Takeaway:

For ease of reference, these are our top picks to visit in Hanoi. Ctrl+ F to read more about each.

Must-go:

• Acid8 (cafe)
• Banh Mi 25 (banh mi)
• Banh Mi, Ngo Hang Chuoi 2 (banh mi)
• Bao Wow (bao)
• Bia Hoi anywhere and everywhere (bia hoi)
• Blackbird Coffee (cafe)
• Bookworm (bookstore)
• Bún Bò Nam Bộ Bách Phương (bun bo nam bo)
• Bún Chả – Nem Rán 41 Cửa Đông (bun cha)
• Bun Cha Hang Manh (bun cha)
• Chon, manual coffee maker (cafe)
• La Badiane (French food)
• Nguyen Sinh Bread (banh mi)
• Pasteur Street Brewery (craft beer)
• Pizza 4P’s (two locations, both great pizza. Trang Tien more majestic. Both serve pizzas that are miles ahead of Dihyang)
• Spicy Pho Bay (best pho bo)
• The Clover (fine dining)
• Turtle Lake Brewing (craft beer)

Can-go:

• Bun doc mang
• Cafe Nang (get a road-side seat and watch the world go by)
• Cha ca thang long
• Cong Caphe
• Ha Long Bay (a day trip will do)
• Kafeville (cafe)
• Manzi (cafe with great ambience)
• Oriberry
• Pho 10 (pho bo)
• Pho Gia Truyen (pho bo)
• Quan An Ngon (street food court)
• tênh (yoghurt coffee)

Hanoi is a city of chaos. Motorbikes and cars flow in and out from every direction, gleefully ignoring the trappings of modern traffic: street dividers, traffic lights, and one-way streets, for starters. The horn is used freely and expressively, often as an almost-affable way to indicate your presence. Equally as often, a lone walker strolls casually into the midst of the free-for-all towards a taxi that does a brisk U-turn and halts abruptly in the middle of the road. It’s bat-shit insane. And you get to watch it from the front row view of the stalls that line every street. There are stools, tables, sizzling grills and steaming pots of soup sprawling out into the river of bikes, back into the dark alleys and out from every other conceivable breathing space in the city.

In the day, it’s abuzz in the sun-drenched Moon Hooch cacophony of honking bikes. At night, once the sun sneaks away, Hanoi reveals its many wonders: the burgeoning craft beer scene (in its infancy compared to Saigon, but quickly growing), the cheap Grab-bike rides, the well-priced excellent-tasting French food and finder fare, and at the center of its gastronomic galaxy, the street food.

I love Penang‘s street food passionately but Hanoi really feels superior and near insuperable in this respect. There are fresh finds everywhere you look. Just follow the crowd. Follow the dozens of bodies packed on to tiny stools and tiny tables, feasting away as the stall owners fiddle away at their miniscule makeshift chimneys.

Pho 10, 10 Ly Quoc Su:

I honestly haven’t had a sensational bowl of pho. But spend enough time in Hanoi, and the body begins to gravitate towards it (well, both towards pho and banh mi). Bun cha is the real revelation of Hanoi – an extravagant, flamboyant, almost loutish assault on the tastebuds – whereas pho is its quiet, subtle, deeply nourishing cousin. And eventually you realize there isn’t a comparable experience for pho outside of this slice of the world.

You sit on a low stool and soak in the surroundings and by the end of the bowl, understand ever so slightly more about yourself. You realise there’s an emptiness inside that can’t and won’t and likely never will be completely filled up but, as ridiculous as it sounds, this bowl of pho has helped you come to terms with that fact. And it’s pho that did it! Not your friends, who are largely girls who are not really friends but more of people you talk at without response, not the actual trip to Hanoi to find yourself because hey, you’re there wherever you are, you don’t need to get out of the country for that, and not even the days of solitude away from the horrors of work.

And it’s an understanding that comes and goes, that ebbs and flows like the crashing waves of depression and anxiety and self-hatred, and sometimes you’ll be numb and sometimes you won’t, but for a few minutes after finishing this bowl, at least, you are one with the melancholy and the understanding that this will last forever and perhaps the best you can do is to recall these few moments of post-pho peace.

And it’s still somewhat surprising that you (sorry, I) came by this revelation without alcohol or drugs or the freshly-purchased tomes of philosophy; it’s surprising that this moment of clarity was sparked by sitting on a stool across a street where the law has no power, a street 2000-odd km from home, and if that isn’t the most magical experience there is, I don’t know what is.

