Hanoi
To eat and drink in Hanoi is to taste the city's culture. The table, be it the plastic variety found in pho (noodle soup) sidewalk stalls or the taller and more substantial seen in restaurants, is a magnet for social interaction. Beyond your immediate party, the scenes that unfold in food stalls, cafés and restaurants offer a candid view of the local mode of life.As Hanoi wakes and sleeps early, finding food before dawn is easy, but satisfying the late-night munchies is a bit more challenging. Breakfast Vietnamese-style can be found on most city blocks-join a group of Vietnamese curled over low stools, slurping the white noodles served submerged in a meaty broth by vendors of pho stands. Chau, like hot oatmeal except made from rice and mixed with fish or meat, fried scallions and herbs, make another typical morning meal. Both hearty dishes will fill your stomach for less than a dollar. Food stalls line Mai Hoc De and early morning pho stands ladle out noodles on Dinh Liet.
Several pricier chair-and-table establishments appeal to those craving the familiar tastes of a Western-style breakfast. The eggs Benedict drenched in a rich hollandaise sauce at Moca Café will quiet growling tummies, and the buffet at La Brasserie in the Nikko Hotel offers limitless pastries, fruits and coffee. Serving breakfast foods all day, Café 129 and Kinh Do 252 Café combine both local and foreign tastes in food and décor.
At noon the streets buzz with motorbikes as most Vietnamese rush home for a two-hour lunch and nap. The noon meal lingers. The tree-filled garden and lengthy list of salads and buttery pastries at Hoa Sua offer an ideal place for a ladies lunch. The restored French-villa setting of the Verandah Restaurant and Bar is another place suitable for pre- or post-shopping lunch. Au Lac, the Kangaroo Café and KOTO Restaurant also provide casual spots for a leisurely lunch.
Long tables of Vietnamese crack into crabs, prawns and clams at any one the casual seafood eateries on Pho To Hien Thanh. Other places serving food from the waters include San Ho Seafood Restaurant, which offers a set seafood lunch starting at USD5. Cha Ca La Vong serves grilled fish cakes, a specialty of Hanoi.
Several of the fancier private clubs and hotels offer lunch and dinner specials, which draw a more professional crowd. All-you-can-eat buffets featuring international cuisine change every season. Check the local paper for current promotions at the Press Club, Café Promenade at the Daewoo Hotel, Turtle's Poem at the Hilton Hanoi Opera and Le Beaulieu at the Hotel Sofitel Metropole Hanoi.
For group lunches or solo dining, The Deli prepares (and also delivers) sandwiches as does the more posh Hanoi Gourmet. Bui Thi Xuan is home to a concentration of com bias, rice stands where patrons select from a display of prepared foods including grilled meats, fried fish, shrimp, various pickled and blanched greens, and sautéed tofu, and mix them with rice.
Mid-afternoon grazers flock to the Ciao Café for pastries and light bites, sit at the lakeside balcony at Co Ngu Bar for sinh tos (fruit juices), and sip coffee topped with frothy egg whites at the tucked-away Café Pho Co. Tea drinkers should sample some of the 73 varieties brewed at the See Wan Ton Teahouse.
The bars at Emperor Restaurant (enchanting scenery), La Salsa Tapas Bar and Restaurant (great olives) and La Brique (fine wines) are stylish, upscale places to enjoy a pre-dinner drink. Each presents a refined menu that might entice you to stay for dinner.
Casual eating en masse proves popular as locals and foreigners stretch the early evening hours. The easily adjoining tables, large menus and low prices of bia hois (beer halls) make these Hanoi institutions popular places for large groups. A few places currently en vogue include Quan Bia Minh, Bia Hoi Dai Nam, Cua Hang Bac Nam Bia Hoi and 60 Ly Thuong Kiet Street. For a truly Vietnamese gastronomical experience, assemble a group for a "dogs dinner" at Anh Tu Thit Cho Restaurant. As dog is the only option there, vegetarians might want to try Com Chay Nang Tam Vegetarian Restaurant and meet up with their carnivorous friends later.
Couples seeking romantic settings, travelers on business accounts and those impressing out-of-town guests frequent Indochine and Nam Phuong-two classy Vietnamese restaurants housed in French villas. Splashy non-Asian places include Il Grillo, the Red Onion Bistro and the Press Club Restaurant.
When quantity is your main objective try the ribs and pub grub at Al Fresco's or the Vietnamese buffet at the classy Brother's Café. Stomachs never leave empty after a hearty Indian meal at Tandoor.
For sweets Vietnamese style, try the soupy blends of creamy and crunchy textures ladled over ice at Che Sai Gon. Traditionalists can enjoy the cool richness of Fanny's ice cream while circling Hoan Kiem Lake or the soft-serve cool treats at Kem Kiwi Ice.
Vietnamese couples sit in the quiet shadows under the trees at Dak-Linh Café, drinking teas and juices while foreigners tend to frequent the pricier Thuy Ta Café. Both boast prime spots on the edge of Hoan Kiem Lake for watching the night scene unfold and digest the day's events.
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