“If you're looking for an authentic local food experience and want to discover places you would never find on your own, this tour is an absolute must.”
— Awtiger, 2026
01 Food tours
Original food tours, curated with our local tastemakers to showcase the neighbourhood kitchens, markets and family-run eateries that define Hanoi.
Hungry Hanoi
Hanoi
Explore Hanoi with a chef — phở, bún chả over charcoal and chả cá tableside.
Hanoi Dusk
Hanoi
Discover northern Vietnamese restraint — phở, bún chả, chả cá with dill and egg coffee.
02 Meet the tastemakers
The local food experts who help us research, refine and lead every A Chef's Tour.
Phở steaming from the pot, bún chả smoking over charcoal, chả cá sizzled tableside with dill, egg coffee whipped stiff at Giảng. Northern Vietnamese cooking is restrained, herbaceous and cold-weather clean, more mắm tôm than sugar, more herb than chilli.
04 The pantry
- Nước mắm, northern fish sauce, lighter and cleaner than the south's
- Mắm tôm, pungent violet shrimp paste Hanoi loves like nowhere else in Vietnam
- Thì là, fresh dill folded into chả cá and every serious fish dish
- Rau thơm, fistfuls of perilla, mint, coriander and Vietnamese balm served with every meal
- Giấm bỗng, fermented rice-wine vinegar that gives bún ốc its distinctive tang
- Bún, rice vermicelli cut fresh each morning for bún chả and bún riêu
05 In the kitchen
- Grilling chả pork patties over hand-fanned charcoal for bún chả
- Simmering phở broth overnight with beef bones, charred ginger and onion
- Steaming bánh cuốn rice-paper crepes on cloth stretched across a wok
- Wrapping nem cua bể square crab rolls tight for a snappy deep-fry
- Ageing mắm tôm shrimp paste until it turns violet and heady
06 Eat this first
- Phở bò, the clear-broth beef noodle Hanoi taught the world
- Bún chả, grilled pork patties in sweet-sour nước chấm with cold vermicelli and herbs
- Chả cá, turmeric-marinated catfish sizzled tableside with mountains of dill and spring onion
- Bánh cuốn, silk-thin rice-paper rolls filled with minced pork and wood-ear mushroom
- Cà phê trứng, the whipped egg-yolk coffee born at Giảng in 1946
What happens inside a hammam kitchen
A morning with the cooks who feed the neighbourhood before dawn. Charcoal, dough, the smell of a bakery working its second oven.
09 Recipes
A collection of authentic recipes we couldn't leave behind.
A tall glass layered with mung bean, red bean, tapioca, lotus seed, pandan jelly and coconut cream over crushed ice. The classical Vietnamese "mixed everything" dessert.
Cubes of soft white milk pudding, cool almond-scented syrup, poached longan and crushed almonds. Ho Chi Minh City's modern minimalist chè.
A soft fluffy omelette bulked out with chopped fresh mugwort leaves, seasoned lightly with fish sauce. Northern Vietnam's traditional restorative dish for post-illness recovery.
Whole bananas wrapped in coconut sticky rice and banana leaves, then grilled over charcoal until dark caramelised. Ho Chi Minh City's late-night street dessert, drenched in sweet coconut cream.
Thin slices of raw anchovy cured briefly in lime, tossed with rice powder, roasted peanuts and mixed herbs, then wrapped in rice paper with vegetables. Da Nang's coastal specialty.
Thin flat rice-flour cakes topped with a small mound of pork and shrimp, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. Hue's flat cousin to bánh bột lọc.
10 Field Notes
Quick field notes to help you get accustomed to Hanoi.
Weather
Four sharp seasons. Hot, humid summers (32°C-plus) with sudden storms, cool damp winters (near 10°C), and short, glorious spring and autumn windows. October and April are the sweet spots.
Currency
The Vietnamese dong (VND). Cash for markets, xe om (motorbike taxis), and street food. Cards in restaurants and hotels. ATMs are plentiful.
Language
Vietnamese; English coverage is decent in the Old Quarter and around hotels, thin elsewhere. A translation app helps enormously.
Etiquette
Modest dress at temples and pagodas. Bargain gently at markets; remove shoes when entering homes and some restaurants.
Getting around
The Old Quarter is best on foot, the traffic is chaotic but crossable if you walk steadily. Grab (bike or car) is the go-to ride option; taxis are cheap but insist on the meter.
Prayer
A mix of Buddhist, Confucian, and folk-religion rhythms, pagodas sit in every neighbourhood. Sundays fill the Catholic cathedral downtown.