But Pho 10 specifically is a pretty satisfying pho bo. Nice subtle, almost understated broth, beef slices (half-done, of course) that melt in the mouth, and a chilli that gives it a robust, velvety finish. You do have to queue up, but it’s worth it. As perhaps the most recognizable Vietnam dish outside of the country, chances are high you’ve tried an inferior version of this soup. It’s worth expunging those past memories and starting afresh with Pho 10. Is it the best pho bo though? Not quite. For that, head over to Spicy Pho Bay by the West Lake.

The broth is ruddy bloody delicious. The homemade chili sauce is blisteringly, searingly spicy, so please for the love of God, go easy on it. Best pho I’ve had in Vietnam? Probably. Only gripe? Would have preferred tripe and offal, but eh, it’s still great without. Also would have loved an option to add on even more beef.

And also, I noticed a lot of the locals eating fried rice here? What’s up with that. Maybe try it out the next time you’re here and let me know.

Banh Mi 25, 25 Hang Ca:

Bloody good bread, coupled with a smooth, rich pâté and delectable meat slices add up to one of the better Banh Mi I’ve had. The place seems more tourist-slanted than the regular banh mi outpost (which are, basically, everywhere), but at RM10 for coffee and a sandwich that tastes as good as this, it’s difficult to complain. Worth a visit.

tênh has a pretty decent coffee and yoghurt version (nicer than Xofa’s). Try it out there. Egg coffee is pretty silly, this yoghurt coffee isn’t. Suitably tasty, in a cute little spot. Emphasis on little.

Cha Ca Thang Long:

Cha Ca refers to a specific (and very famous) Hanoi fish dish purportedly originating from Cha Ca Va Long. Unfortunately the pioneer restaurant has been garnering a swathe of negative reviews lambasting it for being excessively expensive as well as nosediving in quality. Cha Ca Thang Long came out sounding much rosier online so we give it a shot. A set costs USD 8 and gets you the fish chunks (with the rice noodles and herbs), your choice of Hanoi beer or a soft drink, green tea and a banana. All in all, a pretty good value meal.

This place is not quite the transcendental experience the New Yorker made it out to be, but tame your expectations and you’ll leave satisfied. The fish itself is tender, buttery, almost decadent. The herbs add an extra layer, balancing and cutting through the richness in equal measures. Plus it’s always nice being able to watch a dish cooked in front of you.

Bia Hoi @ Bat Dan and everywhere else:

This is a sweet, syrupy beer with the faintest traces of hops. It’s addictively sweet and light. It pairs well with watching the crazy streets on a cooling Sunday night, as well as with something spicy like, uh, snails with chilli and lemongrass. I could see it going great with a movie marathon too. Or with a simple lunch on a hot clammy day. Or anytime really. And it’s everywhere in Hanoi, with each different place serving substantially different brews. This particular one we had was fruitier and sweeter than most other places. For the sake of brevity, I will not be creating separate entries for each Bia Hoi place I tried throughout the Hanoi trips. I remember being brought to one that served a pretty great version, but regret to note that most of that late night is a blur and I can’t recall which street I was on.

Bun Doc Mang @ 18 Bat Dan:

Delicious, hearty stuff. There’s some sort of vegetable, plenty of ground pork, pork slices, and pork ribs. What a way to start a morning. Good old porky soup.

Bún Chả Hàng Mành, 1 Hàng Mành:

My flagging spirits needed picking up after the Ninh Binh excursion (long story short, it’s not really worth a visit), and my very first plate of Bun Cha (ever!) was just the thing to do it. The grilled pork is exquisite. The entire meal is an involved activity. Tear off an assortment of herbs. Pick them up with the rice noodles and a piece of the juicy pork and dip them all into the sweet-and-fish-sauce tangy soup. Add fish sauce and fiery chilli and lime. Go for the spring rolls this time. Dunk the noodles again. Repeat.

And of course we can’t forget Bún Chả – Nem Rán 41 Cửa Đông, i.e. the best damn bun cha I’ve tasted. Gloriously good, and perfectly exquisitely balanced between the smoky, smoky grilled pork, the sweet dipping sauce, the fish sauce, the fiery chili, the lime etc etc etc. They say Vietnamese dishes are all about balance, and this bowl right here is living proof alright. A delightful little bastard that’ll haunt our dreams until the next Hanoi visit.

