What To Eat In Hue Vietnam – Eat Like A Local

Introduction

Many people have the same question: What to eat in Hue City? while traveling to this ancient capital city of Vietnam. As you might know, when one travels, besides landscapes, food is an important pleasure that is not mentioned properly. Many people even believe that food is also culture. Enjoying the local foods means experiencing the core culture of that destination—the eating culture. Therefore, the same idea is true for travelers to Hue.

We think that foodies will fall in love with the idea of wandering around an ancient city and savoring its best dishes. In this blog, Culture Pham Travel will recommend the delicious dishes in Hue that you definitely must take a bite of when coming to this special city.

If you need an expert food companion, why not book a food tour from our local agency? Our best tour guide will take you to good places. Check them out:

• Hue Street Food Tour – from 25 USD/pax
• Hue Street Beer Tour – from 35 USD/pax
• Perfume River Sunset Cruise with dinner – from 50 USD/pax
• Hue Food Tour By Cyclo – from 45 USD/pax
• Cooking Class at Thuy Bieu Village – from 50 USD/pax
• Hue Cooking Class Tour – from 55 USD/pax

About Hue Cuisine

Hue is an ancient land with a long-standing culture imbued with the attributes of the Vietnamese central region. It undergoes wind and sunshine, with many disadvantages in terms of location and natural conditions. Thus, Hue cuisine gets a great influence from those geographical features. Yet, pressure makes diamonds: Hue’s clever people have created various signature dishes out of hardship.

Many dishes show great ingenuity and sophistication during the cooking process. As the Hue natives take advantage of anything nature hands them, any types of materials available are well used to create flavors. Significantly, Hue’s cuisine is so fascinating and irresistible that it ranks 28th out of the 100 best food cities in the world (Taste Atlas Awards).

What To Eat In Hue: Top Hue Noodles

Bun Hen (Noodles With Baby Basket Clams)

When it comes to Hue, everyone must think of the first dish, bún hến, or basically the noodles with baby basket clams. It has become so famous because it’s rustic but present everywhere, from restaurants, small markets, and alleys to luxury restaurants downtown.

Undoubtedly, bun hen shows the most interesting combination of native ingredients. Although its main raw material is baby basket clams, the additives are many. You will see a mixture of various ingredients: fried pork rind, fish sauce, raw vegetables, banana flower, bean sprouts, chopped white taro, roasted peanuts, etc. Everything is mixed well to create a flavor-rich and pungent taste, very typical of Hue.

How to eat: Mix well everything included in the bowl, then enjoy it right away. A small bowl of clam broth will be served, too. You can pour a bit into your bowl to increase your dish’s moisture and clam flavor.

With its popularity, you can find bun hen everywhere in Hue at a cheap price of VND 10,000–25,000 (<1 USD). The holy land for bun hens is Han Mac Tu Street, Vy Da Ward. You can sit on iconic plastic tables at small shops or on decent tables at restaurants to enjoy this dish. Usually, a restaurant gives more options related to clams, such as clam rice and clam porridge.

Best suggestions on bun hen in Hue:

• Com Hen Dap Da: 01 Han Mac Tu Street, Vy Da Ward
• Com Hen 17: 17 Han Mac Tu, Vy Da Ward
• Quan Nho: 28 Pham Hong Thai Street
• Com Hen Hoa Dong: 64/7 Ung Binh Street, Vy Da Ward
• Com Hen Ba Cam: 49 Tung Thien Vuong Street, Vy Da Ward
• Bun Hen – Com Hen Lanh: 38 Ngo Gia Tu Street
• Com Hen Thu Hien: 55 Tran Phu Street

Bun Bo Hue (Beef Noodle Soup)

Bún bò Huế is not only famous in Vietnam but also worldwide. Most foreign tourists know about this dish because many articles in foreign newspapers and magazines or from famous travel bloggers refer to bun bo as the most delicious dish in Hue. Undeniably, flavorful broth, charming ingredients, and great cooking skills turn into a tempting dish.

