Best restaurants in Hoi An – Food foodie delights Hoi An is specialties like cao lầu, mì Quảng noodles, and white-rose shrimp dumplings. Whether you want something classic or are in the mood to try some of the outstanding modern fusion food in the city, our culinary highlights are below.
Hoi An’s culinary paradise is made not only by the bustling atmosphere and magnificent aesthetics. Hoi An has a wealth of restaurants of the highest quality with food from around the world. Be it a glass of red wine and pizza, fresh fish, or amazing sushi. Hoi An’s best restaurants meet you and push the limits of Vietnamese contemporary cuisine. Restaurants of Hoi An have everything.
Wakaku Restaurant
Wakaku is one of two restaurants at the five-star Hotel Royal Hoi An, which was first opened to serve in-house diners. But with locals and travelers as well, it is now a firm favorite. It is akin to taking a breath of fresh air to enter Wakaku. Walking around the historic Old Town of Hoi An can take that out of you. If you take its toll on the intense heat, noise, and packed streets. Wakaku presents itself as an opportunity to escape the sometimes hectic Old Town as a very welcome break.
Wakaku remains true to the Japanese tradition of making more than just food with a calming and tranquil atmosphere. This becomes immediately clear when you walk into Wakaku. With hints of design features from Hoi An, but with a Japanese twist, Hoi An’s infamous lanterns feature. To great effect, Wakaku fully embraces its heritage.
But, of course, food is the most critical factor, and Wakaku simply has the best Japanese food around it. There’s so much choice at Wakaku with an extensive menu packed full of deeply flavorful dishes. Opt for the sushi set of the day from the chef. It’s available for your fix of fresh and clean sushi in all different portion sizes. You might want to try robatayaki from Wakaku, a selection of grilled meats and fish served with rich, thick soy sauce. Try the selection of tempura, battered and deep-fried vegetables, and shrimp served with dipping sauce if you’re in the mood for something fried, a Japanese favorite worldwide.
Address: 39 Dao Duy Tu
back to menu ↑ThirtySeven Woodfired Grill + Bar
The tasteful restaurant strikes the ideal balance between the traditional and the modern. In both the interior decor and the food on offer, this is reflected. In the restaurant, cozy and traditional wooden furniture runs throughout, with more modern copper accents dotted throughout.
There are perhaps no better restaurant environments than this, with a fresh and uplifting atmosphere cultivated. Diners have the option of indoor or outdoor dining. For cooler evenings, a breezy and cool terrace on the river provides the perfect choice.
Of course, the reputation of ThirtySeven is maintained by the amazing quality of the food and drinks on offer. As the name suggests, the food from ThirtySeven is cooked using the age-old open fire cooking technique. From grilling to smoking and from open fire pits in the Asado style to slow-burning ovens. To create wonderfully modern flavors, ThirtySeven uses traditional cooking methods.
Cooking with wood, sugar cane, and cocoa products only local products ensures that the food has an authentic natural flavor. The policy of ThirtySeven to use local ingredients as far as possible will be continued. Nibbles like Lotus seed hummus give the Moroccan classic a refreshing and delicious twist. Being a barbecue house, ThirtySeven’s jewel is a range of Australian imported beef steaks. They are available in a range of cuts and classic sauces with a Vietnamese twist.
Address: 37 Phan Boi Chau
back to menu ↑Nu Eatery
Nu Eatery is one of those restaurants that challenge traditional Vietnamese cuisine with its kitchen creations. Located just past the Japanese Bridge in the heart of Hoi An’s Old Town, this often packed restaurant serves top-quality, fresh ingredients. All of them imagined in ways that are simply brilliant.
Located in a small and traditional house, the atmosphere here is lively and joyful. Although we have to say that food plays an important role here, too. Simple and fresh, the interior decor provides a comfortable dining area while not taking any of the limelight out of the food. Enjoy a view of the Old Town from the seating area of the balcony. Here, away from busy streets, you can watch the sunset dancing off the rooftops and filtering through the trees.
With some cult following, Nu Eatery is an extremely popular destination. The queues outside the door are common. Although the menu is relatively small, it is packed full of amazing Vietnamese flavors with little twists and contemporary styles. Oh, and Nu Eatery is famous for its bao pork – a steamed bun with pork filling. So if you’re in a mood for Vietnamese flavors and textures, but you want something a little different and more familiar in taste, Nu Eatery has to be on your list.
Address: 10A Nguyen Thi Minh Khai
back to menu ↑Hoa Hien
It is a five-minute bike ride from the heart of the old town of Hoi An, overlooking the beautiful Thu Bon River. There is an authentic culinary experience in this signature restaurant. Hoa Hien allows you to delve further into Hoi An’s centuries-old cuisine by choosing from individual plates or a set menu.
