How much does food cost in Vietnam?

Street food, a dish — 20–50K ₫ ($1–2); Pho — 40–70K ₫; Banh mi — 15–40K ₫; Coffee — 20–35K ₫; Mid-range restaurant — 100–300K ₫. Budget roughly $5–20 a day depending on how you eat.

Can I drink the tap water in Vietnam?

No — stick to bottled water. A 0.5 L bottle — 5–10K ₫; A 1.5 L bottle — 10–15K ₫. Ice in restaurants is safe (factory-made, cylindrical), and tap water is fine for brushing your teeth.

Which dishes should I try in Vietnam?

Pho bo — beef noodle soup; Banh mi — baguette sandwich; Bun bo Hue — spicy soup; Banh cuon — steamed rolls; Com tam — broken rice; Ca phe sua da — iced coffee; Goi cuon — fresh spring rolls.

Is street food safe in Vietnam?

Yes, with a little sense: Pick stalls with a queue of locals; Look for food cooked in front of you; Start with the simpler dishes; Skip raw seafood for the first few days; Drink bottled water. Bring your own wet wipes — stalls charge 2–5K ₫ for them.

Is there vegetarian food in Vietnam?

Yes — Vietnam is great for vegetarians thanks to Buddhist tradition. Look for quán chay or nhà hàng chay — vegetarian places; “Tôi ăn chay” — “I’m vegetarian”; Check there’s no fish sauce (nước mắm) — it’s in most dishes.

Food — Vietnam Guide

What to eat in the first week

Ten dishes you will find in almost any town, each under two dollars. They are laid out across the days of that week rather than as a list: the order runs from familiar to unfamiliar, and the hot one waits until your stomach has settled. The Vietnamese name is there to be shown from your screen — the diacritics are not decoration, they change the word. How the cuisine works as a whole is in Vietnamese cuisine.

Day 1

Start with phở: a familiar shape and the lowest risk

Phở bò40–70k ₫

Beef noodle soup · fuh baw

Rice noodles and beef in a broth simmered overnight. The national dish and the safest first order anywhere.

Day 2

Street breakfast: a baguette in one hand, coffee in the other

Bánh mì15–40k ₫

Vietnamese baguette · bahn mee

A baguette with pâté, meat, pickled vegetables and sauce — French inheritance, entirely rewritten.

Cà phê sữa đá20–35k ₫

Iced coffee with condensed milk · ka fey suh-a da

Robusta, so roughly twice the strength you are used to. Ordered by everyone, all day.

Day 3

The first genuinely filling meal

Cơm tấm30–55k ₫

Broken rice with pork · kuhm tuhm

Broken rice grains under a grilled pork chop. Saigon’s staple and the most filling dollar you will spend.

Day 4

Hotter than anything so far. Drink tea, not water

Bún bò Huế40–60k ₫

Spicy Hue noodle soup · boon baw hway

Thick noodles, lemongrass and chilli. From Hue, and considerably angrier than phở.

Day 5

A light day, nothing fried

Gỏi cuốn20–40k ₫

Fresh spring rolls · goy kwuhn

Prawn and herbs wrapped in rice paper, nothing fried. The only light thing on this list.

Chè15–30k ₫

Sweet bean dessert · cheh

Beans, jelly and coconut milk over ice. Closer to a drink than to a pudding.

Day 6

You will have to be up before nine

Bánh cuốn25–45k ₫

Steamed rice rolls · bahn kwuhn

Paper-thin steamed rice sheets around pork and mushroom. A breakfast dish — gone by lunchtime.

Day 7

Noodles you will not find outside Da Nang, and dinner eaten by hand

Mì Quảng30–50k ₫

Turmeric noodles · mee kwahng

Yellow noodles with peanuts and a rice cracker. Da Nang’s pride, and rare outside it.

Bánh xèo25–50k ₫

Crispy savoury pancake · bahn say-oh

A crisp rice pancake with prawn and bean sprouts. Eaten by hand, wrapped in lettuce.

All ten together — 260–475k ₫

Where the food is

From a stall on the pavement to your own kitchen — four ways to eat, with roughly a thirtyfold gap between the ends.

