Hoi An cuisine is extremely diverse and rich, with the convergence of many different cultures. In the 16th century, Hoi An used to be a busy international trading port, a meeting place for Japanese, Chinese, and Western merchant ships. Therefore, Hoi An is heavily influenced by these countries, especially in terms of cuisine with the combination of local ingredients and diverse and unique processing methods from other cuisines.
I - What makes the food in Hoi An so delicious and rich?
There are tons of delicious food to try in Hoi An - Source: Culturephamtravel
Hoi An cuisine is diverse, but they all have their own characteristics of the Vietnam central coast with lots of special fermented sauces, herbs & other spices that are perfectly blended to create a rich taste for foods. In every Hoi An specialty food, diverse ingredients from the mountains to the sea are very delicately combined.
When traveling to Hoi An and exploring more about Hoi An food, you will find that the layout of the food here is quite simple. However, behind each of the Hoi An local food, there is the chef's meticulousness from the selection of fresh local ingredients to the unique processing with the imprint of extensive cultural interference.
II - Top 15 best food in Hoi An to try
If you love Hoi An cuisine, do not miss the following top famous dishes:
1 - Top 15 Hoi An food: Cao Lau noodles
Cao Lau is one of the best things to eat in Hoi An Vietnam - Source: Willflyforfood
Cao Lầu or Cao Lau noodles is a combination of rice noodles, meat, vegetables, bean sprouts, and herbs, often served with a little broth, which is made from boiling pork bones with onions or shallots. The meat used is typically shredded pork (sometimes shrimp), seasoned with five-spice powder, sugar, salt, pepper, minced garlic, and soy sauce.
When enjoying this famous food in Hoi An, you would feel as if all your senses were awakened by the strong aroma of fish sauce, soy sauce, and the greasy smell of pork fat mixed with the sweet fragrance of shrimp and barbecue pork. Everything would be more perfect when it is served with vegetables with tastes like spicy, bitter, acrid,...
Price: 20,000 - 50,000 VND / bowl ($0.88 - 2.2)
Places to try this dish:
- Cao Lau Lien (No.9 Thai Phien Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Cao Lau Hoi An Ba Be (No.19 Tran Phu Street, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City)
- Cao Lau Thanh (No.26 Thai Phien Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Cao Lau Hoi An Trung Bac (No.87 Tran Phu Street, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City)
- Cao Lau Khong Gian Xanh (No.687 Hai Ba Trung Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
2 - Top local food in Hoi An: Quang noodles
Mì Quảng or Quang noodles are made from rice flour. The broth of this Hoi An dish is made from pork bones stewed with dry roasted peanuts, scallions, herbs, and red peppers. The local people only add to the noodles a very moderate amount of broth, which is often mixed with tomato sauce to give it a nice color and aroma, then sprinkles a pinch of crushed roasted peanuts on top, add oil and chopped fresh onions, lemon, chili,... And the extra parts increase the greasy, sour, and spicy taste, making the bowl of noodles even more attractive.
The style of eating this Hoi An food is also very different from the slow and leisurely way of eating Pho or Hue style beef noodles as you have to eat quickly to be more delicious.
Price of this great food in Hoi An: 15,000 - 50,000 VND / bowl ($0.66 - 2.2)
Some restaurants to try Quang noodles:
- Mr.Hai Noodles (No.6A Truong Minh Luong Street, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City)
- Quang Hat Noodles (No.4 Phan Chu Trinh Street, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City)
3 - Hoi An chicken rice - the best lunch in Hoi An
Hoi An chicken rice is a Hoi An traditional food - Source: Delightfulplate
The most eye-catching feature of this Hoi An specialty food is the golden rice, chicken torn into thick pieces, and the soup cooked with slightly sliced gizzards. Sticky rice is washed with water and then cooked with chicken broth and pandan leaves. The finished rice has a natural yellow color and shines bright and smooth.
Sauce - the soul of this good food in Hoi An has a brown color, tastes just right, and looks very attractive. Soft cooked chicken, deliciously tender golden rice, and many other vegetables are ready to captivate anyone right from the first taste.
Price: 20,000 - 50,000 VND / dish ($0.88 - 2.2)
Places to try:
- Chicken rice Xi Hoi An (No.47/2 Tran Hung Dao Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Chicken rice Ms. Nga (No.8 Phan Chu Trinh, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City)
- Chicken rice Ms. Thuan (No.17/4, Hai Ba Trung Street, Hoi An City)
4 - Banh mi Hoi An - “world’s best bread”
Banh mi Hoi An captivates foreign tourists with the taste of bread filled with meat, pate, vegetables, and dipping sauce… It is really worth a place in your must-try food in Hoi An list. Visiting Hoi An, to try one of the most delicious banh mi, you should visit the Banh Mi Phuong restaurant of Madame Phuong.