And just for the benefit of the few people who don’t know bun cha (where were you when Obama blew this up like one of his drone attacks), you basically tear a bunch of herbs (as with most bowls in Hanoi, you get a whopping serving platter of herbs), and throw them into the dipping broth, then dip your rice noodles in like it’s some kind of tsukemen. And God, does it taste good. It tastes like happiness. Not that I’d know. Anyway, check this joint out if you’re in town. Best rendition I’ve had so far.

Pasteur Street Brewing

Well, I loved Pasteur St. in Saigon. Had some great great beers there. In particular, I remember that bizarre watermelon Jolly Rancher, wow.

The visit to Pasteur St. Hanoi was…not quite as great, but still pretty good.

It’s a bit warm inside though. The beers on tap when I was there were alright. The super qt bartender was probably the best part. I had the Jasmine IPA (6.5 % ABV) – always solid, and still very good. Straightforward and ‘clean’ with mild hoppiness. As good a way as any to start the night. Plus decent enough kick without the over-assertiveness of some IPAs.

Also had the Kentucky Common which was a bit sour, a bit malty, a bit sticky-sweet, a bit bourbon-y. Generally alright but would have preferred a much thicker body and mouthfeel.

Also had the Nitro Irish Stout – Guinness on steroids, basically. Lovely creaminess and a rich roasted toastiness. Tasty.

Food menu looked interesting too. In particularly, the toasted beer bread with BBQ jackfruit, Da Lat avocado and grilled cherry tomatoes. And the chicken wings with spicy passionfruit. Expensive, of course.

Pizza 4P’s @ Trang Tien

Can’t overstate how ridiculously beautiful this place is. It’s like a rejuvenated castle inside.

For starters, we went for the 4P’s cider + two small pieces of camembert. 95k well worth it IMO:

The cider is bloody delicious. Pineapples, hops and whey water from their very own Da Lat dairy farm. It’s the whey from their own cheese! Sustainable stuff, folks. And what a gorgeous can. The camembert by itself is very tasty, sure, but having it with the cider is intensely delicious. Almost brings tears to the eyes. So good. You get the delicate creamy cheese (without being too thick and rich) that tastes almost like some sort of light essence of camembert and it almost blends and melts away into the cider.

Also, jazz on the airwaves here. God, it’s almost like Japan but with more space and higher ceilings.

The other 4P’s beers are alright. Kagua Roast is a collab with Far Yeast Brewing from Tokyo and it’s alright with a light malt taste initially and very strong sansho ending. Dalat Whey Stout is a nice, refreshing, crisp, light stout. Not as thick and creamy as my favorites but pretty balanced.

Had the burrata with parma ham here, and made the mistake of getting the ‘dry’ one without a tomato base. Would definitely recommend the pomodoro base version. Nevertheless, still had a fantastic experience with the pizza. Relatively thin and slightly crunchy crust. Excellent pizza. Huge portion btw. The crust is not as chewy as W.O.P.’s and not as salty but it’s good in its own way. I prefer W.O.P.s’s crust but the cornicione there was too puffy and doughy. Also, lovely burrata here at Pizza 4P’s. The cheese quality is excellent. Better than W.O.P.’s.

So basically a few steps below Japan, a step above W.O.P., multiple ladders above Dihyang.

Pizza 4P’s @ Bao Khanh is great too.

It’s a smaller place but worth the visit. Feels cozier and for some reason, had a lot more Koreans there during lunch. Margherita was delicious. Great dough. Still slidy and wet the Neapolitan style, but the dough is just so much tastier than Dihyang. Such a satisfying margherita. And you don’t have to pay an absolute fuckton for it.

Chon, manual coffee maker.

Gorgeous place tucked away down an alley. Leather goods and rucksacks inside. French jazz-pop, retro-pop, film cameras, vibes for days. Sadly no v60 on the day I went, only hand-pressed espresso on the ROK. Was alright. Lovely space anyway. Better luck to you on your next visit, try to get the filter if you can. Only 50-65k for hand drip. Great place to chill too, far away from the choir of bike horns.

Acid8 is a gem of a cafe. 65k for V60 (gotta love the filter prices here, only about RM 12!), and a very good v60 at that. One of the best I’ve had in Hanoi. Beautiful place, love the hue of reddish-brown, almost like Provisions. Perfect place to work at, tbh. Nice and quiet. Jazz. Pleasant temperature. Right up there with Blackbird for my top 2 fave cafes in Hanoi.

