Best Restaurants in Hoi An

Tao pho - Sweeten Tofu Pudding

Tao Pho (Sweeten Tofu Pudding) is also known as Soybean Pudding or Doufuhua, a lighten-lovely treat from the Hoi An!

First made by the Northern Chinese during Western Han Dynasty, they were originally served with soy-sauce, eggs and Chinese breadsticks for breakfast. By travelling to different countries, Tofu Pudding is then cooked in different forms; such as serving it with sugar syrup in Indonesia or with milk and fruit salad in Thai style.

Coming to Hoi An Vietnam, Tofu pudding, in another word - Tao pho, is so ordinary and simple; mixed in a bowl of sugar syrup with cold iced water; to bring out the best taste of natural white beans. Depending on different seasons, street sellers cook the sugar sauce with jasmine flower of grapefruit blossoms for different flavours and to highlight the natural sweet in every tofu slide.

It costs not much, around 10,000-20,000VND per bowl for street-buy and 20,000-30,000VND for restaurant-serve. This is certainly the most significant street-dish that everyone should try when you spend time in Hoi An!

01. Traditional Hoi An noodles with pork char-siu
Vietnamese name: Cao Lầu
Price: 105.000VND (~ 4.65 USD)

Cao Lau Hoi An

02. Quang Noodles (with Prawn and Chicken Char-Siu)
Vietnamese name: Mì Quảng
Price: 105.000VND (~ 4.65 USD)

Mi Quang Hoi An

03. Crispy sesame cracker and char-grilled pork cake
Vietnamese name: Bánh đập thịt nướng
Price: 105.000VND (~ 4.65 USD)

Banh dap thit nuong Hoi An

04. Hoi An shredded chicken and local herb salad
Vietnamese name: Gỏi gà xé phay
Price: 105.000VND (~ 4.65 USD)

Goi ga xe phay Hoi An

05. Hoi An roasted duck with five spices
Vietnamese name: Vịt quay phố Hội
Price: 245.000VND (~ 10.80 USD)
Price and photo source: HOME Hoi An Restaurant

Visiting Hoi An, travellers are attracted by not only its charm and beauty, but also a distinctive culture here. Just stepping out of your accommodation and explore the town, you can absolutely join the street hawker lives here. Travelers can try any street food or local signature cuisines from these hawkers. However, one of the best spots is the savory ice-cream cart, where you can enjoy a wide variety of colorful delicious ice cream.

Savory Ice-Cream Cart in Hoi An

On the last days of spring, enjoy the ice cream from these carts, from long time ago, has been an inevitable activity and culture of people here. As the sticks of ice cream here, are covered by small aluminum cylinders or tubes, people call it ”tube” ice cream. Its flavor brings eaters the coolest sensation ever, little sweet and salty as the daily life of people living in this area, the sunny and windy land.

Tube Ice-Cream in Hoi An

Some people say that coming Hoi An you have to take a walk around the town with the colorful sticks of ice cream on hands, which contributes a part of perfecting the colorful painting of Hoi An town.

Grilled Banana with Coconut Milk Sweet Soup is one of the richest nutrition Vietnamese Dessert. “Che chuoi nuong” is widely known in the South as sweet and fleshy flavor. This recipe is one of the most common in Vietnam and it is very easy to do.

"Che Chuoi Nuong" in a Hoi An Restaurant

Ingredients
- 10 bananas
- Banana leaves
- 400 ml of coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of corn starch
- Crushed roasted peanuts

Instructions
- Roll each banana with banana leave, put into the oven in 250 °C about 20 minutes. After that, unwrap the leaves and put it back to the oven for 5 more minutes to have the golden brown color. Slice it into smaller pieces to easy to serve.

- Add 400 ml of coconut milk, 100 ml of cold water, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Mix 1 teaspoon of corn starch with a little water and put into the mixture and cook over low heat, stirring frequently for 5 minutes until it become thicken.

