A Taste of Saigon: A Foodies Tour of HCM

A new city, a new country and a whole new culture! We landed in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Top tip: don’t buy a landing visa online before you go because they still make you fill out all the paperwork for visa on arrival, make you wait hours and still pay $25 each! 

After an exhaustingly confusing wait we got through passport control and into the anarchy of arrivals. Thankfully we had arranged a driver pick up with our AirBnB hosts and were quick on the road and in bed for a much needed good night sleep. 

Monsoon season acted as our natural alarm clock and after some rather improvised cooking of French toast we jumped in a Grab bound for the city centre. I definitely recommend downloading the Grab App if you’re visiting HCM as it only costs the equivalent of £1-£2 to get most places in the city. Most of our first day was spent avoiding the rain and wandering the city streets. Part crazy Asian city flooded with more mopeds than you could ever imagine and part remaining French colonialism dotted with palm trees. 

We lunched on our first of dose of Vietnamese cuisine at ChiHoa. I ordered a homemade drink with chia seeds and jelly; James was not a fan of this due to the gelatinous lumps but it wasn’t that bad, just different. They brought us shoe string crisps to nibble on to begin whilst we waited for our Grilled Lemongrass Bahn Mi and Caramelised Pork Belly with Coconut Meat. ChiaHoa serves Vietnamese with a street food influence but in a restaurant environment. We sat upstairs by the window and watch the rain pour on the streets outside and were the only diners. I imagine this would be a great place to come with a group in the evening to be able to dine tapas style and enjoy a few different bits. Both our meals were delicious and began our love of Southern Vietnamese food. 

Later that day we enjoyed almost sunset and overpriced cocktails at the Eon Heli Bar, Level 52 Bitexco Financial Tower. Dominating as the current tallest building in Ho Chi Minh the views are worth the kind of sub-standard cocktails which are around the same price as the viewing deck entry fee and I mean come on... cocktails and live music or being completely windswept away at 262 metres; there’s little to ponder here. 

Than night we revelled in beautiful food and fantastic customer service at Den Long Restaurant. We ordered: 

Green rice coated shrimp;

Vietnamese spring rolls; 

Lemongrass and coconut grilled chicken; 

Chicken and coconut rice which is served in a coconut (I still dream of this rice);

Vietnamese vegetables with pork dipping Sauce (the only dish I wouldn’t recommend as the vegetables are extremely bitter);

Pork ribs; and 

Complimentary egg coffee. 

Den Long is vibrant and colourful, decorated with beautiful hanging lanterns and the staff were so attentive. They will happily recommended dishes and our one waiter, Dave, even wrote a list of recommendations for HCM for us to use during the rest of our stay. They even moved us to a different table due to the amount of food we ordered. Our bill was just under £30 and everything, except the vegetables, was utterly delightful.  If you find yourself in Saigon - go! 

If you’ve read previous blog posts of mine then you will know I love a good good market (see Digbeth Dining Club Delights for a review of top class food stalls in the Midlands) so of course the next day we had to venture to Ben Thanh Street Food Market. Recently taken over by the government this market is reliable, clean and safe for our less hardened stomachs to boundlessly explore new flavours. 

After a lap we started at Got Bun? With their Beef Taco’s and Belly Pork Bao. Both were gorgeous. It’s worth noting that the tacos come in a hard shell which I personally think is so much better than the soft versions as they are easier to eat and the crunchy texture elevates the filling so much more. 

Then we shared smoothies and Chicken and Peanut Pad Thai before venturing to the regular market down the road. This was a little full on for me with everyone grabbing you; “oh beautiful lady what do you want?!”, explore with caution and a tight hand clutching anything of mere value! 

That evening we grabbed burgers from Soul Burger. You venture down a tiny corridor/alley way and up some questionable stairs and get rewarded with some pretty good burgers! I can’t remember which one I ordered but it came with avocado and crispy tortilla chips and was a nice change to a regular cheese burger but don’t worry they do plenty of them too! 

As each day passed during our stay in Saigon it grew unbearably hotter. We sought refuge at the War Remnants Museum which is a very raw, sad and real look at the Vietnam War. Be warned this is probably not for the faint hearted and includes some seriously harrowing stories and photographs. A lot of people then visit the War Tunnels afterwards to get a fully immersive perspective of the War but due to the heat we ended up giving this a miss. 

Our chosen activity afterwards was probably one of the least culturally influenced. However, this was 15 years in the making. Yes you guessed it, we went to the cinema to watch Incredibles 2. No regrets. Cinematic history. As this is more of a foodie tour blog to HCM you may be interested to know we dined on salted popcorn and Coca-Cola. 

