas plates. It's perfectly reasonable to come here for drinks and the view.
reviewed
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Nam Phuong
For upscale Vietnamese in a large and beautiful villa, you can't go wrong with this place. While the kitchen does a commendable job with many regional dishes, the menu particularly shines with seafood specialities like soft-shell crab in tamarind sauce. An acoustic ensemble plays traditional music nightly, often working in some Western numbers for novelty's sake.
reviewed
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Dragon Boat
It can be quite a hoot having dinner aboard a boat painted to look like a dragon as it tools around West Lake. The menu emphasises seafood but generally covers the Vietnamese staples, including novel snake and pigeon platters. Vegetarians will have much to choose from. If you're travelling with a group, you can charter the entire boat for around ₫600,000.
reviewed
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Wild Rice
Deceptively simple from the outside, the elegant interior – with leather sofas, exposed stone walls, slate floors and plush seating – is a fine setting for the contemporary Vietnamese cuisine. Seafood is particularly strong here; the fresh fish spring rolls are divine. Try the prawns with peanut and tamarind sauce, or tuna steamed in a banana leaf.
reviewed
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Cafe 129
Five sisters and their mother operate this neat little eatery that's known city-wide for its satisfying omelettes, pancakes and fresh fruit juices. They get it right, too. Naturally, the place attracts a lot of foreigners hankering for something other than pho in the early hours, but local students often claim several tables as well.
reviewed