- To serve, add about 3 – 4 banana pieces into a bowl and cover with a few tablespoons of the coconut base and garnish with the crushed roasted peanuts to enhance the flavor. This dessert can be eaten hot, at room temperature or chilled.

Color-bomb in one Hoi An Chicken Dish

It is said that to make the famous Chicken Rice, Hoi An people carefully choose rice and chicken of top quality. Only free-range chickens raised in countryside gardens, not the industrial factory-style birds are selected because poultry raised in the gardens are stronger, with a far richer flavour and more muscular meat than the soggy stuff produced in industrial agriculture facilities. In addition, local cooks season the rice before cooking it with chicken broth and pandan leaves on wood-fired clay ovens. The chicken meat is boiled with some ginger before hand-shredded into small pieces and gently simmered with ginger, crushed onions, Vietnamese coriander and other spices to best absorb their flavours.

The trick to the recipe is to skillfully make the chicken pieces smell fragrant and spicy without losing the meat’s natural flavour. After all, the chicken skin is slippery and the meat is really tender and juicy. The springy chicken pieces and pleasantly yellow fragrant rice is then topped with pickled carrots, peppermint, papaya, and salted onions.

The dish is served with a small bowl of soup containing some chicken giblets like heart and liver as well as dipping fish sauce or very spicy chilli sauce to enhance the flavour depending on the preference.

Hoi An City is not only famous by the magnificent ancient house but also its cuisine, especially dessert. Besides corn sweet soup, which is listed in almost every restaurant menu in Hoi An, “Xi Ma” or Black Sesame Sweet Soup is also popular for people in here and tourists.

Long time ago, when Chinese traders came to Hoi An, “Xi Ma” from Fujian Province in China is imported to this city. Therefore, this dessert is attached with many local people childhood. It is not only considered a delicious dessert, but also good for your health due to its ingredients such as black sesame, coconut, Chinese herbal medicine, rice flour and sugar.

Xi Ma on Hoi An street

Mr. Thieu had been diligently selling “Xi Ma” over 70 years

Mr. Thieu’s daughter, who carried on the family tradition when her father turned 100

Regardless of the weather, “Xi Ma” is served hot in small portion; very mild and not too sweet. Chi Ma Phu (Black sesame sweet soup) in Nguyen Truong To Street, near Hoi An Centre for Orphans and Disabled Children is one of the oldest place selling this dish, which has been operating for over 70 years from 7a.m. every day.

If you have a chance to visit Hoi An Ancient Town, Vietnam, don’t forget to keep this special dessert in your must-eat foods checklist!

One of the first thing that impress tourists by coming for the first time in Hoi An is the local food and especially the street food culture. Most of the dishes are prepared with many different ingredients giving flavors that visitors have never tried before.

So why not trying a bowl of Quang Noodles – commonly called Mì Quảng - to dive into the culinary culture of Hoi An? A mysterious bowl of deliciousness which will fill you up with good energy in order to start your day with a huge smile on your face.

A Bowl of Quang Noodles

Mì Quảng is a specialty from Quảng Nam Province, located in the center of the country. This dish is more commonly eaten for breakfast in the center as well as in the south of Vietnam. The main ingredient is thick rice noodles cooked in a pork broth. The noodles are topped with lots of Vietnamese herbs such as local mint, basil, spring onions, cilantro among other herbs that give a touch of freshness to this hot bowl. To go together with the broth and the fish sauce, thin slices of roasted pork are added. Of course, this famous dish has many variations and can be served with either beef or even chicken.

What makes this dish different from the northern noodle soup is that the dish contains also local river shrimps as well as roasted peanuts to give a taste of the ocean and remind the warm weather of central Vietnam.

Hoi An Restaurant

If you want to try this delicacy and you are afraid of being disappointed by going to a random restaurant, you should definitely try HOME Hoi An Restaurant. A traditional Vietnamese restaurant which is located in a romantic colonial French building. They will surely serve you an authentic and delicious version of Quang Noodles that will stay in your mind as a highlight of your journey.