Lonely Planet Experiences Private Hanoi Tour: Street Food By Night

We start our evening Hanoi street food tour at a hidden coffee shop with a welcome drink and the chance to fill up your resuable water bottle. Walking into this cafe you will see plastic bottles, turned into flowers and dragonflies, hanging from the ceiling. These decorations create pops of color throughout the cafe. What a good way to start your evening tour!

Stroll through hidden alleyways and visit the city’s local market, Hang Be. Along the perimeter of the market, dozens of street hawkers sell a staggering variety of produce from live seafood to exotic fruits and spices.

Your expert English-speaking local guide will give you an insight into the intricacies and traditions of Vietnamese food culture including details on ingredients and historical backgrounds of popular northern dishes. We eat as we go, trying seasonal fruits and sampling a tasty local doughnut where you have the chance to learn the process of how the local family makes their doughnuts, including sweet and savory varieties.

The next stop on our Hanoi street food tour is a food stall selling bun dau met (noodles with fried tofu and shrimp paste) and bun cha (a grilled pork and noodle dish). We sit down with the Hanoi locals and also have a chance to sample mam tom (shrimp paste) or nuoc mam (fish sauce).

Next, we will head over to Lo Ren street where we will stop for some banh mi, a tasty Vietnamese baguette sandwich with many different choices of fillings.  

Walking through the maze of bustling streets that make up Hanoi’s Old Quarter, we tempt our tastebuds with the famed Hanoi dish banh cuon at a local eatery. Watch in awe as the skilled chefs demonstrate for you how this tasty dish is put together. Continuing into the atmospheric heart of the Old Quarter, we wander past street stalls and quiet residential lanes where you can observe local life that has changed little since Hanoi was founded over 1,000 years ago. 

Now, it's time for a cup of Bia hoi (light Vietnamese draft beer) while we sit down and mingle with locals. This local beer-drinking tradition is one not to be missed.

Your local guide will then take you to one of Hanoi’s best kept secrets, a hidden café with stunning views over the picturesque Hoan Kiem Lake. This hard-to-find café is one of the few left in the city that still serves egg coffee, a scrumptious local delicacy that we will sample whilst admiring the hustle and bustle of the city centre below. Or, if coffee is not your style, a cold beer awaits!

At the end of our Hanoi tour you are free to continue exploring the area or your guide will assist you with directions or a taxi back to your hotel.

(If you’d prefer to travel as part of a regular group experience, please book our Hanoi Street Food By Night group tour.) 

This tour is priced for a minimum group size of two travellers. A solo traveller may still book this private experience but will be charged the base rate for two travellers.