That evening we decided to venture to ‘backpacker heaven’ (depends which backpacker you’re asking if you ask me) of the Walking Street. We found a really great restaurant called Royal Saigon which had authentic food and wasn’t fully part of the tourist tack that the rest of the street offers. 

What we ate: 

Welcome to Royal Platter: fried spring rolls, fried wontons, grilled minced pork skewer, chicken skewer, shrimp wrapped in potato, fresh spring roll and prawn salad. A really yummy little selection of Vietnamese appetisers. 

Com chien tom hoac ga trung: prawn fried rice with egg and vegetables. Just lip-licking good fried rice. 

Com am phu: a popular dish originating from Hué. Made up of pickled radish and carrot, fresh shiso, Thai basil, lettuce, grilled pork, fried egg, peanuts and rice. Really delicious dish, definitely would recommend.   

Rau Xao thap cam: wok fried seasonal vegetables with garlic and soy sauce. You got to get your greens in and it helps when they are smothered in garlic. 

After dinner we ventured to the infamous Walking Street. Thousands of mini plastic stools, thousands of bottles of beer and thousands or tourists flood the street along with music loud enough to make your ears bleed. We made our rest stop just around the corner at The Chicken Coop and ended up spending the night with a great bunch of Americans until around 5am. Safe to say not a lot was achieved the next day. 

For our last few days we moved to the luxurious Eden Star Hotel. The whole reason we booked was because we arranged for James’s replacement cards to be sent here. However, on arrival they were completely clueless about all the email discussions we had with them regarding this so it turned out to be a chunk of money going straight down the drain of their rooftop pool. The bed is was pretty comfy though and the breakfast service was splendid: silver linings. 

On our second to last night we had a beautiful dinner at ChopSticks restaurant. The service was exemplary and the food delicious. The restaurant was very cold with a severe amount of air conditioning but they were happy to turn them off for my shivering body. 

To start we shared: 

Deep fried seafood spring rolls. The obsession with spring rolls continues to this day and these didn’t disappoint. 

Sweet and sour green papaya and fried beef salad. I’m a huge fan of papaya salad but it is a little different to Western salads but if you’re a fan of fruit in salads then you should try this. Made up of shredded papaya and vegetables, it’s fresh and has a good crunchy texture.  

For mains we shared:

Roasted prawn in garlic rock salt: super yummy by pretty messy as you had to peel the prawns yourself and they were smothered with the garlic salt mixture. 

Stir fried local beef with pineapple: I really liked the pineapple with the beef as it came in a rich sauce as beef usually does due to being a heavier flavoured meat but the sharpness of pineapple lifts it and adds a fruity softness that I will definitely use in future stir-fry’s at home.  

Royal lotus fried rice: more fried rice and again thoroughly enjoyed and devoured. 

Ending with a complimentary dessert of bananas flambéed by the chef at our table. Go here for a special evening or a splurge after too much street food. For Vietnam and for backpackers this place really is a splurge. If you want something nice without spending too much then go to Den Long, if it’s your birthday or something then go splash out at ChopSticks. 

Our last day was spent on the rooftop pool and for our last dinner we followed Dave’s recommendations and headed to Pizza 4P’s. There are loads all over the city but we chose the one near the Ben Thanh Market. We shared a starter of cheesy mash potato with crisp bread which was super yummy. Mash potato will forever be the warmest hug that food can offer. 

For mains we shared the Chicken Teriyaki Pizza which came topped with thinly sliced nori which was something neither of us had experienced on a pizza before but it complimented the teriyaki well. We also ordered the Burrata Bolognese Spaghetti because burrata is the best and you can’t really be disappointed with it. Take delight in breaking the cheese ball open and pulling gooey goodness all over the pasta. 

Pizza 4P’s can be found all around Ho Chi Minh and in Hanoi and are a good choice for when you’ve eaten too much rice. For a chain the interior is sleek and sophisticated. The price tag is a little higher than what you pay in a little Vietnamese place but hey sometimes you just gotta grab a slice. 

One place we didn’t manage to visit and so wish we did was what I called the ‘chocolate box building’. It’s halfway down Nguyen Hué Boulevard (which has the statue of Ho Chi Minh at the top) and is a building full of of different shops, bars and cafes. 

We didn’t love Ho Chi Minh but I think that’s just due to the heat and that we spent far too long there. We did love the food that we dined on there and it is a haven for your stomach. 

Love, Rachael x