Madame Phuong bakes her own bread to ensure the deliciousness, chewiness, crunchiness, aroma, and fleshiness of the loaf. She covers her banh mi with the special homemade sauce according to a very secret recipe. The menu here is also very diverse as there are 20 types of fillings that you can choose such as spring rolls, mixed fillings, bacon beef cheese rolls,... Banh mi Phuong gives each person a different experience, creating an explosion of taste, and showing you the essence of Vietnamese cuisine in general and Hoi An cuisine in particular.
- Address: No.2B Phan Chau Trinh Street, Hoi An City
- Price of this Hoi An food: from 10,000 - 30,000 VND / serving ($0.44 - 1.3)
5 - White Rose Hoi An - top street food in Hoi An
Bánh bao bánh vạc Hội An or White Rose Hoi An includes both Banh Bao (dumplings) and Banh Vac (“cauldron” cakes) - they are often paired together because they have similar ingredients and making methods. On the outside, Banh Bao is similar to a normal dumpling but smaller, the top is spread and shaped like a rose while Banh Vac has a crescent shape.
The fillings are mainly made from fresh shrimp or minced meat mixed with onion, cat mushrooms, fish sauce, esoteric spices of Hoi An people, etc. White Rose dish also has sweet and sour dipping sauce prepared according to the family's recipe.
After steaming, to highlight the white color, people often put a layer of green leaves on the plate before placing the cake and spread a layer of fried onions on top. It is best to enjoy this food in Hoi An while it is still hot.
You can enjoy this Hoi An dish at White Rose Restaurant:
- Address: No.533 Hai Ba Trung street, Cam Pho Ward, Hoi An city
- Food price: from 50,000 VND / dish ($2.2)
6 - Hoi An crispy pancake - an ideal dinner in Hoi An
Crispy pancake is should not be missed on your food tours in Hoi An - Source: Kenh14
The main ingredients for making Bánh xèo Hội An or Hoi An crispy pancakes include rice flour mixed with water, fresh shrimp, and lean meat fillings that have been lightly marinated with fish sauce, salt and spices. People mixed soy sauce with pork liver, sesame, and crushed peanuts, then boiled the mixture with a little rice flour and spices to make a unique sauce.
This food in Hoi An must be eaten while still hot to be delicious, and you should only use your hands instead of spoons or chopsticks. To enjoy Banh xeo, besides using the sense of smell and taste, you must also use touch and hearing. Hot and crispy, Banh xeo is suitable to eat in the rainy season, with vegetables, bean sprouts, and seasoning sauce, it creates a delicious taste that is hard to resist.
Price: 10,000 - 50,000 VND / dish ($0.44 - 2.2)
Places to try this Hoi An food:
- Banh xeo Ba Le (No. 45/51 Tran Hung Dao Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Banh xeo Hai Dao (No. 160 Ly Thai To Street, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City)
- Banh xeo Hai Nam (No. 409 Hai Ba Trung Street, Cam Son Ward, Hoi An City)
7 - Pho Lien - top must-try food in Hoi An
Considered the best Pho in Hoi An, Pho Lien is not mentioned much by the media, but to Hoi An people, it has been a familiar dish for the past 70 years. This Hoi An specialty food is a noodle dish only available in Hoi An, the recipe is passed down from generation to generation in the old town.
A Bowl of Pho Lien is a little different from Hanoi pho, because it is sprinkled with roasted peanuts, served with pickles, sliced fresh meat like paper and herbs. The handmade noodles are soft and chewy, pho broth is not fatty and has a light smell and a sweet taste. Pho Lien is more delicious when eaten with mint, basil, enough sweet and sour and a little chili powder.
Price of this best food in Hoi An: 30,000 - 40,000 VND / bowl ($1.3 - 1.75)
Places to try:
- Pho Lien (No.25 Le Loi Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Phuong Tung (No.51/7 Phan Chau Trinh Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
8 - Hoi An Rice Cracker - a nice breakfast in Hoi An
Bánh đập Hội An or Hoi An Rice Cracker is not a high-class dish made from expensive or sophisticated ingredients, but this Hoi An specialty food is still enough to captivate anyone who visits this city. When you eat, the cake is both crispy and soft, bringing the sweetness of starch, mixed with fish sauce seasoning carrying the rich aroma of the sea.