Waking up to a fresh morning in Hue and walking down the streets, you can see bun bo shops far and near. Normally, it costs only VND 20,000–40,000 per bowl, or even more, depending on the restaurant and its quality. This dish has a distinctive taste, with the eye-catching colors coming from spices such as lemongrass, chili, paprika, pepper, garlic, onion, fish sauce, etc.

Also, your bun bo bowl will be enriched with pieces of ham, sausage, pork blood tofu, and slices of beef. Most importantly, the vegetables must be very fresh.

Best suggestions on bun bo Hue:

• My Tam Bun Bo Shop: 5 Tran Cao Van Street, Vinh Ninh Ward, Hue City
• Me Keo Bun Bo Shop: 20 Bach Dang Street, Phu Cat Ward, Hue City
• Ba Tuyet: 47 Nguyen Cong Tru Street, Phu Hoi Ward, Hue City (Western Quarter) 
• Ong Vong-O Phung: 5 Nguyen Du Street, Phu Cat Ward, Hue City
• Me Roi: 40 Nguyen Chi Dieu Street, Thuan Thanh Ward, Hue City
• Hem: 29/1 Hung Vuong Street, Hue City (only 1.5km from Truong Tien Bridge)
• O Phuong: 24 Nguyen Khuyen Street, Hue City

Banh Canh (Thick Noodle Soup)

Despite the mysterious sense it gives off, this dish is attractive due to both appearance and taste. A plate of Hades rice will bring you first-hand enjoyment due to its prominent 7 colors. Surprisingly, everything is displayed artistically and brilliantly. They put the white rice from An Cuu Rice in the middle and surrounded it with bacon, Hue rolls, shrimp, baked rolls, omelets, herbs, and cucumbers.

While relishing this dish, don’t forget to sprinkle some fish sauce on it and mix well for better flavor. In Hue, popular diner shops and fine restaurants serve Hades rice at various prices (VND 40,000–200,000 per dish). You should enjoy this dish at its original restaurants at 35 or 51 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street.

Com Chay (Vegetarian Rice)

Hue City’s setting is peaceful and poetic, which is extremely suitable for enjoying a vegetarian meal. Hence, cơm chay, or vegetarian rice in Hue, has been raised into an art. Despite raw materials such as simple vegetables, tubers, mushrooms, tofu, green beans, etc., vegetarian rice shows customers the best display.

Indeed, the tray of vegetarian rice is served to express all the heart and effort of the person who made it. Without any heavy ingredients like meat, vegetarian rice brings a sense of peace to diners.

Enjoying vegetarian rice in the pagodas is probably the best. You can ask for vegetarian rice at any pagoda, but in the inner city of Hue, there is Tu Dam Pagoda. The nuns cook delicious vegetarian rice. On the full moon day and the first day of the lunar calendar, at the pagodas, there are vegetarian meals to invite Buddhists to the pilgrimage.

As one of the biggest Buddhist lands in Vietnam, eating vegetarian rice Hue helps you understand more about this side of religious culture.

If you don’t want to eat a pagoda, there are excellent restaurants for you:

• Lien Hoa Restaurant: 3 Le Quy Don Street, Hue City
• Thanh Lieu Vegetarian Restaurant: 50 Nguyen Cong Tru Street, Hue City
• San May Vegetarian Restaurant: 08 Thanh Tinh Street, Vi Da Ward, Hue City
• Thien Tam Vegetarian Restaurant: 110A Le Ngo Cat Street, Hue City

Other Best Foods In Hue

Che Hue (Sweet Soup)

The Sweet Soup shops in Hue are often located in small alleys, so suddenly Chè Hẻm, or “Che Alley,” has become a famous brand in Hue and Vietnam. When it comes to sweet soups, nowhere in Vietnam has many types of sweet soup as in Hue. Only the Hue royal sweet soup has more than 36 types, sophisticated from processing to presentation.