La Badiane

Bloody impressive.

Very nice interiors. Like the setting, it’s almost casual bistro, a bit like Yeast.

Hate it when places don’t give filtered water and it’s only still or sparkling. But it’s quite funny to see them present a plastic La Vie bottle like it’s some top tier mineral water. Not so funny when it’s RM 10 though.

Also, the tables are a bit too high for the chairs.

All that aside, food was great. Degustation menu for dinner was very solid. Amuse bouche – delicious prawn bisque. Mussel done perfectly. Leek nice and sweet. Starter #1: poached egg, salmon, artichoke, muhsrooms. Good bread and excellent smoked salmon. The grilled artichoke close to perfection. Would be even better if they’d used a banh mi bread from outside lol.

Starter #2: foie gras terrine, chocolate stuff, cacao nibs, orange sauce. The terrine with the banana-orange sauce is so ridiculously good. Just a perfect pairing. One of the most delicious foie gras dishes I’ve had. Smearing the terrine and sauce on the toast is just pure pleasure. Magnifique. Could I have this everyday please?

Main dish: I chose veal. The veal was near-perfect. Crunchy exterior crust. Succulent inside. Risotto nice but too filling. 6 courses with wine is hefty stuff, as it turns out. The 5-spice sauce is great too. Can’t help but feel a bit of grain mustard / mustard would really kick it up a notch though. Personally didn’t appreciate the risotto going with it – too rich, creamy, and fatty.

Goat cheese, arugula: this was so-so for me. Way too rich after the risotto anyway. Borderline sickening.

Pistachio ice cream etc: pretty good. Slightly too sweet.

Overall, great meal, great value. Would definitely return. Keen to try the cheap business lunches too.

Bun bo nam bo bach phuong. It’s beef salad. I had it two days in a row. It’s great. Almost like the opposite of bun cha. The noodles are warm and the beef is slightly cold. It’s dry as in soupless but it’s certainly not DRY. Add condiments and sauces for more flavors, and it still remains remarkably balanced. Light, refreshing, invigorating. Perfect breakfast, really.

Blackbird Coffee – two locations in town and both are great. Spent so much time here and was completely worth it. Their pourovers are delicious. Arabica Catimor, Da Lat. Very tasty. Very pretty place(s). The one at 63 Lan Ong is much larger. Reminiscent of the original-VCR and Ome by Spacebar in its large, spacious design. Also, the courtyard area with lots of natural lighting and lush greenery. Chet Baker on the airwaves. Great espresso too btw. Very very tasty. In fact one of my favorite espressos ever. Also, perfect place to work/study (at the 63 Lan Ong branch, at least).

Turtle Lake Brewing Co. is my favorite craft beer spot in town. Owned by a Vietnamese. Not the prettiest of places but location is fantastic. Out near West Lake. And West Lake is really idyllic and peaceful. The Grab Bike ride from Old Quarter to West Lake is very long and pretty damn fun.

Mango smoothie (7.5% ABV IPA) is luscious. Not too bitter, but just hoppy enough to lightly tingle. Delicious. 100k VND so only about RM 18 for 330ml. Boy oh boy. Prices a bit cheaper than Pasteur across the board. And what a great setting to drink at, watching the breeze filter through fluttering leaves, the shimmering waves on the lake visible through the two large red gates.

Simple Paddy is okay, not great. Helmet Boy Saison is sassy and spicy. New England IPA ‘Milkshake’ is fucking delicious.

Bao Wow is pretty cool.

The setting for one is perfection. Dripping wet with atmosphere, vegetation everywhere, it feels like an outdoor bar with a retractable roof. Which it kind of is. Super chill vibes. Only managed to try one bao this time – pretty pricey but pretty good. Nothing too amazing, though definitely worth coming back to try the other stuff on the menu. Lots of sharing options, lots of drinks etc, so go buy some friends and bring some friends and go to town on those baos and booze.

The Clover is a singular experience. Absolutely insane place, stunning colonial overlord mansion converted into a restaurant. Truly palatial. Service absolutely top-notch. Got a ‘balcony’ view of the garden while I ate, with the birds chirping away while smooth jazz played inside the house. My God.

Also, the Sauvignon Blanc (Moulin de Gassac by Mas de Daumas Gassac 2017) was goddamn delicious.

And the food? One of the best dining experiences of my life.