All the aforementioned local dishes plus additional Vietnamese favorites such as salads, curries, soups, dumplings, spring rolls, barbecued meats, and savory pancakes are included in the diverse menu of Hoa Hien. The staff of the restaurant is constantly praised, crediting the team for creating such a relaxing and welcoming environment while delivering knockout food at the same time.
The great benefit of Hoa Hien is that with your traveling companions you can sample the multitude of Hoi An-centric dishes all at once. As competition is so fierce that each stall tends to specialize in only one dish, this is impossible to do at food stalls. Hoa Hien provides a charming insight into Hoi An’s food culture by providing convenience as well as very reasonable prices compared to other restaurants located in the center of the Old Town.
Address: 35 Tran Quang Khai, Cam Chau
back to menu ↑Quan Chay Ba Dam
This is a wonderful, family-run, vegan buffet-style restaurant. The ladies who work here are lovely but have limited English so they operate on a simple pointing system. You can choose from a wide variety of vegetables, soya-meat, rice, and noodle soups. Every day, the dishes change slightly. So even if you’re a frequent visitor, you’re never tired of what’s on offer.
Quan Chay Ba Dam’s value for money is what sets it apart from any other vegetarian restaurant. These buffet-style plates cost between 20,000 and 30,000 VND (1-1,15 USD) and are very generous in size. They even offer a complimentary buffet soup free of charge!
This restaurant is a little hard to find, located down a small alley in the center of the city, but this is part of the appeal of the place. Hidden from the majority of tourists, eating here is a much more local experience and explains why the price is so reasonable.
One thing to keep in mind is that Ba Dam closes relatively early, so make this part of your evening plans. Also, the number of dishes on offer greatly decreases the closer you get to the closing time, so if you want to have full control over the buffet section, you’ll get there at least an hour before the closing time.
Address: 71/20 Phan Chu Trinh
back to menu ↑Sông Thu Restaurant
The Thu Bon River runs through Hoi An, along which lies the local gem, Sông Thu Restaurant. Tucked down an best-accessed by car or bike, it offers a mouth-watering mecca of seafood delicacies.
From the outside, this restaurant looks more like a local food court, with its open-plan layout and numerous tables. The staff of Song Thu are, however, attentive and welcoming from the offset. Showing guests to their seats and pointing out the aquatic delights on display. Their fish tanks display supreme seafood, such as crab, snapper, crayfish, shrimp, and Talang queenfish. In keeping with the same name (Sông Thu translates to Thu River), a man-made river full of live fish is visible inside the restaurant. The vast menu’s offerings change seasonally and consist mainly of seafood dishes, with some Western classics thrown in for good measure.
Simple staples are available, each for 100,000 VND, such as seafood fried rice and shrimp soup (4.30 USD). You can buy a succulent steamed crab for 900,000 VND (38.80 USD) per kilogram for a big blow out, with juicy freshwater prawns sold per kilogram for 1,350,000 VND (58.20 USD). In different styles, every fish dish is offered: stir-fried, grilled, stewed, steamed, or in a Hoi Anian clay pot. The fried frog with lemongrass and chili is a major hit, at 100,000 VNDD, if you want to add something non-seafood related to your choice (4.30 USD).
Address: 55 Tran Quang Khai
back to menu ↑Artspace
With an innovative menu of modern western cuisine, locally caught seafood, and 3D printed desserts, Artspace is a real gem in Hoi An’s food scene. If possible, you can be sure of a high-quality meal if you are committed to using sustainable locally sourced ingredients and organic options. Made from scratch using signature dough and then cooked in a wood-fired stone oven, the wide range of pizzas on the menu stand out.
Hawaiian and pepperoni long-term favorites are on the menu, but dare to try some of their less traditional pizzas like their banh mi pizza (which comes with a free ‘pho’ draught beer) or Gochujang pizza from Korea. You should try the smoked salmon or Frutti di mare pizza that comes with shrimp, calamari, and mussels if seafood is your thing.
However, if none of this suits your taste, you can even make your pizza, selecting from eight different types of cheese, four different crusts, and a multitude of toppings. With vegetarian and vegan options available, besides half-sized children’s pizzas, Art Space seems to offer everyone a pizza. The best part of all this comes at a reasonable price of 205,000 to 310,000 VND (9 – 13 USD) per pizza, with half-sized pizzas costing 120,000 VND (5 USD).
Address: 1 Pham Hong Thai
