Hanoi Street Food Guide: Old Quarter Tours, Cooking & Egg Coffee
Hanoi is one of the world's great eating cities, and the Old Quarter is its open-air kitchen — steaming pho, smoky bun cha, crisp banh mi and the city's famous egg coffee, all sold from low plastic stools. Here is how to eat your way through it, from a guided food walk to a hands-on cooking class and a cold bia hoi on Ta Hien Street.
At a glance
- 1Pho and bun cha in the Old Quarter
- 2Hands-on Vietnamese cooking class
- 3Egg coffee break
- 4Beer o'clock on Ta Hien Street
A guided food walk
The easiest way in is a small-group walking tour of the Old Quarter, where a local guide leads you between the stalls that only regulars know. Expect five to eight tastings — pho, bun cha, banh cuon, fresh spring rolls — often with a stop on the railway-track Train Street. Tours run from about $25 and usually last three hours, so come hungry and skip lunch.
Learn to cook it
To take the flavours home, join a Vietnamese cooking class. Most begin with a market walk to pick herbs, rice noodles and street-food staples, then you cook three to five dishes such as pho, fresh spring rolls and bun cha under a local chef, from around $40. Classes run morning or afternoon and are a good rainy-day plan; book a day ahead as the small kitchens fill up fast.
Egg coffee and Ta Hien Street
No Hanoi food day is complete without ca phe trung — egg coffee — a rich custard of whipped yolk and condensed milk over strong Vietnamese coffee, yours for around ₫30,000 or on a dedicated coffee-making workshop. As evening falls, head to Ta Hien, the Old Quarter's famous beer street, where tiny stools spill onto the pavement and a glass of fresh bia hoi costs just a few thousand dong.
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