Street quánPlastic stools on the pavement. The most honest food in the country and its lowest bill20–50k ₫
Chain cafésHighlands, The Coffee House, Cộng. Air conditioning, sockets and an English menu50–100k ₫
Mid-range restaurantsTablecloths, forks, toned-down chilli. Where you go when the stools have won100–300k ₫
Fine diningModern Vietnamese in Saigon and Hanoi. By local standards, a small fortune500k–1.5M ₫

Tipping is not the custom here. Street places do not expect it at all; restaurants with tablecloths already add a service charge. Rounding the bill up is plenty.

Markets

Go before eight: the best of it is gone by noon, and the heat turns the aisles into an ordeal. What fruit is in season is in fruit in Vietnam.

Major markets in Vietnam
Market	City	Hours
Bến ThànhThoroughly touristic: prices run two to three times over, haggling is compulsory	Ho Chi Minh	6:00–18:00
Chợ HànSeafood, fruit and spices; half the shoppers are locals	Da Nang	6:00–18:00
Chợ CồnA real city market at local prices	Da Nang	5:00–17:00
Đồng XuânThe largest in the north; a night bazaar unfolds at weekends	Hanoi	6:00–18:00

Bến ThànhThoroughly touristic: prices run two to three times over, haggling is compulsoryHo Chi Minh6:00–18:00
Chợ HànSeafood, fruit and spices; half the shoppers are localsDa Nang6:00–18:00
Chợ CồnA real city market at local pricesDa Nang5:00–17:00
Đồng XuânThe largest in the north; a night bazaar unfolds at weekendsHanoi6:00–18:00

Delivery

All three want a Vietnamese phone number at sign-up — one of the reasons to get a local SIM rather than only an eSIM (see the connectivity section).

GrabFoodThe widest coverage, works in smaller towns toofrom 15k ₫
ShopeeFoodConstant promotions, but fewer restaurantsfrom 10k ₫
BeVietnamese service — delivery inside the same app as the taxifrom 15k ₫

Cooking for yourself

Worth it on a long lease: groceries run about half the price of eating out — though a one-dollar lunch on the street makes that saving less obvious than it sounds.

Rice, 5 kg — 70–120k ₫
Chicken, per kg — 60–90k ₫
Vegetables, per kg — 15–40k ₫
Eggs, ten — 25–35k ₫
Supermarkets: WinMart, Co.opmart, Big C, Lotte Mart
Convenience stores — Circle K, FamilyMart, GS25 — run 20–30% higher

How not to get sick

Vietnamese street food is safer than its reputation: a stall turns over more stock than a restaurant, so nothing sits around. The risk is not in the food but in the water and the ice — and safe ice is distinguishable by eye.

Go ahead

A stall with a queue of locals: higher turnover means the ingredients never sit.
Food cooked in front of you — you can see both the pan and the hands.
Factory ice: cylinders with a hole through the middle, made from purified water. It is safe.
Bottled water at 5–10k ₫ for half a litre. The cap should click when you open it.
Google Maps filtered to 4.5 stars and a hundred reviews works for finding a place in an unfamiliar area.

Better not

Tap water — do not drink it. Brushing your teeth with it is fine.
Home-crushed ice in irregular lumps — made from water nobody checked.
Seafood on day one: your stomach needs two or three days to settle in.
Unwashed fruit — rinse it in bottled water, not from the tap.
Any place with no local inside it at lunchtime.

If it does hit you. Any pharmacy sells Oresol rehydration salts, smecta and activated charcoal without a prescription. The first day: rice, bananas, crackers and a lot of water. If your temperature stays above 38.5 °C or it drags past two days, go to a clinic rather than waiting it out.

How to order

There is almost no English on the street, but a phone with writing on it never fails. Eight phrases cover the entire conversation at a stall — show the line from your screen.

Vietnamese phrases for ordering food
English	Vietnamese	Roughly
How much is it?	Bao nhiêu?	bao nyew
The bill, please	Tính tiền	ting tien
Not spicy	Không cay	khong kai
No meat	Không thịt	khong tit
I am vegetarian	Tôi ăn chay	toy an chai
No fish sauce	Không nước mắm	khong nuoc mam
Water, please	Cho tôi nước	cho toy nuoc
Very good!	Ngon lắm!	ngon lam

How much is it?bao nyewBao nhiêu?
The bill, pleaseting tienTính tiền
Not spicykhong kaiKhông cay
No meatkhong titKhông thịt
I am vegetariantoy an chaiTôi ăn chay
No fish saucekhong nuoc mamKhông nước mắm
Water, pleasecho toy nuocCho tôi nước
Very good!ngon lamNgon lắm!