Its complexity shows through diverse ingredients, from green bean tea, lotus seed, and pineapple green to more exotic ingredients like gold wax sweet soup, cau cotton soup, and roasted meat powder soup. Furthermore, there are dozens of popular soups, such as corn, millet, tea potatoes, beans, and so on.

When going to a sweet soup shop in Hue, you can eat a variety of che Hue types without feeling bored. Yet, it is impossible to enjoy all types of sweet soup at once.

The most famous sweet soup shop in Hue is the one located deep in Alley 27 on Hung Vuong Street, owned by Mrs. Linh Lan. This sweet soup shop opened in 1985 and still exists. Its owner is over 70 years old now, and she still has the hands to select each type of raw material to cook great sweet soups.

Best suggestions on che Hue:

• Che Hem Hue: Alley 1/29 Hùng Vương Street, Hue City
• Che Mo Ton Dich: 20 Dinh Tien Hoang Street
• Royal Sweet Soup: Le Loi Street
• Che Ong Lac: 36 Thanh Tinh Street, Hue City
• Che Cam (sweet soup with grilled pork wrapped in cassava flour): 10 Nguyen Sinh Cung Street

Nem Lui (Grilled Pork On Lemongrass Sticks)

Many people say that nem lụi is one of the very local Hue food. In addition to the main ingredient of spring rolls skewered on a charcoal grill, the delicacy of this dish is in the accompanying vegetables and sauces made from dozens of different ingredients.

The accompanying raw vegetables must include aromatic herbs, starfruit, beansprouts, sliced ​​green bananas, etc. Besides, its sauce is very distinguished, made from hashed lean pork, natural oil, sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, cinnamon, sesame, and peanuts.

Banh Khoai (Vietnamese Rice Pancake)

After enjoying this dish, you will be able to answer for yourself the question of “What to eat in Hue city.” It’s a very typical dish in Hue City. Its ingredients are rice flowers, turmeric, chicken eggs, spring onions, lean meat pork, shrimp, natural oil, and bean sprouts. To enjoy this dish, you should enjoy the pancake with raw vegetables, salad, and mixed peanut, and sesame sauce.

Best suggestions on banh khoai rice pancakes:

• Hanh Local Restaurant: 11 Pho Duc Chinh Street, Hue City
• Lac Thien Restaurant: 06 Dinh Tien Hoang Street (Thuong Tu Gate, Hue Citadel, Hue City)

Beo – Nam – Loc: Top 3 Hue Cakes

People cannot leave Hue without tasting the trio Beo – Nam – Loc. These cakes are specialties of the Ancient Capital, showing a part of the artisan’s feelings and thoughts. It is made out of Hue’s typical ingredients which grow from the land’s difficult weather. These dishes’ companionship with people’s hard times makes them even more valuable.

Bánh Nậm (nam cake) is a dish made of pureed rice, mixed with leaf juice, and kneaded into a thick dough to create a thin cake. Then, they add small shrimp, wrap them with banana leaves, and steam. Each cake is rolled up when eaten.

Bánh Bèo (beo cake) has a shape like duck ears. It is slender, delicate, and small, but tasty. Its clever combination of flour, shrimp, spices, and dipping sauces creates beautiful cakes.

Bánh Lọc (loc cake) usually has 2 types: wrapped banh loc (wrapped with banana leaves and dong leaves) and unwrapped banh loc. Both types have a filling of shrimp mixed with spices, lean pork, or a mixture of shrimp and meat.

Conclusion – What To Eat In Hue?

In conclusion, Hue City is truly a paradise for food lovers who want to explore the unique and diverse culinary culture of Vietnam. From the signature bun hen to the world-renowned bun bo Hue, and delicious banh canh, the city offers an abundance of scrumptious dishes that will surely satisfy your taste buds. Besides, local food tours are also available for those who want to experience these delicacies with an expert guide.

So, if you are planning to travel to Hue, do not miss the opportunity to taste its authentic and mouth-watering dishes to fully immerse yourself in the local culture. Thanks for reading with Culture Pham Travel.