36 Hours of Street Food in Saigon

Saigon is a city of contrasts. Rickety plastic stools perch on every street corner as locals slurp noodle soup, while high rise sky scrapers and international designer brands cluster in the city centre. The motor bike traffic  is a thick tide of constant blaring horns, and though no road rules or street signs are obeyed, pedestrians are safe walking confidently (though cautiously!) across the road, eyeing up drivers that swerve to avoid them. Though ruled by a communist government that shuts down Facebook and makes parking illegal on days where protests might occur, the economy seems as capitalist as anywhere, and although the Vietnam (or American, as it is called there) War ended only 40 years ago, the people as a whole are as friendly towards Westerners as anywhere in the world.

The best food we experienced in Saigon was not those rated on tripadvisor, or expensive restaurants with extensive menus – it was the outdoor, streetfood vendors and tucked away restaurants specialising in a particular dish, usually packed with locals and priced at $1-3 a head, that were the real finds and lasting memories. If I was to spend just 36 hours experiencing the food of Saigon, this would be my itinerary:

First day:

• Amid the regular tourist activities of the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame, head to The Lunch Lady to refuel. Wildly popular and always packed, she serves up a different bowl of noodle soup for each day of the week, along with spring rolls, fried prawns, and rice paper rolls at a next door stall. Ours was the bun thai, the best bowl of soup of the trip – a sweet and sour broth filled with noodles, morning glory, beef mince and sliced beef, juicy prawns and chilli – and just the thing to slurp down while dripping with sweat in the humid outdoors.
  • 23 Hoang Sa St, District 1, Phường Đa Kao.

• Head to L’usine for a pick-me-up Vietnamese coffee (or a flat white, if you aren’t feeling the condensed milk, ice and strong brewed coffee concoction – though you must try it at least once!) and a sweet treat. In two locations in District 1, L’usine is a boutique cafe and retail escape from the overwhelming sights, smells and sounds of the city. And it is air conditioned.
  • 70 Lê Lợi, Bến Thành, District 1
  • 151/1 Dong Khoi St., 1st Floor, District 1

• In the evening, follow your nose to Banh Mi 37, our favourite of the recommended banh mi sellers in the city. Here, pork patties are coated in a secret barbecue sauce and grilled over coals, then stuffed in warm, crusty Vietnamese baguettes with herbs, pickled vegetables, pate – and more of that epic sauce. A tiny vendor situated in an alley in the Ben Thanh area, watch motorbikes pull up all evening for locals to get their banh mi fix. At less than $1 per banh mi, go crazy and get yourself a couple to feast on. Open from 430pm until they sell out (probably around 7pm).
  • 37 Nguyen Trai, District 1

Second day:

• To breakfast like a local, head to Pho Le for what is apparently one of the best bowls of pho in the city. A steaming bowl of noodles, beef, and spring onion – what could be better?
  • 413-414 Nguyen Trai Street P.7, District 5

• After looking around the Saigon City Hall and Opera House, leg it to the nearby Morning Cafe for your morning coffee fix. Hidden on the second floor of an apartment building and not all that well signed from the street, mark it on your maps before heading out for the morning. Lounge on couches and enjoy the free wifi with that icy Vietnamese coffee – or a decadent cream-topped frappe.
  • 36 Lê Lợi, 2nd Floor, District 1

• For any photographers or boutique shoppers out there, wander down to 14 Ton Dat Dam near the river. A tucked away, abandoned looking apartment building full of tiny shops, cafes and crazy views, it is a less touristy insight into the city and a plain cool place to visit. Just don’t fall down that empty elevator shaft.
  • 14 Ton That Dam, District 1

• Come lunch time, you must try bun thit nuong at Chi Tuyen – one of my favourite dishes of the trip. A heaving bowl of rice noodles, herbs, crispy pork spring rolls, barbecued pork skewers, pickled vegetables, crushed peanuts and fish sauce-lime dressing at just $2 – each mouthful delivers a new level of flavour and texture.
  • Bun Thit Nuong Chi Tuyen – 195 Co Giang St, District 1 

• For a street food dinner entree, head to a vendor located opposite 259 Hai Ba Trung, serving up plates of the best green papaya salad around. Served up with chilli sauce, herbs, beef liver jerky, prawn crisps, and dressing, it is a mix-your-own affair, and best eaten with a Vietnamese coffee on a tiny red stool on the side of the park, watching the traffic rush by. Under $1 per bowl.

• Take a taxi (car or motorbike) to Ốc Quang Anh, a packed seafood restaurant in District 10. Try the snails braised in coconut milk, the grilled scallops with peanuts and spring onions, the barbecue prawns, the clams in lemongrass, and even a fertilized duck egg if you are really keen. Extremely fresh and high quality seafood yet far from breaking the bank – and don’t knock those snails till you’ve tried them!
  • Ốc Quang Anh – 189 Tô Hiến Thành, District 10