Hanoi street food guide: pho, banh mi and the Old Quarter

Hanoi does not really do restaurants in the Western sense; it does dishes. A shop that has made one thing for three generations, a pavement of low plastic stools, a queue that tells you everything you need to know. The Old Quarter — 36 streets historically named for their trades — is the densest eating district in Vietnam, and almost everything worth tasting costs only a few pounds.

• Best eating hours: pho at breakfast, bun cha at lunch, beer and grills after dark
• What it costs: most street dishes cost around 40,000–70,000 dong — roughly £1.50–£2.50
• Cash: small notes rule the pavement; cards are for cafés and hotels
• When to visit: October to December and March to April bring the kindest weather
• Etiquette: sit where there is a queue of locals; menus are short for a reason

Pho, the morning ritual

Start at Pho Gia Truyen on Bat Dan Street, one of the city's most revered beef pho shops. The queue moves fast: pay, point to your cut — rare (tai) or well-done brisket (chin) — and carry your own bowl to a shared table. The broth is dark, beefy and unapologetically simple; northern pho skips the herb platters of the south.

For a heretical second bowl, cross town to Pho Thin on Lo Duc Street, where the beef is flash-fried in garlic before it meets the broth — a richer, smokier style that Hanoians argue about endlessly.

Banh mi and bun cha

Banh Mi 25, on Hang Ca Street in the Old Quarter, has become the traveller's benchmark for good reason: crisp baguettes, house pâté, grilled pork and pickles, assembled to order. Take it to Hoan Kiem Lake and eat by the water.

Lunch belongs to bun cha — smoky grilled pork patties in a sweet-sour dipping broth with rice noodles and herbs. Bun Cha Huong Lien on Le Van Huu Street is the famous one: this is where Anthony Bourdain and Barack Obama shared a table in 2016, and the 'Combo Obama' (bun cha, a fried seafood roll and a Hanoi beer) is still on the menu. It is touristy now and still good.

The turmeric fish ceremony

Cha Ca La Vong, on the street that came to be named after the dish (Cha Ca Street), has served essentially one item for over a century: la vong fish, marinated with turmeric and galangal, finished at your table in a sizzling pan with dill and spring onions, and eaten with noodles, peanuts and shrimp paste. Several imitators nearby do it well too — the dish, not the address, is the point.

Egg coffee and a nightcap

End at Cafe Giang, tucked down an alley off Nguyen Huu Huan Street, where Nguyen Van Giang invented ca phe trung — egg coffee — in 1946 when milk was scarce. Whipped egg yolk and condensed milk sit over dark robusta like a warm custard cloud. After dark, join the crowds on Ta Hien Street, 'beer street', for bia hoi — fresh draught beer brewed daily and sold for pennies — with grilled skewers and fried corn.

Portions are small and prices low, so treat the city as a tasting menu: five or six stops a day is entirely reasonable.

Tip: Eat your most ambitious street food at the busiest stalls before 8pm — high turnover means fresh ingredients, and the best shops simply close when the day's pot runs out.