As the capital, Hanoi is arguably the most famous city when it comes to Northern Vietnam, and with its large population second only to Ho Chi Minh. Due to the topography of the country, Hanoi’s climate and environment is distinctly different to its Central and Southern counterparts, which unsurprisingly influences its agriculture and its cuisine accordingly.

Its culinary history is also influenced by both the Chinese, with whom Northern Vietnam shares its border, and the French, who conquered and colonised the land for over half a century. Though at first glance these foreign roots may not be obvious, a closer look at several famous dishes could prove otherwise.

Of course, for us it wouldn’t be a holiday abroad without sampling all the local dishes we could get our hands on. So with a few short days in the city and a map with enough pins to put an acupuncturist to shame, we got stuck right into it. In this half, we’ll take a look at bún thang, Hanoi’s humble but delicious chicken noodle soup; bún bò Nam Bộ, the Hanoi version of beef vermicelli salad; chả cá, Hanoi’s most iconic grilled turmeric fish with dill; and phở chiên phồng and phở cuốn, two unique preparations of phở popular with the Hanoi locals.

Bún Thang (chicken noodle soup) and Bún Bò Nam Bộ (southern-style beef noodles)

Many dishes of the north are not often found overseas due to most migrants bringing dishes from Saigon and Southern Vietnam. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that a couple of Hanoi’s most beloved noodle dishes are barely mentioned outside of articles detailing the north’s specific cuisine.

Let’s start with bún thang. Described as a traditional Hanoi-style chicken noodle soup, thang is speculated to either mean “ladder”, possibly alluding the climbing desire to eat more, or to a unit of measurement for Chinese herbal medicine, due to its recipe calling for small quantities of many ingredients. Typically eaten during Tết, Vietnam’s Lunar New Year celebration period, this dish requires many components meaning it is time-consuming to make.

Standard chicken noodles already exist in Hanoi, often in the form of phở gà (chicken phở). However, for this traditional-style chicken noodle soup rice noodles are usually served in a chicken, mushroom, and shrimp-based broth, shredded chicken, finely sliced egg omelette, ham, and a selection of fresh herbs. It is typically eaten with a little bit of mắm tôm, fermented shrimp paste, which adds a pungent and savoury flavour to the soup.

On the other hand is bún bò Nam Bộ. Translating roughly to “southern-style beef noodles”, the dish is supposed to have originated from the south before making its way up the country. Compared to many other Vietnamese noodles, this dish does not have a soup, similar to bún thịt bò xào (beef vermicelli salad with fish sauce). It consists of vermicelli, salad vegetables, green papaya, and a heaping pile of beef and beansprouts stir fried with aromatics, all sitting in a shallow pool of sweet fish sauce dressing.

For this dish, it’s essential to mix it up before eating, taking care not to spill! Of course, we’re always up for noodle dishes that don’t involve soup (our old love). Despite its supposed start in the south, Hanoi is supposed to be the home of the best bún bò Nam Bộ, with many restaurants making claim to this title. In either case, as long as it’s a local speciality, we needed to give them both a try.

Bún Thang

Listed on Google simply as the two dishes it does best (Bún thang Bún bò Nam Bộ), this restaurant is located obscurely down the very end of a small alley off a street from the main road. As such, it took us a little bit of searching to get there, and by that time it was coming close to 1.30pm and supposedly the end of lunch hours, as suggested by the proprietor’s polite but impatient urges to have us eat faster.

In any case, ordering is simple. There are only four items on the menu: bún thang, phở bò (beef phở), and phở gà (chicken phở) each at ₫25,000 (US$1.10), and bún bò Nam Bộ at ₫40,000 (US$1.75). As such, ordering comes pretty easy, and the food comes very fast. Both dishes were plentiful in size, so well worth the price they charge.

The bún thang, besides being a little salty and savoury from the broth, has a herbaceous, citrusy flavour which we suspected came from one of the fresh herbs on top. Adding a little vinegar tones down the salt and the slightly greasy mouthfeel, allowing a more full-bodied chicken flavour to arise. A simple but flavourful noodle soup.

As for the bún bò Nam Bộ, what can we say? As refreshing as a vermicelli salad, and the addition of mounds of beansprouts only adds to the texture. It’s smoky, savoury, salty, and sweet, the beef tasting of Vietnamese Maggi seasoning sauce and the roasted peanuts it’s topped with. With tonnes of vegetables and only a little bit of dressing broth, it’s refreshing and light despite its huge, bulky size. Another winner in our books.

Chả Cá (Grilled fish with turmeric and dill)

This dish is arguably Hanoi’s most famous, one that it can fully claim without any need for speculation. In fact, it can be traced back over 100 years ago to a family who used to make this dish for Vietnamese troops during the French colonial period.

With a dish as famous as this, many restaurants attempt to replicate the iconic dish of the Đoàn family by opening restaurants serving their own versions of chả cá along the same road. In fact, with the restaurants all competing for customers, the road soon came to be renamed Chả Cá, after the dish that put it on the map.

So what is chả cá? Translating directly to “grilled fish”, this dish consists of white fish marinated in aromatics, and pan-fried with generous amounts of fresh dill. Because of the turmeric used for the marinade, the fish becomes yellow in colour and is then served by mixing into vermicelli noodles, more fresh herbs and vegetables, roasted peanuts, and a spoonful of the pervasive salty, sweet, savoury nước mắm fish sauce dressing. Besides the marinating, this dish is mostly cooked at the table by diners, making for a fun, hands-on experience.

