Special Food Restaurant
Add: No.285, Street 4, Him Lam Ward, Dien Bien Phu City, Dien Bien Province
Tel: 023.811199
Lien Tuoi Restaurant
Add: No. 27, Street 8, Muong Thanh Ward, Dien Bien Phu City, Dien Bien Province
Tel: 023824919
Manager: Nguyen Quy Tuoi |
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The cafes along Hung Vuong street are good places to meet people and swap travellers' tales.
Mandarin Cafe
Tel: 821 281
Email:
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Add: 12 Hung Vuong
Dishes: 5000-50.000d
Opened: 6.30am-10.30pm
A magnet for travellers, it recently moved down the road to make way for a five-star hotel. The cheerful owner, Mr Cu, speaks English and French and is full of useful travel advice; he's also been consistently improving his services since the first LP mention # a rare breed indeed.
Minh & Coco Mini Restaurant
Tel: 821 822
Add: 1Hung Vuong
Mains: 10,000-30,000d
Opened: 6.30am-late
Run by two lively sisters, this hole in the wall is fast gaining a reputation as a fun place Lo get an inexpensive feed.
Xuan Trang Cafeteria
Tel: 832 480
Add: 14A Hung Vuong
Mains: 10,000-30,000d
Come here for cheap and filling food. There's a good vegetarian selection and there's usually a crowd.
Phuong Nam Cafe
Tel: 822 037
Add: 5 Hung Vuong
Mains: 10,000-30,000d
This little eatery claims to have been voted 'best food in Hue by international travellers'. A little pre-ordained, perhaps? But it is always busy and has good, cheap food.
Stop & Go Cafe
Tel: 889 106
Add: 4 Ben Nghe
Mains: 10,000-70,000d
A sort of indoor-outdoor cafe run by Mr Do, a silver-haired painter who ensures the cafe's .slightly eccentric air. The house specialities are banh khoai (savoury rice pancakes) and nem lui (grilled kebabs thai you roll yourself and dip into peanut sauce). Fish and meat dishes are pretty pricey, but it's a good spot for a beer.
Tropical Garden Restaurant
Tel: 847 143
Add: 27 Chu Van An
Mains: 30,000-80,000d
From 6.30pm
This is a popular place with a choice of dining in the attractive main building, or outdoors in a delightful garden. It specialises in central-Vietnamese cuisine, and is presently the best place in Hue to catch a traditional music performance (from 7pm nightly).
Club Garden
Tel: 826 327
Add: 8 D Vo Thi Sau
Mains: 30,000-80,000d
From 6.30pm
So popular has Tropical Garden proved that the owners have opened this place, dishing up the same diet.
Song Huong Floating Restaurant
Tel: 823 738
Dishes: 20,000-50,000d
From 8am-9pm
Top location for this place, right on the bank of the Perfume River, just north of Trang Tien Bridge. The food includes Vietnamese and other Asian standards, but it's not bad for a sundowner, soaking up the river breeze.
Tinh Tam
Tel: 823 572
Add: 12 Chu Van An
Dishes 10,000-25,000d
Here they take mock meat to new places, with a signature 'deer' with black pepper and lemongrass or 'tuna' with tomato. Even die-hard meat eaters will appreciate the meals here.
Dong Tam
Tel: 828 403
Add: 48/7 Le Loi
Set lunch or dinner 25,000d
Set in a garden on 'budget alley', this low-key place has some of the best Vietnamese vegetarian fare in town and prices remain really low. Rice-resist ant alter a few weeks in-country? There is also the choice of French, Italian and Indian on this side of the river.
La Carambole
Tel: 810 491
Add: 19 Pham Ngu Lao
Meals 25,000-75,000d
Try this extravagantly decorated place for a good range of French-style dishes, including steaks and grills. Good Vietnamese dishes and seafood to keep everyone happy, plus a healthy wine list.
Little Italy
Tel: 826 928
Add: 2A Vo Thi Sau
Pastas: 35,000d
Pizzas: 45,000
Set in one of Hue's hangovers from the Soviet era, don't be put off by the exterior, as inside await the best pizzas and pasta in town.
Omar Khayyam's Indian Restaurant
Tel: 821 616
Add: 100 Nguyen Tri Phuong
Curries 30,000-60,000d
On the verge of becoming a national curry house in Vietnam, there are branches in several cities. Low on atmosphere, but high on flavours for those craving a curry.
There's a cafe (2 Le Loi; dishes 10,000-30,000d) in the grounds of Le Loi Hue Hotel, and Cafe 3 Le Loi (824 514, dishes 7000-20,000d), just across- the street, also serves up fine food. They're both neai the train station and ov pecially handy to cram in the calories before a long train ride. |
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Considering the number of travellers to Sapa, organised entertainment is relatively scarce and the bar scene slow. For most, an evening out is the guesthouse balcony, particularly if the fog rolls in.
Bamboo Bar (Green Bamboo Hotel; Cau May street)
The first Western-style watering hole to open in Sapa and it's still going strong in the basement of a grand building.
Bamboo Sapa (Cau May street)
Next door to the Bamboo Bar, there's a free traditional hill-tribe music-and-dance show here from 8.30pm Friday and Saturday.
Red Dragon Pub (Tel: 872 085; 23 Muong Hoa street)
Downstairs is a tiny little tearoom; upstairs a British pub. They knock out a serious range of beers, as any good pub should, including ginseng flavour.
Tau Bar (Tel: 871 322; 42 Cau May street)
Claiming to be 'slightly lounge', Tau brings a different kind of cool to the mountains of the north. A lengthy bar to lean on, great tunes and a pool table suggest this place will prosper.
Victoria Sapa Hotel (Tel: 871 522)
Offers two bars or a terrace for a sundowner in style. Drinks cost more than elsewhere in town, but the ambience is alluring on a cold night. |
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Compared to what you would pay for fine Vietnamese food abroad, HCMC's better Vietnamese restaurants arc a bargain. It's possible to eat like royalty in a fancy upmarket restaurant for around US$10 for lunch - or US$25 for dinner - per person. Aspiring interior designers will enjoy checking out the ethnic decor at many of the better places.
Lemon Grass
Add: 4 Nguyen Thiep street
Tel: 822 0496
One of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the city centre. You would be hard-pressed to find anything bad on the menu, so if you can't decide what to order just pick something at random. Two women in traditional costume play musical instruments while you eat.
Mandarine
Add: 11A Ngo Van Nam street
Tel: 822 9783
The fine selection of traditional dishes on offer draws from southern, central and northern cooking styles. The food is superb, and the pleasant decor and traditional music performances make it an all-round good bet. A house speciality worth trying is the Hanoi-style cha ca.
Hoi An
Add: 11D Le Thanh Ton street
Tel: 823 7694
Email:
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Just down the street from Mandarine - and run by the same people -is this lovely, Chinese-style place decorated in a classical, antique motif. Hoi An specialises in central Vietnamese and imperial Hue-style dishes, and has the heaviest wooden chairs in Vietnam!
Indochine
Add: 32 Pham Ngoc Thach street, District 3
Tel: 823 9256
Email:
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Set menu: US$8-20
Nestled in a French-style villa, with wait-staff dressed in tradilional garb, Indochine's atmosphere is serene and elegant. Try the grilled prawn cakes, or the banana-flower salad (goi bap chuoi); there's an excellent wine list as well. Traditional music is performed from 7.30pm to 9.30pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening. |
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Travel Guide 
