Cau Giay
The western university district, lively and student-priced. Excellent late-night food and bia hơi spots.
9 guides cover Cau Giay
Cốm season: young green rice, chả cốm and bánh cốm
For about six weeks in autumn, Hanoi sells immature rice grains pounded flat and wrapped in lotus leaf. Cốm is the most sentimental food in the city and the hardest to explain.
Dishes Hanoi borrowed: bún bò Huế and bánh xèo in the north
Two dishes from central and southern Vietnam that Hanoi has adopted and quietly rewritten. What changes on the journey north, and whether the Hanoi versions are worth ordering.
Cơm bình dân: how to eat lunch like a Hanoi office worker
A counter of twenty home-style dishes, a plate of rice, and you point. The most useful thing on this site for anyone eating in Hanoi on a budget for more than three days.
The Chinese-Vietnamese kitchen: mì vằn thắn and bánh bao
Hanoi has a Cantonese inheritance that mostly goes unremarked — wonton egg noodles with a quail egg in the bowl, and steamed buns sold from misted glass carts in winter.
Duck and goose: bún măng vịt, bún ngan and the ginger sauce
Two duck noodle soups that Hanoi does very well and visitors never order — plus mắm gừng, the raw-ginger dipping sauce that makes both of them work.
Hanoi after midnight: gà tần, chân gà nướng and the grill streets
Hanoi supposedly sleeps early. It does not. Herbal chicken stew, charcoal grills and pork skewers keep going past two in the morning — here is what to eat and where to look.
Bia hơi: finding a corner that isn't for tourists
Unpasteurised beer brewed and drunk the same day, poured from a keg on the pavement for about forty cents. The famous corner is the worst one — here is how the system works and where to go instead.
Ốc nóng: how to order snails without embarrassing yourself
Snails steamed with lemongrass and lime leaf, eaten with a pin and a fierce ginger dipping sauce. The most social food in Hanoi, and the hardest for a visitor to walk into alone.
Bún đậu mắm tôm: an honest guide to the shrimp paste
A tray of cold noodles, hot fried tofu and fermented shrimp paste. Bún đậu is the Hanoi dish visitors are most likely to bounce off — here is how to give it a fair try.