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.
8 guides cover Ba Đình
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: 20 dishes (and where to try them)
A no-fluff list of the 20 dishes that define a stay in Hanoi, in the rough order you should try them, with one recommended stall for each.
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.