Hanoi Street Food Walking Tour with Train Street Visit

Hanoi Old Quarter and Bat Su Street

Hanoi's Old Quarter is a maze of narrow streets north of Hoan Kiem Lake, where for centuries each street was the base of a single craft guild and still carries its trade name: Hang Bac for silversmiths, Hang Ma for paper goods, Hang Thiec for tin. The tour begins on Bat Su Street, whose name means porcelain bowls, once the place to buy dishes from the kilns of the Red River delta. Tube houses only a few metres wide stretch deep from the pavement, with shops on the ground floor, family rooms above and food stalls spilling onto the kerb.

Walking is the only way to feel the Old Quarter: motorbikes flow round you, vendors carry baskets on bamboo poles and every corner smells of grilled meat or simmering broth. Our Old Quarter food tour moves at an easy pace between stops, and your guide shows you how to cross the traffic safely, how to sit on the low plastic stools and what each sauce on the table is for.

Bun cha, Hanoi's favourite lunch

Bun cha is the dish most Hanoians would choose to represent their city. Patties of minced pork and slices of pork belly are grilled over charcoal on the pavement, then served in a bowl of warm, slightly sweet fish-sauce broth with green papaya and carrot. On the side come cold rice vermicelli and a basket of fresh herbs: lettuce, perilla, mint and coriander. You dip the noodles and herbs into the broth and eat everything together, adding garlic and chilli to taste.

It is traditionally a lunchtime dish, so the smoke from the grills fills the Old Quarter from late morning. Your guide takes you to a family restaurant that specialises in nothing but bun cha, explains how the broth is balanced and shows you the local way to eat it. For many people on this Hanoi food tour, it is the dish they remember most.

Dry mixed pho, banh mi and sticky rice with ice cream

Pho was born in northern Vietnam in the early 20th century, and Hanoi still claims the purest version. On this tour you try pho tron, a dry mixed pho in which flat rice noodles and tender chicken are tossed in a tangy, slightly sweet sauce with herbs, fried shallots and roasted peanuts instead of sitting in broth. It is lighter than the soup and very popular with locals in hot weather.

Next comes banh mi, the Vietnamese baguette introduced in the French colonial era and made lighter and crisper here, filled with pâté, cold cuts, pickled vegetables, cucumber, herbs and chilli. To finish, kem xoi pairs a scoop of ice cream with warm sticky rice and toasted coconut flakes, a sweet contrast of temperatures and textures. The guide may vary the dishes according to the day, but you always enjoy four or five tastings in total.

Hanoi Train Street and egg coffee by the tracks

Hanoi Train Street is a narrow stretch of railway built in the French colonial period, where the single track runs between houses so close that residents fold away their chairs and pull in their washing when a train is due. Cafés now line the rails, and when a train passes, it slides by little more than an arm's length from the tables. Trains do not run to a fixed visitor timetable and sometimes do not come, and access to some sections is periodically restricted, so your guide chooses the best spot on the day.

A short taxi ride, included in the tour, takes you from the Old Quarter to Train Street, where you sit down to egg coffee, a Hanoi creation of the 1940s in which egg yolk is whipped with sugar into a light, custard-like cream over strong coffee, or a soft drink if you prefer. After about 30 to 40 minutes you ride back to the Old Quarter. Late afternoon and evening departures often coincide with passing trains.