This dish is an excellent representation of the complex, sophisticated style of cuisine that is Hanoi food. While it was last our last dinner in Vietnam it should be the first on the list of Hanoi to-eat dishes. There’s more restaurants around for you to try it, so there’s no excuse to not give it a go!

Chả Cá Thăng Long

With the growing popularity of Vietnam and Hanoi as a holiday destination for tourists, and the fame surrounding chả cá as a dish, it’s no surprise that there is an abundance of restaurants that specialise in this. A quick search on Foody, the Vietnamese restaurant-reviewing website equivalent to Yelp or Zomato, will yield at least a dozen restaurants with a rating of more than 7.0, which is considered quite good.

In the case of Hanoi, we couldn’t leave without taking advantage of our lovely local friend one last time. She recommended her favourite restaurant for chả cá, which we visited faithfully. Away from the Chả Cá street, we hadn’t expected a large establishment only to find out that they occupied three shopfronts just to accommodate to their customers.

And with the dish being very expensive by local Vietnamese standards (a normal bowl of noodles only sets you back only ₫30,000-40,000 (US$1.30-1.75)), it was a surprise to see how busy it could become on an average weeknight. We were ushered to their third building, across the street from the main restaurant from which they operate.

Walking into the restaurant was a surprise. Because of the method of cooking at the table, the whole restaurant was filled with the smell of cooking, though not fishy in the slightest. Instead, the fragrance of dill frying in the sweet smell of cooking oil reminded us of the similar smell one might find with cooking it in a cream sauce with salmon. Familiar, and very appetite-inducing.

One portion of chả cá here is ₫120,000 (US$5.20), which is not as expensive as they can get. We also asked if we were allowed to share as we weren’t too hungry from having sampled a good quantity of food already that day. They weren’t super stoked about that but they did not bother to argue, so we figure it’s acceptable even if they don’t like it. We know for certain that some of the more famous restaurants will not allow customers to do this, so make sure to follow along with their rules.

With the fish already partly cooked, it only took a couple more minutes before it was done all the way through. They demonstrated serving it up, placing the noodles, a piece of fish, a good portion of dill and herbs in a bowl with peanuts and fish sauce for us to eat.

The sauce is much more limey than typical, probably to offset the fish. Having fried the dill, its mellow in flavour and almost indistinguishable when you take a big mouthful of food. Besides the stunning balance of textures and flavours, the fish is by far the star of the show. It had a layer of fat near the surface that was neither cloying not greasy, providing a lovely, light flavour and moisture to the flaky, perfectly-cooked fish.

Eating it only once was a mistake. We wish we could have eaten more, but we were way too full for another serving. It’s obvious by that one meal as to why it’s the most famous dish of Hanoi. Rich, light, fresh, and beyond flavourful, it’s also number one on our recommendations of what to eat in the old city.

A bonus: Phở Chiên Phồng (fried phở) and Phở Cuốn (phở rolls)

Already we have seen how Hanoi cuisine is so different to its southern counterparts, masterfully created with a much richer combination of flavours contributing to a more sophisticated eating style. Perhaps we can see from this trend how the population enjoy their uniqueness and are always up for adapting to what they have. It’s maybe for that reason that we see another dish that is very popular in Hanoi, though not so much the rest of the country.

Let’s start with phở chiên phồng. Translating to “fried phở”, these are layers of square rice noodle sheets, deep fried to puff up into pillows with crispy shells and soft, chewy middles. As a dish, it comes topped with a saucy stir-fry of vegetables and meat, which dribbles down into the crispy phở beneath.

We think this might be due to influence from Southern China, particularly the Canton area and Hong Kong, whose crispy chow mein noodles are also found in many Cantonese restaurants outside of Asia.

On the other hand, phở cuốn (phở rolls), are rice noodle sheets wrapped around a variety of fillings, much like a very rudimentary spring roll. Though its origins are unclear, the invention is supposed to be the result of a phở restaurant running out of broth and creating the rolls with uncut sheets of noodle. This dish must have taken off, as it’s now found all over Hanoi and enjoyed by many locals.

Phở Cuốn Hương Mai

Possibly one of the most famous places to visit for these two dishes is Phở Cuốn Hương Mai. There are 7 outlets scattered throughout Hanoi. That makes for trying this dish very easy, regardless of where in the city you might be staying, and you know that it’s a popular place for even locals to visit.

The menu is fairly extensive, and admittedly a little pricier than your typical local restaurant in Vietnam. But the choices are also very unique, so it’s worth a go if you’re looking for something a little different. The phở cuốn (₫60,000; US$2.60), served with a bowl of nước mắm for dipping, is a nice light appetiser, its skin silky and the beef and vegetables inside tender.

The phở chiên phồng (₫65,000; US$2.80) was much more decadent, crunchy and drenched with plenty of flavourful gravy, tender beef, and crispy vegetables that made for moreish munchies. A final dish we decided to give a go was the phở chiên trứng (₫65,000; US$2.80), fried phở with egg, though we found that the thin strips of egg soaked in a little too much oil and it ended up being greasy.

We may not have filmed this one but it’s definitely super delicious, and a great place to come if for any reason you’re missing some Cantonese food! It’s fairly similar because of the seasonings used to flavour the gravy.

If you love Hanoi food and want to find out more on where we ate more of their local specialties, you can check out information on the other half of the video here! We cover phở, a dish possibly originating in Hanoi; bún ốc, Hanoi’s answer to Vietnam’s snail delicacies; and xôi, the pervasive sticky rice dish that Hanoi does a little differently.