I recently ate my way through central Vietnam and after experiencing the food scene in Hanoi I couldn’t wait to try restaurants in Da Nang & Hoi An. I was not disappointed. The towns have some superb local spots that serve some fantastic Vietnamese food.
🇻🇳 Visiting Hanoi? Check out my guide to the best restaurants in Hanoi.
5 of the Best Restaurants in Da Nang
I spent 3 days in Da Nang recently and here are 5 restaurants that I would gladly recommend to anyone visiting. Restaurants listed in order that I visited them!
Quán Nhân
Quán Nhân is one of my most memorable food memories of my stay in Vietnam. Tucked away in a small side street away from the beach, this little street food stall pumps out the most amazing food.
For our first dinner in Da Nang, I’d heard about this little street food spot for a while and was very curious to try their speciality, duck porridge.
When I say this is a locals only spot – it really is. I’m surprised that it’s not more full with tourists because it’s genuinely that good.
As with all good small restaurants in Vietnam, they don’t stray far from their core offering and here it’s all about poached duck.
We started off with their famous duck porridge made with a local duck breed and boy is it good. It’s rich, comforting and has boatloads of duck flavour. It’s almost got a roasted flavour despite being poached and there are very little gamey notes at all. There’s a subtle element of ginger and spring onion but nothing overloading.
Their duck salad is really, really good. It’s a real explosion of flavours with mint, coriander, peanuts, crispy onions, cucumber and lots of delicious green mango. Of course there’s an insanely good dipping sauce to go with it. The duck is cooked through (no rare pieces here) yet is still tender and isn’t greasy at all.
A delicious meal and for me, a must-do a in Da Nang.
What to know before you visit
- Open every day from 9am-midnight
- Cash only
Address: 83 Phan Tứ, Bắc Mỹ An, Ngũ Hành Sơn, Đà Nẵng
Bánh Xèo Tôm Nhảy Cô Ba
Away from the beach, to the left of the Hàn River is a great little family run café-restaurant serving up some superb Vietnamese food. It’s another local foodie spot that’s far from the touristic area and again, you’ll be eating with locals here.
They specialise in delicious bánh xèo pancakes – these are crispy, light and addictive wrappers that you fill with grilled meat and seafood.
Go for the combo platter – it’s easily enough for lunch for 2 and includes a mix of nems, grilled pork, chicken skewers and shrimp and grilled beef pancakes. There’s the obligatory huge plate of fresh herbs (mint, cilantro/coriander and perilla) as well as a delicious nuoc cham and a peanut based sauce – there’s a lot of incredible flavours going on.
The idea is that you take a rice paper, wet it (so you can fold it) and stuff it with the sauce of your choice, herbs and whatever meat you want in it. It’s delicious and really tactile – it’s a really fun sharing experience.
I also ordered a beef pho (unfortunately I didn’t take photos) which was very good and the richest broth in terms of spices and aromatics of the whole trip.
What to know before you visit
- Open every day from 9:30am-9:30pm
- Cash only
Address: 248 Trưng Nữ Vương, Bình Thuận, đà nẵng, Đà Nẵng
Bà Đông
Another tiny little street food stall that’s 100% worth a visit is Bà Đông.Run by an old Vietnamese aunty and, from what I understood, her family. It is again in the residential area to the east of the river but worth the Grab over if you’re near the beach.
It’s a real gem of a spot that has all the hall marks of a classic Vietnamese street restaurant – tiny stools, tiny chairs and of course there’s something absolutely delicious in a bowl.
The family welcome you in as they chat in the entrance. The Grab delivery drivers come and as they dispatch orders rapidly – always a good sign.
We ordered their speciality – vermicelli noodles with lots of delicious toppings and BBQ pork – as well as a couple of cold beers. It wasn’t long until the dish came out and boy was it worth coming all the way out here. Cucumber, peanuts, coriander, mint and lots of roasty pork come together with a delicious, pungent, fish sauced based dressing.
Note that it is served at room temperature but like in all of the really good local spots, we had no (stomach) issues at all.
What to know before you visit
- Open every day from 6am-7pm
- Cash only
Address: 145 Huỳnh Thúc Kháng, Phước Ninh, Hải Châu, Đà Nẵng
Bé Ni 2
If you love seafood then Bé Ni 2 is an absolute must-do in Da Nang. It’s a huge, buzzing, super casual spot on the beach that’s just immensely fun.
Apparently it’s open 24/7 but we came in the evening where you’ll see huge tanks containing live seafood and fish. Yup, it’s as fresh as you can get – apparently it’s all locally sourced too.
Sit down on the plastic chairs and order yourself a beer. While you wait, go and choose your seafood and they’ll weigh it out (it’s price per kg) for you and ask how you’d like it cooked. There’s a lot of options including butter garlic sauce, steamed, grilled, fried and more.
We went for mantis shrimp (which were kind of small-medium), “meaty crab” (pictured below) and scallops with a side of egg fried rice.
One thing I love about Bé Ni 2 is that they properly prepare the seafood for you. They cooked our prawns shell and head-on in their wonderful garlic butter sauce. It’s then presented at the table and then our server hand de-shelled each shrimp and then basted each of the tails in the sauce and cleaned up the plate – the service here is awesome. They were delicious – nice and tender and the sauce was rich and full of flavour.
We went for a fresh crab (pictured above) in their chilli sauce and boy is this good. It wasn’t too spicy but it had a wonderful hit of umami which perfectly coated the seared onions and peppers. The crab meat is delicious – I would definitely recommend getting this here.
