Ba Đình
The political district, west of the centre. Home to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and a strong concentration of phở and bún ốc stalls around Trúc Bạch Lake.
12 guides cover Ba Đình
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.
Five quiet Hanoi bowls visitors walk straight past
Bún mọc, bánh đúc nóng, miến gà, cháo sườn and bánh giò — the everyday dishes Hanoians eat constantly and no guidebook lists. None of them cost more than two dollars.
Phở beyond the bowl: phở xào and phở trộn
The same noodle, without the soup. Stir-fried until the edges char, or tossed cold with peanuts and herbs — two dishes that solve the problem of wanting phở in July.
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.
Xôi: the best two-dollar breakfast in Hanoi
Sticky rice from a basket on the pavement, with mung bean crumble and fried shallots. Xôi is the cheapest genuinely great breakfast in the city, and it is gone by nine.
Bún ốc: Hanoi's most underrated bowl
Freshwater snails in a sharp tomato-and-vinegar broth, served hot or — rarer and better — cold. Bún ốc is the Hanoi speciality visitors almost never find.
Bánh cuốn: the twenty-second rice sheet
Bánh cuốn is made in front of you — a ladle of batter spread over stretched cloth, lidded, lifted, filled and rolled in under half a minute. Here is how to order it and where in Hanoi to look.
Phở gà: why Hanoi's chicken bowl beats the beef one
Phở gà is lighter, cleaner and far easier to eat at six in the morning than phở bò — and the stalls that sell only chicken are usually the best phở stalls on the street.
Phở cuốn: Hanoi rolls its phở, and Ngũ Xã is where you eat it
Phở cuốn is phở noodle unrolled into a sheet and wrapped around grilled beef — cold, cheap, eaten with your hands. Here is what to order on Ngũ Xã, what it costs, and why it is the best cheap date in Hanoi.
Hanoi 3-day food itinerary: the route I'd send my mum on
Three days, three meals a day, nine neighborhoods. A pace-it-properly Hanoi food trip with morning, lunch and dinner stops, plus what to do between meals.
What to eat in Hanoi: the complete food guide (2026)
The best food in Hanoi, dish by dish — 20 must-try dishes in the order to eat them, what each costs, when it is sold, and a full index of every dish guide on this site.
Best phở in Hanoi: a street-by-street guide
Where Hanoians actually eat phở — clear-broth phở bò, the chicken-only stalls, and the late-night bowls that locals defend with surprising passion.