Vegetarians need one phrase more. Fish sauce — nước mắm — goes into almost everything, vegetable dishes included, so “no meat” is not enough: say không nước mắm. Dedicated vegetarian places are marked with the word chay: look for quán chay or nhà hàng chay. A bowl of bún chay starts at 25k ₫.

What they eat in your city

Mì Quảng exists only in Da Nang, bún bò in Hue, and seafood is cheapest on the islands. One guide per city.

Ho Chi Minh16 min read Hanoi17 min read Da Nang19 min read Nha Trang17 min read Hoi An14 min read Phu Quoc19 min read Da Lat15 min read Phan Thiet22 min read

Short answers

Street food, a dish20–50K ₫$1–2
Pho40–70K ₫
Banh mi15–40K ₫
Coffee20–35K ₫
Mid-range restaurant100–300K ₫

Budget roughly $5–20 a day depending on how you eat

No — stick to bottled water.

A 0.5 L bottle5–10K ₫
A 1.5 L bottle10–15K ₫

Ice in restaurants is safe (factory-made, cylindrical), and tap water is fine for brushing your teeth

Pho bo — beef noodle soup
Banh mi — baguette sandwich
Bun bo Hue — spicy soup
Banh cuon — steamed rolls
Com tam — broken rice
Ca phe sua da — iced coffee
Goi cuon — fresh spring rolls

Yes, with a little sense:

Pick stalls with a queue of locals
Look for food cooked in front of you
Start with the simpler dishes
Skip raw seafood for the first few days
Drink bottled water

Bring your own wet wipes — stalls charge 2–5K ₫ for them

Yes — Vietnam is great for vegetarians thanks to Buddhist tradition.

Look for quán chay or nhà hàng chay — vegetarian places
“Tôi ăn chay” — “I’m vegetarian”
Check there’s no fish sauce (nước mắm) — it’s in most dishes

If you need more depth

Delivery apps, ratings for what is nearby, and the reads that take the cuisine apart.

DeliveryGrabFood — food delivery nationwidegrab.com DeliveryShopeeFood — promotions and discountsshopeefood.vn SearchGoogle Maps — ratings for what is nearbymaps.google.com MichelinMichelin Guide — Vietnam restaurants and Bib Gourmandguide.michelin.com

11 pages · PDF · RUMarkets of Nha TrangFive spots from the 4am fish auction to the night bazaar, and how to haggleCash onlyFree entryWhat to buyDownload PDF 11 pages · PDF · RUFirst-trip checklistWhat to sort out before you fly and how to get through the first 24 hoursPassport valid 6 monthsCustomsScams aimed at newcomersDownload PDF

Food · 11 min readVietnamese Cuisine 2026: 20 Dishes to TryThe whole cuisine: regions, flavours and how north differs from southRead Food · 25 min readVietnam Street Food 2026: What to Eat & Is It SafeStreet food: what to order and how to read a stallRead Food · 22 min readPho Bo: Vietnam\'s Beef Noodle Soup ExplainedPhở bò: the history, the recipe and where the real one isRead Food · 17 min readVietnamese Coffee: Robusta, Phin & What to Bring HomeCoffee: robusta, egg and coconut — what to ask forRead Food · 14 min readVietnamese Fruits: A Guide to Tropical Fruit & SeasonsFruit: what is in season and how to get into itRead Food · 11 min readSaigon Food Tour 2026 with a Private Local GuideAn eating route through Saigon, one evening longRead

All food guides

In-depth reads

What should I order first?Pho, banh mi, banh xeo, bun cha and more — what it costs and which dishes are spicyVietnamese cuisine11 min read Is street food safe?How to pick a stall and what to order, what it costs and whether it will make you sickVietnamese street food25 min read Where do I find the best pho?North vs south styles, how to eat it, what to order and where the best bowl isPho bo: recipe & history22 min read