Finally, we ordered the scallops with crispy garlic which added lovely texture to the white meat. The cuisson was perfect – nice and rare in the middle, just how I like it. I should also add that their egg fried rice is killer – even though it’s just a side, it was excellent.
What to know before you visit
- The fish and seafood is only served in the evening
- Open 24/7
- Cash only
Address: 228 Võ Nguyên Giáp, An Hải, Sơn Trà, Đà Nẵng
Phú Hồng
The final spot that we hit up in Da Nang was Phú Hồng – a lovely little restaurant specialising in BBQ grilled pork rice wrappers and noodles.
Located a few minutes walk west of the river, it’s another real local spot. I think Phú Hồng is probably more hyped on social media compared to the other spots I’ve mentioned as there were a lot of foodie tourists around us but fair enough – it deserves the hype.
After a short queue next to the very smoky outside grills (that are placed right on the sidewalk), we managed to get a seat. The servers were running around like crazy – there’s a lot going on.
We started with their ‘barbecue noodles’ – a delicious bowl of rice noodles mixed with thin slices of BBQ pork, julienned carrot and cucumber and a healthy spoonful of their homemade nem lui dipping sauce (a kind of local satay sauce). You have to properly get in there and mix the noodles with the sauce, seasonings and herbs. This was utterly delicious – I’d definitely recommend you try this.
Next up we ordered their chicken skewers that are grilled on the BBQ. This has a lovely springy meatball texture that kept the meat nice and juicy. We also had their minced brisket wrapped in betel leaves – these are killer. Both these dishes come with the peanut dipping sauce, julienned carrot and cucumber and rice paper. You make wraps with the grilled meat – they’re unbelievably good.
What to know before you visit
- Open every day between 10:30am-2pm and 4-9:30pm
- Cash only
- You may need to wait for a bit during peak times
Address: 19 Yên Bái, Hải Châu, Đà Nẵng
3 Restaurants to Check Out in Hoi An
We only spent 2 days in Hoi An and given how touristy the town is (and the fact that the Michelin guide doesn’t cover the area) I had to do a lot of research. Here are 3 restaurants that I think are worth trying.
Mì Quảng Ông Hai
Our first stop was a small restaurant near the river serving Mì Quảng – a noodle dish that’s a speciality of Hoi An. This little restaurant feels extremely homely – almost like you’ve been invited into their living room (which I think is part of the restaurant!).
There’s 2 options here – mixed noodles (egg, shrimp and pork) or just pork. It’s a relatively simple dish so don’t expect to be blown away but they do it very well here.
I took the mixed noodles – the key here is to add some fresh herbs and really mix the noodles and toppings with the fish sauce driven sauce at the bottom of the bowl. The noodles are nicely cooked and it’s full of umami.
At 40k VND it’s a really good budget-friendly option if you’re in Hoi An.
What to know before you visit
- Open every day between 8am-9pm
- Cash only
Address: 6A Trương Minh Lượng, Cẩm Châu, Hội An, Quảng Nam
Bánh Mì Phượng
Bánh Mì Phượng was the only place I ate bahn mi in my trip to Vietnam and it did not disappoint. This spot has been massively hyped after Anthony Bourdain visited years ago and they even have a photo of him eating the famous sandwich on the wall.
I will note that it’s literally full to the brim of tourists – you won’t be sitting next to any locals. There’s a huge queue for take-away but you can skip the queue to eat inside.
The menu is massive and they have 15 different options and 10 other dishes (including chicken rice and nems). Service is chaotic inside but eventually you can put your order in. I went for the Bahn Mi mixed which arrived about 10 minutes later.
A lot of the reviews suggest it’s overrated. My opinion? Easily the best bahn mi of my life. The bread has a light outer crunch and is pillowy soft in the middle. My palate was peppered with flavour – sweet, savoury, umami, acid – it has it all.
The grilled pork brings a lovely smoky flavour, the pâté brings umami and richness and the pickled veg adds a lovely acidity. I think they added a Vietnamese sweet chilli sauce which really works. I honestly really rate this bahn mi – it’s super complex in flavour. My only criticism is that it is very small. If you’re hungry, order some sides.
What to know before you visit
- Open every day between 6:30am-9pm
- You can go straight in (and skip the queue) if you want to eat in
- The bahn mi is on the smaller side – order sides if you’re really hungry
- Cash only
Address: 2b Đ. Phan Chu Trinh, Cẩm Châu, Hội An, Quảng Nam
Cơm Linh
Our final dinner in Hoi An was at the very good Cơm Linh located in the heart of the old town. In the evenings you’ll pretty much always see a large queue on the opposite side of the road. No need to put your name down here – they remember exactly in which order you arrived.
There was about a 20 minute wait before being seated on their outside terrace.
We started with their ‘special tapas’ – a sharing platter which includes their crispy duck spring rolls (nems), fresh spring rolls and their white rose dumplings with a prawn and pork filling. This is a superb mix and great for sharing with plenty of attention to detail in the dipping sauces and garnish.
For mains I had their stunning duck pho and which is genuinely very, very good. Perhaps my favorite phos of the trip. It has a lovely deep roasted duck flavour yet the broth is so light and delicate – it’s remarkably not heavy or greasy at all.
Great choice if you’re wanting something more refined in Hoi An. The prices are little on the higher side for Vietnam but that said, it is a very touristic area.
What to know before you visit
- Open every day for lunch and dinner between 11am-2pm and 4-8pm
- Arrive early for dinner as they sell out before close
- They accept card with a 8% surcharge
Address: 42 Đ. Phan Chu Trinh, Phường Minh An, Hội An, Quảng Nam