Banh dap is made from diluted rice flour, stirred well, and coated into a thin layer, usually served with a dipping sauce made from the seasoned fish sauce with the main ingredients being anchovies and onions. Before eating this local food in Hoi An, you must press down the middle of the rice cracker until it breaks into pieces, then pick one of them up and dip in the sauce. You can add onions and chili to the bowl of seasoned fish sauce to your liking.
Price: 15,000 - 50,000 VND / dish ($0.66 - 2.2)
Places to try this Hoi An food:
- Banh Dap & Hen Xao Cam Nam (No.679/2 Hai Ba Trung Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Banh Dap Ba Gia Hoi An (at the foot of Cam Nam Bridge, Village 1, Cam Nam Commune, Hoi An City)
- Banh Dap Dung Van (No.116 Luong Nhu Bich street, Cam Nam Commune, Hoi An City)
9 - Khot Cake - a traditional food in Hoi An
Khot Cake is an amazing Hoi An late-night food - Source: Afamily
In the list of countless delicious Vietnamese delicacies, there is a small dish called Bánh khọt or Khot cake -. This cake is stuffed with shrimp and meat, served with raw vegetables and sweet dipping sauce, giving it a unique taste.
This Hoi An typical food is made from rice flour - rice is finely milled, and mixed with turmeric powder, scallions, chicken eggs, spices, and coconut milk, giving the cake a fatty taste and characteristic yellow color. Finely chopped scallions will create an aroma while the eggs will create porosity, making the cake soft but still crispy for a long time. The filling of Khot cake is usually green beans, chopped pork belly with fresh shrimp or rice husk shrimp, and coconut milk.
And this famous food in Hoi An will not be complete without the sweet and sour fish sauce, boiled with sugar on the stove to thicken and then squeezed a little lemon juice, garlic, and chili. Khot Cake will be more delicious when eaten with lettuce, broccoli, basil, perilla, and coriander leaves,…
Price: 28,000 - 50,000 VND / dish ($1.23 - 2.2)
Place to try: Ba Le Well Restaurant (No.45/51 Tran Hung Dao Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
10 - Sweet soup - the best dessert in Hoi An
In Hoi An, Chè or sweet soup is cooked with the recipes created by people here and is sold everywhere. There are many kinds of sweet soup with special flavors that cannot be found in other places such as: Black Sesame Sweet soup (Xi Ma Phu), corn sweet soup,… This dessert food in Hoi An is served in small portions and are best eaten while hot. To have the best sweet gruels in Hoi An, you can visit some restaurants in the Old Town or in Hoi An Central Market or In Hoi An Night Market.
Price: 5,000 - 20,000 VND / bowl ($0.22 - 0.88)
Places to try this Hoi An food:
- Mr. Thieu Sweet Black Sesame Soup (opposite No.118 Nguyen Truong To Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Mrs. Muoi Sweet Soup (No.4 Hoang Dieu Street, Cam Pho Ward, Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province)
- Mrs. Sau Mix Sweet Soup (Che Thap Cam Co Sau) (No.18, Nguyen Tat Thanh Street, Tan An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Mrs. Le Che Thung (No.369 Cua Dai street, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City)
- Old Quarter Sweet Lotus Seed Soup (No.1 Hoang Van Thu Street, Hoi An City,)
11 - Wet Cake Served With Grilled Meat - top food in Hoi An to try
This is one of the best food to try in Hoi An - Source: Citypassguide
Bánh ướt thịt nướng or Wet cake with grilled meat is mostly sold by small and rustic roadside stalls. One street vendor often consists of a small charcoal stove, a basket full of marinated meat skewers and the other full of spices, raw vegetables, and sauces.
Wet cake is made from rice flour mixed with water and then thinly coated. Grilled meat is thinly sliced pork, marinated with spices, then skewered on a stick. The sauce in this Hoi An dish is made from minced meat with peanuts, after being cooked, it will have a consistency that makes the dish more delicious. Many shops also add roasted sesame seeds to the sauce to increase the flavor and you can order more vegetables or cucumbers as you like.
To enjoy this best food in Hoi An, you should roll the meat and raw vegetables with wet cakes, or rice paper and dip in a small bowl of sauce. You will feel the buttery taste of peanuts and the spiciness of chili from the sauce first and then the marinated meat with wet cake and vegetables.
Price: 6,000 - 45,000 VND / dish ($0.26 - 2)
Places to try this Hoi An specialty food:
- Banh Uot Cuon Thit Nuong Ms Huong (No.31 Tieu La Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Quan Thit Nuong Mr Boa (No.11 La Hoi Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Ba Le Well Restaurant (No.45/51 Tran Hung Dao Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
12 - Fried Wonton Dumplings - top best eats in Hoi An
Although originating from China, over time, Hoành thánh or Wonton Dumpling was gradually modified by Hoi An people to better suit the Vietnamese taste, and one of them is Fried Wonton.
