Hanoi’s best street food: 10 essential eats starting from 76 cents

Banh Mi 25

Australians love a banh mi. And the Hanoi version is better than a cab driver who actually knows the shortcut . Banh Mi 25 is a husband-and-wife street stall that’s been running since 2014. The titular special is a slathered baguette, crunchy shelled but silky inside, filled with juicy pork, chicken, beef or mushroom crunched up by tangy salad ($2). Even better is a deconstructed version where meat, pate and eggs are pan-fried with toasty baguettes to sop up any excess ($4). 25 Hang Ca St, Hoan Kiem

Tam Vi

Seven dishes for $70? It’s high-falutin’ dining in Hanoi. But for Australians abroad it’s a steal. Tam Vi is a “real” restaurant — an ancient tea house full of antiques sprawling across an upper level and courtyard out back. It’s Michelin-starred not for the service but its home-style North Vietnamese specials: pillowy garlic tofu, caramelised pork belly, crab soup, zinging prawn papaya salad, periwinkle snails in ham. And it’s BYO! 4B Yen The Street, Dien Bien

Tuyết Bún Chả 34

Bun cha is the go-to lunch in Hanoi, and Tuyết is an unpretentious temple to the dish. In a shop the size of a cricket pitch, char grilled pork is dive bombed into a lightly spiced broth — 50 per cent soup, 50 per cent vinaigrette, 100 per cent delicious. Noodles luxuriate in the bowl with salad and spring rolls riding shotgun. A belly filler for $2.80. 34 Hang Than St, Nguyen Trung Truc

Pho Ga 188

By day it’s an empty alley. At night a guy trundles out a rusty cart and stockpot fragrant with broth and a bag of veg and bones. He submerges rice noodles into the silky pho, whips them into a dervish, slides them into a bowl, adds morning glory greens and hunks of chicken to detonate a $4 flavour bomb with a slick of glossy collagen bubbles on top. Smile and he might add a few quẩy — fried dough batons for mopping up. 188 Hang Bong St, Hoan Kiem

Vi Anh Coffee

The number one fear for Aussie travellers is to go without good coffee. Fear not in Hanoi. Vietnam is the world’s second biggest producer of beans and at Vi Anh (“hit”) they put them to potent use from a colonial mansion that’s open ‘til midnight. Try kooky local brews like salt coffee, egg coffee or coconut coffee, hot or iced, with condensed milk for $2. 37B Nguyễn Hữu Huân

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Trung Chen Huong Co Ty

“An egg is always an adventure,” Oscar Wilde said. Particularly true in Vietnam. Locals fancy balut —a fertilised duck egg incubated for 2-3 weeks then boiled but Miss Company serves quail eggs sizzled in a saucer over an open grill with pork floss, scallion oil and butter. It’s the size of a standard fried egg but four yolks means 10 times the flavour. All for 13k (76c). 32 Hoi Vu, Hang Bong, Hoan Kiem

Phở 10 Lý Quốc Sư

Phở originated in Hanoi as a marriage of French-Chinese influences. Here, in a buzzing corner shop with plastic stools and tables laden with bowls of red and yellow chillis, phở bo is an art form. Phở 10 offers a dozen beef cuts to pair with a luxurious clear broth deep in delicious mystery, all displayed in the window where a chef bored with his own brilliance ladles out rare or “half done” chin (brisket), nạm (flank), bắp trần (fillet) or tendon for $2.80.

10 Ly Quoc Su Street, Hang Trong Ward

Chả cá Thăng Long

Michelin-endorsed and 30 years old, this diner is so good it has three outlets on the one street. ROAM’s favourite is the old yellow manor at 6B where you enter through a courtyard of bamboo. The star here is cá lăng — a redtail catfish from the Mekong River basin you’ll often see live at markets. Here its lush, low-fat flesh comes spiced with turmeric and grilled in banana leaves or in a herbier version with noodles in a hot pot ($8). 6B Duong Thanh St, Cua Dong Ward

Banh Cuon Mrs Xuan

Beloved by North Vietnamese children, bánh cuốn starts as a batter of rice flour and tapioca starch spread so thin as to be translucent. At Mr Xuan’s dinky diner it’s stuffed with pork and “black fungus”, a mushroom resembling an elf’s ear. Ask for “mọi thứ” (the works) and your folded steam clouds land with a poached egg, meatloaf and a chilli lime dipping sauce. 16 Hoe Nhai Street, Nguyen Trung Truc

Hanoi Beer

In humid Vietnam, cold beer is food and a vital sidekick to the salty, spicy, oily dishes on this list. Bia Hà Nội, brewed locally from a French formula since 1890, is cheap ($1-2), delicious, and essential to maintaining hydration and complimenting the flavours of Hanoi. Chúc mừng!