Decent bread, but lovely decadent butter. Thankfully they refilled it. Amuse bouche: mozza with red bell pepper, fantastic execution. Tart, peppery, sweet, cheesy. Fish terrine: GOD! So good. 3 kinds of fish (seabass, monkfish and cod). Expected a light, delicate, subtle terrine, and was sucker punched with a rich saltiness. Almost like a concentrated pie of sardines and anchovies.

Rabbit pate with spices, shallot compote, Da Lat organic greens: perfect starter. Pate was robust, rustic, earthy, chunky, wild, herby, muscle-y, tendon-y, liver-y. Shallot compote a perfect concentrated puree jam of flavors. Pate paired with every single other ingredient on the plate, each highlighting and accentuating a different note.

Main: cobia fish, poached with white wine and served with mashed celery, white choc, orange mousseline. The mashed celery was ridiculously delicious. Fish delicate, very well poached, very subtle flavors. But paired with the orange sauce – electrifyingly good. Perfection.

Dessert: floating island with coconut. Good dish, but just shy of being great. Could be a bit bolder. Sitka desserts get a better score.

Anyway, incredibly serene setting and The Clover is obviously a must visit.

Kafeville is another nice cafe. Not as cool as Blackbird and Acid8 but it’s in a quiet part of town. Decent v60.

Oriberry is further in West Lake but I had a good pourover there. Worth visiting if you’re in the area.

Hạ Long Bay day trip was pretty good and that’s despite spending about 8 hours in the bus, and not going to places like Cat Ba island, which by all accounts is a sensational spot. Hạ Long Bay is (kinda) worth visiting to experience in person. Drone videos on Youtube – even the most gorgeous ones – don’t quite cut it. We eat on one of the boats (our meal was surprisingly good, many tiers above the garbage during the Ninh Binh visit), and watch the limestone formations tower out of the water and blanket the horizon. Then we head up to the top deck, with its faux grass flooring and deck chairs, and drink in the waves of stone (by the way, read up on the myth of the formations, it’s pretty interesting). After that, it’s an hour of kayaking around an area which is always great fun. And you get up close and personal with some of the behemoths themselves.

Dong Thien Cung is awash with tourists when we arrive. The entire thing is a guided rush through the cave. And yet despite the tourist-trap vibe and artificial lighting, the grotto is breathtaking. It’s not the largest limestone cave, but one would be hard-pressed to dub it anything but beautiful. Have to see it in person to really capture the scale and the how-are-these-real columns of limestone carved by water.

Banh Mi @ Ngo Hang Chuoi 2:

Breakfast is the Banh Mi right at the first intersection outside of my Air BNB. And it speaks volumes about Hanoi’s street food that this apparently random Banh Mi spot is so damn good. 20k dong (that’s like MYR 4 / less than USD 1, fam) gets you eggs (scrambled with pate on a tiny saucepan on top of a gas canister stove), floss and delicious slices of meat stuffed into fantastic bread. This is a baguette re-engineered to be soft and airy while still maintaining its rigidity enough to offer an enjoyable resistance to bites. It’s fucking awesome, just like this meal itself. That lady in the photo sprints her way through each banh mi with gusto, going from cutting bread to scrambling eggs in swift, fluid arcs of the body. This is the kind of modern (well, not so modern) dance I can bother watching. Which I do, on a stool by the roadside with taxi drivers and an old shirtless dude and a guy with a cream knit tie and a linen shawl-collar blazer.

Cafe Dinh:
Apparently, in its heyday, this semi-hidden cafe was the breeding ground for intellectuals and artists looking for like-minded individuals to discuss iconoclastic ideas and, more likely, hang around in a chill ass area, drink some pretty good coffee and smoke. And with a plastered-on-the-Internet backstory like that, you can kind of tell that the place has buckled under the weight of its slightly inflated history. To get in, you traipse past the store of backpacks, slide into the left alley and walk up some narrow stores. The sight that greets you is a tight space filled with a few local men fiddling with their phones and cigarettes, and a much larger number of filthy white backpackers, hair thick with dust and dead skin, and eyes red from drinks at anonymous backpacker bar number 22 last night. They sit in groups of 3 or 4 at the back of the room, face each other and no doubt learn important lessons about themselves in this strange new world. The egg coffee itself is nothing much to shout about, though it’s enjoyable in its own right, which is not the right of a coffee as you get the barest traces of coffee. The idea of coffee is there, but this not so much verges as plunges directly into eggnog territory. 17k though, so can’t complain. Plus it’s a cute place to people-watch if you can stand being knee-to-knee with a tourist (like me!) in a cramped corner. Wouldn’t recommend it, to be honest. Give me a shout and we can talk about post-left anarchism at one of the billion cafes in KL.

