Bin restaurant sits at the corner of Phan Dinh Phung and Yen Bai. There is always a crowd of motorbikes at the window next to the entrance buying Banh Mi to go. This was the first place we are at after arriving in Da Nang.
Their Mi Quang is my favorite food from there. Mi quang is a local specialty, which is a thicker rice noodle with peanut and a soup like sauce and mixed with fresh vegetables. The above is the mi quang thit nuong, which is grilled pork. The Mi Quang quay lu is pork with the skin roasted to a crisp and is a bit fattier.
This is their Banh mo Bo ne, which basically is a grilled beef with a bit of ground beef and a fried egg. This was mean to eaten as a Banh Mi by placing the mayo and pâté into the baguette and placing the cucumber and tomatoe as well as the beef and egg into the baguette, then drizzle the soup (the one to the right) over the Banh Mi. Unfortunately, being my first day, I totally did not get that point and just ate everything separately... T.T
Quan Phu Hong is a little family owned restaurant right next to our hotel. We have passed it many times and avoided it because it's the more grungy kind that caters to the locals. What a mistake! When we finally felt comfortable enough to try it, their bun and bo la lot blew us away! It was so good we made it our final meal in Da Nang.
Bo la lot is some meat (beef? Pork?) wrapped in kettle leaves and grilled. I can't quite describe the taste, except that the meat has the flavor of mild spices with a hint of fish sauce and is a bit fatty, and the kettle leaves settle down the grease from the meat fat with a slight flavor of tea. This can be eaten alone, but I like to eat it with the self made spring roll as can be seen in the background below with dry rice paper, marinated papaya, cucumber, and assorted fresh leafy lettuce, cilantro and mint.
Their bun thit nuong is served with peanut sauce, the same one that is used for dipping the Bo la lot and the self made spring roll with the dry rice paper. The meat is extra flavorful, but the peanut sauce is what makes the difference, and like Mi Quang, there is a bit of soup that is poured over the noodles.
This is the wonderful peanut sauce. It is made from fresh ground peanuts and appears to have some taste of fish sauce/hoisin sauce, as well as chili sauce and dried shrimp. It tastes amazing with everything! However, this place tends to run on the slightly pricier side. No price listed, but 2 bun dish and 1 Bo la lot ran about 120,000 VND.
This is the Nem Lui, which is the same meat as in the Bo la lot, but is grilled on a stick instead. I think they do reuse the chopstick that the meat is on, so I would not recommend this. It is quite tasty as well but is less meat.
This picture is the Banh Xeo, which we actually ate next door when we got confused by the restaurants (they all look similar from the street and serve the same food). This place is not as good, I think because their peanut sauce is not as tasty. But the Banh Xeo is actually quite delicious.
It is made with rice flour and the outer crepe has rice flavor and is slightly sticky. The inside is filled with beat sprouts, marinated meat and shrimp. We dipped it in the peanut sauce as well, and because it falls apart rather easily, we wrapped it in the spring roll (same one as above) to help keep it together.
Van Huong is a restaurant that specialize in Com (rice) dishes. Com is a stable of the Vietnamese locals and is usually served with a variety of premade items that one can pick at the stand at the front of the shop. We actually tried three different places, but this was by far the best and we were introduced to it by the ICU doctors.
The squid was stuffed and everything was very delicious. The Nuoc mam sauce is meant to be poured over the rice, but there is so much rice that I had a hard time getting all of it and did not finish most of it. The owner of this restaurant was Chinese, though he has lived in Vietnam a long time.
This was from another meal where we randomly stopped at some restaurant on Quang Trung. It was a bit cold as we missed lunch hour.
I am actually unsure of the name of this restaurant, but it is located on Thai Phien between Yen Bai and Nguyen Chi Thanh. The owner speaks fairly good English, and they have a menu that explains what each item is, though it doesn't have all the menu items.
This is the Bun Cha. This is a bun that is served on the side and is meant to be dipped into the soup that is served with it. I like to add the served leafy veggies (lettuce, cilantro, mint and basil, the usual) to the soup as well. The soup is extremely flavorful and there is a hint of Nuoc mam sauce as well.
This is the bun rieu, which is a soupy bun made with tomatoes in it. I got the snails (Oc) with tofu! It was quite delicious, but is on the more sour side with a taste of fresh tomatoes in addition to the flavorful soup.
Similar bun rieu with tofu and crab (that ground meat appearing stuff on top). It doesn't taste that much different, so I would recommend the snail over this one
Nem cua be, which is a version of fried spring roll with crab in it. It also has vermicelli noodles as well as some other ingredients.
Mr. Quang is another family ran restaurant. It was one of the better reviewed places on TripAdvisor, though after this trip, I had some thoughts about that (see below). I am not sure who Mr. Quang is as this place seems to be ran by females of the family... It is one of those places that is on the pricier side for foreigners, though they do have an English menu.
Their bun Bo hue is probably the only thing I would recommend from there. It is actually a local specialty of Hue city that we did not get to try due to our tight tour schedule. But luckily, Mr. Quang has all the local foods that foreigners would be interested in... This is actually thicker noodles, much like mi Quang with thick roasted slabs of beef (I believe). It is a heavier soup compared to pho, though with the added fresh vegetables, it is still quite good, though I like it with some red chili paste to give it a kick.
We also tried their pho and Mi Quang, neither of which I would recommend as they were fairly subpar compared to the other restaurants, but still okay.
There is a Hong Kong restaurant that we walked by from the train station and saw they sell roasted duck. Unfortunately, I somehow forgot the pictur of the front, but will update once I obtain it from my friend. This is their roasted duck, which is quite delicious, though somewhat different from the Hong Kong style that I have had in the past.
This is the really good stuff that I would recommend from this restaurant! It is the wonton noodle soup, which I ordered by accident when I tried to order the duck leg with noodle soup... But it was very delicious as the soup was more similar to a chicken pho soup and was very light with these delicious crunches that are floating on top, and the wontons were shrimp wontons (though the shrimp is a bit skimpy)...
As can be seen above, I am a big fan of noodles. We haven't tried too many of the restaurants around, but most have not been disappointing. But I do have some reservations about following TripAdvisor's reviews as most of the ones that were highly rated were somewhat disappointing. Instead, my recommendation would be to use it to find where most restaurants are located as they tend to be in a cluster. Many Vietnamese local restaurants tend to have a limited menu and usually will post their specialty on their name plate. Take a picture of their store sign as that will usually have their address in case you want to go back.
The above list is places for Vietnamese food. See my separate entry for Pizza Hut and KFC as I think the Asian version of these chain restaurants tend to offer a different menu and tastes much better in comparison and is definitely worth trying. I will be posting a post on drinks as well as bakeries with recommendations for Banh Mi sandwiches...
As for food cleanliness, I never got sick even once in Vietnam despite drinking tons of smoothies and eating lots of fresh veggies. A lot of vendors tend to handle money and food at the same time, but I just took that without too much thought. Rats tend to be present and I usually see them in some of the more dirtier looking places. The key that I used for finding a place to eat has been seeing if their store front appears clean or not, as at least they have thought of being somewhat clean...
All in all, I will miss the delicious food in Da Nang and that if I was to return to Vietnam in the future, will plan on making a trip to Da Nang for visiting these favorite places of mine. :)
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