Top 10 Restaurants In Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City is honored with fabulous eateries serving a mix of French, Chinese, and, obviously, nearby Vietnamese cooking. It is this conversion of food cultures that has made Vietnamese food famous around the world, and bring guests running to taste numerous awesome eateries.Quan An Ngon is one of the most popular restaurants in Ho Chi Minh, housed in a revamped Vietnamese mansion with a tree-lined garden and staff waiting to welcome guests wearing traditional silk outfits (complete with wooden shoes). Quan An Ngon is located opposite the Reunification Palace on Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa Street.
Camargue is a refined French eatery set in the courtyard of an old colonial-era opium factory. While not exactly fine dining, the atmosphere is sophisticated, and the cuisine is clearly French with a slight Vietnamese touch. Highlights include seabass and squid served with sweet chard, roast lamb with polenta enhanced with Phu Quoc pepper, and crispy pork leg marinated in a mild spice and caramelized artichoke.
The Deck Saigon sits adjacent to the Saigon River in a delightful open-air setting, a 15-minute taxi ride from downtown Ho Chi Minh City. The ambiance of this restaurant is unparalleled, and the pan-Asian fusion dishes are exceptionally well-prepared. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, this restaurant has excellent set lunch offerings. Come dinnertime, à la carte dishes range from soft-shell crab tempura to flame-grilled shrimp and ribeye steak. Most of the meat is imported, meaning it isn't the cheapest, but quality is guaranteed.
The Refinery Bar and Restaurant brings a touch of French charm to downtown Ho Chi Minh with a menu of French bistro favorites, such as steak frites and inventive salads. As a former opium factory, The Refinery is filled with genuine colonial fixtures and has a charming garden terrace that offers the perfect spot for soaking up the cosmopolitan ambiance over a few wines. This popular restaurant is enclosed in a trendy courtyard alongside the Park Hyatt Hotel on Hai Ba Trung Street.
La Cuisine is unashamedly classic French food, serving numerous traditional dishes, such as steak tartare, foie gras with Provence figs, and skillet-burned duck with Béarnaise sauce. Plating and execution are stylish and advanced, much like the white-washed, bare brick walls, and stout wooden tables. The owner and head chef is French and has worked all over the world before settling in Ho Chi Minh to open La Cuisine. Look out for the set lunch menu, which offers several courses at significantly reduced rates for a taste of something extravagant at an excellent value.
With a chic, modern dining room and an extensive menu featuring the best dishes from Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, Monsoon Restaurant is the best choice for hot regional dishes like tom yum kung soup, pad Thai, red curry, and pork cooked in a clay pot. Prices are very reasonable for what is widely considered the finest Southeast Asian restaurant in Saigon.
The Temple Club is a chic bar and eatery that is on the agendas of visiting stars and globetrotters. Located in a converted Chinese temple in a small alley off Pasteur Street, it's easiest to find by using Saigon Center Shopping Mall as a landmark. Those who do make the effort will be rewarded with a luxuriously decorated dining room serving Vietnamese fusion dishes and a cocktail lounge with skilled bartenders and tapas-style accompaniments. For sheer sophistication, The Temple Club is hard to beat.
Lemongrass is a fine dining restaurant situated in a narrow shophouse in District 1. Serving luscious Vietnamese dishes with French style and providing guests with attentive service, this three-story restaurant is definitely one of Ho Chi Minh's top restaurants. Choose from the extensive range of meat, fish, and vegan dishes on the à la carte menu, or trust the chef and select one of four set menus available at Lemongrass. Soft candlelight adds a touch of romance, enhanced by the live music playing in the background.
Nha Hang Ngon is an endearingly popular restaurant serving a comprehensive array of Vietnamese dishes in a restored colonial mansion. The menu is as large as a cookbook, but all dishes are explained in English. Some may feel the restaurant lacks authenticity, but this is a great option for large groups who want to sample a wide variety of Vietnamese food in beautiful surroundings. While this isn't fine dining, the prices are so reasonable that it is accessible to almost everyone.
This Japanese-owned and operated pizza and pasta restaurant serves some of the best pizzas east of Naples. 4Ps Pizza Saigon is a favorite with Ho Chi Minh's expat community, serving stone-baked pizzas with innovative toppings that range from flower petals to teriyaki chicken. Despite the hidden location down an alley behind The Sushi Bar on Le Thanh Ton Street, it gets packed on weekends, and reservations are highly recommended.