Hanoi is a city where you want to eat on every street corner and where on every street corner you have no idea what you are eating. Plastic stools, pans with unknown contents, and a lady looking at you as if you should order right now. To find our way around all of this, we booked a street food tour through the Old Quarter of Hanoi.
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In this blog you can read about our experience, including all the dishes we got to try. At the bottom you will find a cheat sheet with the Vietnamese names and pronunciation, so you can order them yourself afterwards. Want to check straight away whether there is still room? Book the same tour as we did here.
The tour at a glance
| Tour | Small Group Hanoi Street Food Tour with a Real Foodie |
| Provider | HA Food Tours |
| When we went | October 2026, evening tour (picked up at 6 pm) |
| Duration | 3 hours, about 2 to 3 km of walking |
| Group size | Small, maximum 6 to 8 people (there were two couples plus the guide) |
| Price | 1,399,320 dong for two people, about €23.50 per person |
| Included | Guide, five dishes and two drinks |
| Not included | Tip, 10 to 20% is customary |
| Meeting point | Pick-up from your hotel in the Old Quarter is possible, otherwise you meet at the HA Food Tours office |
| Cancellation | Free up to 24 hours in advance |
| Rating | 5.0 on Tripadvisor, more than 4,600 reviews |
Good to know: vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free are also possible, if you let them know in advance.
Through the traffic: noodle and sticky rice
The traffic in Hanoi is an experience in itself. Scooters drive everywhere, from every direction, and they definitely don’t stop. Luckily our guide had a flawless system for that.
When we had to walk in single file, she shouted “noodle!”. Then we formed a long line. When we had to stay close together, for example when crossing the road, she shouted “sticky rice!”. Then we clumped together with the guide and the other couple into one big blob.
The six stops
We were picked up at our hotel at 6 pm, exactly when the Old Quarter starts to fill up. The tour has six stops: four main dishes, one stop for a beer and one for dessert. Below you can read which dishes we tasted. The route changes now and then, we gathered from our guide, so don’t assume you will get exactly the same dishes as we did. But at least you will have an idea of what to roughly expect!
Stop 1: nem nướng (grilled pork to roll yourself). We started with grilled pork and vegetables, which you roll in rice paper yourself. This was immediately our favourite dish! We got a whole platter full of ingredients to make our own Vietnamese wrap, which we then dipped in a delicious peanut-like sauce.
Stop 2: phở trộn gà (chicken noodles without soup). Phở, but without broth. For the second dish we had to go to the second floor of a restaurant. The ceilings were so low that even Florine couldn’t stand up straight. We sat down on teeny-tiny stools that seemed to have had their first life in a nursery school. The noodles are mixed with chicken, soy sauce and vegetables. We had never had phở without broth before, and it is a lot lighter than the soup version. And best of all: the place where we ate these dry noodles is in the Michelin Guide 2026! It was really tasty.
Stop 3: bún bò Huế (spicy beef noodle soup). The third dish was a beef noodle soup from Huế, the old imperial city in central Vietnam. Heartier and spicier than the soups we knew. This was our least favourite of all the dishes!
Stop 4: bia hơi (local draught beer). After three dishes it was time for beer. Bia hơi is a light, fresh beer that is brewed the same day. We drank it among the locals on the street corner. It is not a beer you take home an opinion about, but a cold beer on a mini stool in Hanoi at 30 degrees is quite enjoyable! 🍺
Stop 5: bánh cuốn (steamed rice rolls). Steamed rice sheets filled with pork and wood ear mushroom. The sheets are so thin you can almost see through them, and so soft it feels like you are eating nothing.
Stop 6: kem xôi (ice cream with sticky rice). We finished with a cold dessert: coconut ice cream with black sticky rice. A bit of a strange combination if you ask us, but quite tasty!
Cheat sheet: the dishes to order yourself
Keep this table for the rest of your trip. The pronunciation is an English approximation, Vietnamese has tones that we can’t capture on paper. But pointing and saying this works surprisingly well.
| Dish | Pronunciation | What it is | Order again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nem nướng | nem noong | Grilled pork with vegetables, to roll yourself in rice paper | Yes, our favourite |
| Phở trộn gà | fuh chon gah | Phở without broth, with chicken and soy sauce | Yes, it’s in the Michelin Guide 2026 |
| Bún bò Huế | boon boh hway | Spicy beef broth with round noodles | Rather not |
| Bia hơi | bee-uh huh-ee | Light draught beer, brewed the same day | Yes, always at 30 degrees |
| Bánh cuốn | bine kwon | Steamed rice sheets with pork and mushroom | Yes, despite the mushroom |
| Kem xôi | kem soy | Coconut ice cream with sticky rice | Maybe |
Why you don’t want to do this yourself
You can walk into the Old Quarter and just try something, but chances are you will be overwhelmed by the choice of restaurants and dishes.
With a guide you don’t have that problem. You follow someone who knows where to go, what to order and how to eat it. For some dishes we first got an explanation: what was in it, how you dip it, what you should definitely not do. What is also nice: the dishes are chosen for you. That way you taste things you would never have ordered yourself. We certainly wouldn’t have ordered the mushrooms.
An added benefit: you come back with a list of dishes you want to repeat (and a few you will skip). Handy for the rest of the trip.
Is street food in Hanoi safe?
We didn’t get sick, and that while we ate five dishes from five different stalls in one evening. The advantage of a tour is that the guide only goes to stalls she has been visiting for years, with lots of locals passing through and freshly prepared food. That is exactly what you want to look out for yourself: a busy place, food prepared right in front of you and no dishes that have been sitting around for long. After a few days you dare to judge that better yourself too.
Who is this tour not for?
To be honest, not for everyone.
- You have been in Vietnam for weeks and eat street food every day. Then you already know most of the dishes and the tour adds less.
- You can’t handle heat well. You walk through busy streets for three hours at around 30 degrees.
- You want big portions. These are tastings. Together a decent meal, but a few bites per stop.
Have you just arrived in Hanoi and want to know what to eat? Then this is exactly right.
Tips before you book
- Come hungry. After five dishes you have had a proper meal.
- Wear good shoes. You walk 2 to 3 km over hot, busy and uneven pavements.
- Mention allergies. Do that when booking, not at the first stop.
- Book it early in your stay. Then you benefit from it for the rest of your time in Hanoi.
- Bring cash for the tip. A tip is not included, 10 to 20% of the total amount is customary. Together we gave 200,000 dong.
Was it worth it?
It cost us 1,399,320 dong for two people, about €23.50 per person. For that we got five dishes, two drinks and a guide who knows her city. So yes, we would book it again in a heartbeat!
Frequently asked questions
