48 Hours in Hanoi: Never make this restaurant mistake in Vietnam

From blasting truck horns on fast-moving roads to hidden alleyways leading to peaceful pagodas, Vietnam’s capital is hectic but beautiful. But there is one mistake you don’t want to make here.

If you’re not careful it’s easy for a first-time traveller to Vietnam’s capital to get lost.

Even if you drank 10 egg coffees and rented a fast moped, you wouldn’t have time to see half of Hanoi in two days. And if you’re not careful it’s easy for a first-time traveller to Vietnam’s capital to get lost, overwhelmed or run over by a scooter carrying more people than an average Aussie SUV.

But before you run screaming to the comforting interior of the nearest Starbucks, you can see a lot in 48 hours in Hanoi, as I discovered on a media trip to test out Bamboo Airways’ new flights from Australia to Vietnam. A sheltered soul who eats hot chips and microwaved vegan pad Thai for lunch most days of the week, with some helpful guides I learnt my skewered street frogs from my Obama-approved bun cha and slurped down as much flavour as possible.

NIGHT ONE

The prelude

Lime trickles out of the corner of my mouth. Salt stings my tongue. New friends look at me expectantly. No, I’m not about to do a tequila shot; I’m about to shove a broiled chicken foot into my mouth at Restaurant 1946, a 20-minute walk north of the city’s Old Quarter.

After dipping the chicken foot into salt and lime, I take the plunge. A bone cracks under my back right molar; I chomp down another couple of times, before seeing the horrified faces, and realising I’ve made a huge mistake.

“Uh, you’re not supposed to eat the bone, are you?” I ask.

“No, you nibble around it,” says Duncan Lu, a Melbourne-based chef, and fellow traveller.

Gnawing regrets aside, Restaurant 1946, where you can enjoy local food in upmarket surroundings, is a great way to start a weekend in Hanoi. It has many dishes that are easy on a Western palate – I eat fish so crisp it would give KFC’s popcorn chicken a run for its money – as well as some for the more adventurous. Belly full, I head to the Intercontinental Westlake Hanoi to rest my weary head.

I pull up a wooden stool at Cafe Giang, hidden in the maze of 36 streets said to make up Hanoi’s Old Quarter.

DAY TWO

Morning

I pull up a wooden stool at Cafe Giang, hidden in the maze of 36 streets said to make up Hanoi’s Old Quarter (there are actually around 72) on Nguyen Huu Huan Street. Here, I order a ca phe trung (egg coffee with condensed milk) for 35k dong ($2.22). If it’s a hot day, the iced version goes down a treat. Regular coffee, juice and tea are on the menu for similarly reasonable prices, and Wi-Fi is free.

A cyclo tour of the Old Quarter turns out to be a great idea. Why? Because, while my driver focuses on the erratic stream of minibuses and motorbikes, I’m able to razzle my retinas on this historic part of town, where each street has a traditional specialty. Silversmiths once crafted ingots for kings on Hang Bac, for instance, while other streets were dedicated to selling spices and silk.

Though the Old Quarter has moved with the times and streets are now dedicated to selling electric fans and other household appliances, others explode with fresh fruit and vegetables or are packed to the hilt with butchers and meat vendors.

Other lanes are lined end to end with shops selling clothes from traditional Vietnamese garments to North Face knock-offs. You can even nab yourself a suit. But be warned: my guide tells me that if a shopkeeper claims they can fit you with a custom suit with a same-day turnaround, it’s probably not going to be a quality job.

For bun cha so spicy it will blow your Birkenstocks off, stop at Bun Cha Huong Lien restaurant. Picture: Alexandra Schuler.

Afternoon

For bun cha so spicy it will blow your Birkenstocks off, stop at Bun Cha Huong Lien restaurant, famously visited by Barack Obama and the late Anthony Bourdain in 2016. Despite a photo of them having a chat and a beer going viral, prices haven’t gone up and the “combo Obama” – one special bun cha (traditional grilled pork and noodles), one fried seafood roll and one Hanoi beer – will still set you back less than $8. To keep your Birkenstocks on, avoid putting as much chilli and pepper in your broth as the locals do.

Next on the agenda, some shopping around the street stalls where you can get everything from trendy, vintage pieces to cheap novelty tourist T-shirts.

I try to finish my afternoon at Train Street. Once little known, this cramped alley where you can experience the dizzying thrill of sitting in a cafe drinking coffee while a train flies by has been swarmed by social-media pilgrims in recent years. But I arrive at the most popular entrance unaware authorities had recently closed off Train Street to tourists for safety reasons.

I hear about a secret spot 10 minutes’ walk further down the street where you can still sneak in – otherwise you’ll be left, like me, next to a dozen other people taking selfies with an uninterested city official and a closed sign.

A final tip: unless you’re staying nearby try to get all Old Quarter activities done in one go. If you’re not staying within walking distance, sitting in traffic getting in and out of the CBD can eat up a lot of time. Who wants to take an hour going back later to buy that “Netflix and banh mi” T-shirt eyed up last time?

Evening

After your shopping spree, head to Beer Street (start at Ta Hien Corner) to soak in the ambience, eat pho and imbibe some local larynx looseners while sitting on a rickety plastic stool. More bars spill out onto the street than you can throw a Bia Hanoi at, and if you aren’t ready to go home after your beers, get your wiggle on at a club called 1900 (or Blues Bar if you want a DJ who takes song requests from the crowd).

I try to finish my afternoon at Train Street, where you can experience the dizzying thrill of sitting in a cafe drinking coffee while a train flies by.

DAY THREE

Morning

Brush off a hangover by bouncing over three hours of potholes (enlightenment has to be earned) with a roadtrip to Bai Dinh Pagoda, the largest complex of Buddhist temples in the country. Here you can learn about Vietnamese Buddhist history, watch devotees pay their respects in front of the giant Buddhist statues and marvel at the longest hallway of (hand-carved) luohan statues in Southeast Asia. When you’re done, check out the nearby Ngoc Minh Restaurant for steamed mountain goat drizzled with lemon (or a goat curry, for those willing to brave a little gristle).

Afternoon

After a morning of hard contemplation (and harder chewing), take a short drive to Ninh Binh’s Trang An, a Unesco-recognised scenic landscape complex of rivers and mountains so verdant you feel like you’re in a movie (in a way you are: King Kong: Skull Island was filmed here). Take a boat ride down the river through the Trang An Grottoes. Your guide will scull you through the river’s caves and tunnels, and show you the temples peppering the banks.

Evening

Head to the InterContinental Hanoi Landmark72 – the city’s highest hotel – for dinner at the Stellar private dining room where the city views from your perch in the sky and the fusion of French cuisine and Vietnamese ingredients will make you vertiginous with joy.

The writer was a guest of Bamboo Airways.

Originally published as 48 Hours in Hanoi: Never make this restaurant mistake in Vietnam