This food in Hoi An is cooked into 2 parts to form one ball, the shell, and the fillings. The shell is made from flour, and tapioca while the fillings are made from pork, shrimp, wood ear, onion, etc. All are chopped and finely mixed together and at the same time, marinated spices like pepper, salt, and sugar are added to the mixture.
Each freshly made cake is put into a pan filled with oil and deep-fried until golden brown. This Hoi An food has the red color of shrimps, the yellow color of the crispy Wonton, the green of vegetables from Tra Que Vegetable Village, and the amber sauce. All create a delicious fried wonton plate that gets better with a little bit of shumai and chili sauce.
Price: 20,000 - 50,000 VND / dish ($0.88 - 2.2)
Places to try this great street food in Hoi An:
- Wonton Mr Dung (No.14 Ba Trieu Street, Hoi An City)
- Thanh Thanh Restaurant (No.152 Tran Phu Street, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City)
- Pho Xua Restaurant (No.35 Phan Chau Trinh Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City)
- Cam Pho Cuisine Restaurant (at the foot of Cau Pagoda, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, Minh An Ward, Old Quarter, Hoi An City)
13 - Hoi An Fried Mussel
Com Hen Hoi An - Source: Uncle# Studio
The special thing that makes Hến xào Hội An or Hoi An Fried Mussels attractive to tourists coming here is probably the unique aroma. Fried onions, laksa leaves, raw onions, roasted peanuts, etc. are added to reduce the slightly fishy smell of the mussels and make this food in Hoi An smell better than ever. Mixing a bit of satay into the dish will give you the mild spicy taste that goes extremely well with the sweet of mussels.
Price: 15,000 - 50,000 VND / dish ($0.66 - 2.2)
Places to try:
- Cam Nam (No.679 Hai Ba Trung Street, Minh An Ward, Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province
- Ba Gia (Village 1, Cam Nam Commune, Hoi An City)
- Quan An So 9 (No.74 Nguyen Tri Phuong, Cam Nam Commune, Hoi An City)
- Ben Tre (No.98/1 Nguyen Tri Phuong, Cam Nam Commune, Hoi An City)
14 - Beef Noodles (Bun Bo)
Bun Bo Hoi An or Hoi An beef noodles is a traditional dish of Vietnamese people, famous throughout 5 continents. This must-eat food in Hoi An is different from Pho because it has yellow broth, spring rolls and blood pudding. Each bowl of bun here when served is hot and full of small noodles, tender beef, sweet and fragrant broth which can be cooked with a combination of shrimp, pork, chicken, beef, and more.
The broth for this Hoi An food is simmering; your soup's flavor can become concentrated as the sauce is quite sweet and spicy. When eating, you add some fresh vegetables, a little salted red onion, chili and satay to make the dish more flavorful and attractive. The spicy taste and the lemongrass aroma are what make beef noodles so popular even in hot weather.
Price: 20,000 - 30,000 VND / bowl ($0.88 - 1.3)
Places to try this food in Hoi An:
- Bun Minh Hue (No.450 Hai Ba Trung Street, Cam Son Ward, Hoi An City)
- Bun Bo Co Gai (at the entrance of Alley 186 Tran Phu Street, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City)
15 - Hoi An Rice Noodles With Grilled Meat
The ingredients of Bún thịt nướng Hội An or Hoi An Rice Noodles With Grilled Meat are nothing special, mainly pieces of pork shoulder or belly, grilled on hot charcoal and handmade, small and soft rice noodles. To present a dish, bun is put in the bowl first, then a few slices of grilled meat, raw vegetables, sour papaya fiber, then the broth - a special sauce of light yellow color, slightly viscous, fragrant with peanuts and sugar. The sweetness of the sauce, the aroma of the meat, the spiciness of chili, and the aridity of raw vegetables all make an unforgettable taste for this food in Hoi An.
Price: 5,000 - 30,000 VND / dish ($0.22 - 1.3)
Places to try this Hoi An specialty food:
- Mrs.Suong Grilled Meat (Thit Xien Nuong Mrs. Suong) - No.138 Tran Phu Street, Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City).
That is a brief on Hoi An food list. Have your own traveling plan and come to Hoi An for a real food tour with our recommendation or just picking any food stall in the streets will definitely make you much more satisfied.
— Quan Nguyen