Pho Gia Truyen @ 49 Bat Dan:

Oh, you know the drill. It’s pho. In Hanoi. It’s pretty damn good.

Cafe Nang:
Yeah, so ditch Cafe Dinh and come here instead. The coffee is great and you get front-seat views of the chaotic streets. And you get to see them prepping coffee for regulars. Like when a biker cuts across the road and one of the staff sees him and leaps into action immediately. By the time the biker pulls up to the curb, they have his presumably usual drink ready to go. That’s service for you.

For most of the afternoon, I sit here and sip my coffee and, I’m ashamed to admit, think about her. I think about how she’d love the food here – to be fair, who wouldn’t – and also the way the city buzzes and writhes restlessly, with the never-ending flow of vehicles juxtaposed against the streets of people-watchers squatting on stools, with the stalls mushrooming at the stroke of dawn like impromptu markets, with the early evening sparking races to the nearest bia hoi corner. It’s an easy place to love.

And if there’s some internal insight I’ve derived from this latest venture, it’s that perhaps it’s best for me to travel with someone else, at least for stretches of a trip. You get to split costs on a nice Air BNB and not worry about lugging valuables around, you get to try a good deal more food, and the extra person generally emboldens you to step into more places than you (I mean, I) would alone. And most importantly, lately my mind drifts incessantly towards melancholy and thoughts about her. Having someone else around helps stop that. For a while. Even if it’s just long enough for a Tinder date to a watering hole. To cripple the meandering mind, I watch Synecdoche, New York. 

Quan An Ngon:

This place stocks a wide selection of food under one roof. It’s pretty upscale. And pretty damn packed. The food itself is good, but of course there’s the expected sheen that smooths out the edges that make the street-sibling versions of these dishes so interesting.

Cong Caphe:

Green tea, sweets, a balcony view and Communist memorabilia. Just a regular combination, that.

After tea, I head back. Halfway through brushing my teeth, the water splutters and dies. I finish off with bottled water (remember my advice to stock up?) and decide to give it some time. I resume watching Synecdoche New York. There’s still no water when I’m done. I head to a love motel where they try to charge me 150k dong for 1 hour. They’re literally trying to charge me more to go in alone. After a few minutes of furious gesticulating and Google translate, I pay 40k to shower in the “staff bathroom” which is tucked under a staircase. I crouch down next to the toilet to shower. It’s a pretty grim experience.

Nguyen Sinh Bread has a terrific Banh Mi. Think premium cold cuts and a very rich pate inside typically great bread. It’s not quite my favourite Banh Mi joint but you can’t argue with the sheer quality of the meat here. My spirits are lifted tremendously. Then I head to 5 Bat Dan for books and it’s closed. Bummer. So it’s an Uber to Bookworm, which is absolutely gorgeous and tucked away inside an alley.

Bookworm, it should be noted, stocks almost entirely English books. I buy some books for the home base library. And for myself. It’s hard to resist. They have a very commendable selection at the non-fiction section upstairs and the fiction section downstairs, though the latter closely resembles a steam sauna in heat levels. I highly recommend a visit, and that’s an advice.

Afterwards, I search for a cafe. Manzi comes recommended. It’s a brisk 10 minutes walk away. I head over through some unusually quiet roads and end up at a little oasis combining an art space and a cafe. The tea is decent. The wifi is good. The atmosphere is fantastic. The washroom feels almost comically oversized for a single person. And in this way, I spend my final afternoon in Vietnam as the winter sun sets. It’s not the worst of ways, I suppose. After five days of this swirling, incessant city, I’m beginning to feel ever so slightly drained.

Bun Cha Huong Lien @ 24 Le Van Huu:

Obama’s face is plastered everywhere here. You know why. They even stock an Obama combo, which pretty much just pairs together everything on the menu. I try to think of a joke that correlates the approach to Obama’s, but am hassled to make an order. There’s a queue of Korean and white folks outside and I’m occupying valuable real estate.

It’s not the greatest bun cha by any means but it’s a solid enough introduction if you’re averse to stool-squatting. Everything feels like a sterilized version of the street-born bun cha. You get normal seats and tables here. The grilled pork is the standout component, with everything else being pretty mediocre.

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