33 Best Restaurants in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

The old-world charm of the Victoria Chau Doc Hotel extends to its in-house restaurant, which serves Western and Asian cuisine in a stylish riverfront setting. Take a seat on the terrace to enjoy the sunset (and happy hour at the bar) and the attentive but discreet service. This is the priciest place in town, but the food, the staff, and the river views make it worthwhile. Reservations are recommended because sometimes the restaurant hosts bus tours.

The hotel restaurant uses only local ingredients and happily accommodates vegetarians. Specialties include crispy elephant ear fish and other local seafood. The multicourse meals here are pricier than those in town but, because Mekong Lodge supports several charities, including a school and a training center for disadvantaged locals, a meal here gives back to the community.

This is a great find in Ca Mau, with nostalgic style (the name translates as "ancient street"), including quaint little wooden pavilions, a courtyard bonsai garden, and fish ponds. Serving Chinese-influenced dishes as well as Vietnamese cuisine, Pho Xua has a menu that contains English subtitles, although not much English is spoken by the staff. With its proximity to the ocean, it's no wonder that seafood is the house specialty, but there's also a range of chicken, beef, buffalo, and pork dishes.

The in-house restaurant at this friendly eco-lodge serves fresh local seafood, vegetarian dishes and lau (hotpots), which can be enjoyed with one of Phu Quoc's best views. Don't miss the house specialty, minted tempura shrimp, or book a beach barbecue for two. It's wise to book ahead before visiting, as the restaurant has only enough electricity for one refrigerator on-site, limiting the inventory of ingredients.

Pull up a stool at this sidewalk restaurant and pop open a Saigon beer while you look to see what the locals are eating. Chau Doc is all about seafood, and you can't go wrong with clay pot fish—unless you don't like fish sauce, in which case go for clay pot pork, with juices that taste great over white rice. There's not a lot for vegetarians, but the plates of sautéed vegetables—morning glory, baby corn, banana flowers—flavored with coriander go well with rice, and there is a vegetable soup.

A basic Vietnamese joint, with a cafeteria-style interior and patchy English abilities, Bay Bong 2 does a range of standard but tasty Vietnamese dishes. The house specialty is com ca kho to (catfish in claypot) and sweet-and-sour soup with catfish or shrimp. The service can be hit or miss, especially if the place is busy, as it often is.

This basic street food outlet serves a great version of the local specialty, bun nuoc leo, a murky pork noodle soup. Patrons can expect celebrity treatment at this place, with extra plates of spring rolls, fried prawn cakes, and banana-leaf-wrapped roast pork offered, along with wide smiles. Don't worry—if you don't eat any of the extras, you don't have to pay (but they are very good).

This humble street food eatery is as good a place as any to try bun nuoc leo, a Mekong Delta specialty of broth made with fermented fish, served over fresh bun noodles, with slices of fish, roast pork, shrimp, and local greens. Pair it with a glass of sugarcane juice.

Offering very basic Vietnamese café fare, such as stir-fried noodles, pork and rice, and baguettes, this café associated with the Que Toi Hotel is a place more for satisfying hunger pangs than enjoying fine dining. Like most Vietnamese cafés, it's a place for people to meet, drink coffee, and smoke cigarettes. On the plus side, it has an English menu, which most places in town don't have.

For fresh, cooked-before-your eyes seafood, head down to the Duong Dong Night Market. Dining at the street food stalls here, which set up around 6 pm, are a great experience, especially for group dinners. If you're not a seafood fan, never fear—a range of pork, chicken, and beef dishes is also available.

There's a range of street food stalls in the streets surrounding Ha Tien's impressive market, which comprises several buildings, including one marked "an uong" ("eat and drink").

The food at this cheap local joint is tasty, and though the interior is basic, the restaurant is air-conditioned and the menu is in Vietnamese, English, and Chinese, so ordering is relatively simple. Mekong Delta specialties include lau (hotpot), ca kho (caramelized fish), and suon xao chua ngot (sweet-and-sour pork riblets) as well as bo luc lac (shaking beef—because it dances around the pan while being cooked) and chao tom chien (prawn paste on sugar cane sticks).

Usually packed with locals, this big eating hall with metal tables and plastic stools is the best place in town to order hu tieu My Tho, a noodle soup that's the specialty of My Tho. The staff don't speak much English but the food more than makes up for any challenges with ordering. The menu, printed on the walls, is simple: hu tieu (rice-noodle soup), banh canh (rice-and-tapioca noodle soup), bot nui (rice-macaroni soup), and hoan thanh (pork wonton soup). There are different prices for hu tieu: thit (pork), xuong (pork knuckle), muc tuoi (fresh squid) and tom tuoi (fresh shrimp).

Popular with locals, this restaurant is designed to look like a bamboo village hut, and is a bit of a point-and-order eating adventure for visitors—the menu has no English, only a few photos on each page that vaguely correspond to the dishes listed below. The menu offers seafood, salad, beef, chicken, sparrow (chim se), and hotpot. Luckily the prices are so low it doesn't really matter if you mis-order a few dishes.

Western tourists will find an English menu (with some very unusual translations) at this basic Vietnamese restaurant, where a range of standard dishes includes the local specialty, lau mam (fermented fish hotpot). A big plus is the air-conditioned room, in a town where many places are fan-cooled only. The style is basic, with check table cloths and wooden dining settings inside and plain marble-topped tables on the terrace.

This garden restaurant is popular with locals. The specialty is whole chicken (including the head and feet), but if that's too adventurous, you can choose a beef, pigeon, or pork dish.

The house of district chief Tran Tuan Kiet was built in 1838, its 108 poles made from the wood of xylia xylocarpa trees, and doors carved with illustrations of flowers and trees. On display within the house is beautiful carved furniture, some with mother-of-pearl inlays, ceramic pieces, and other antiques. The house, restored in 2002 with a donation from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), who also sent over an architect, has four homestay rooms. There is an on-site restaurant, which can seat up to 250 people, serving Mekong Delta home cooking.

Part of the highly acclaimed Nam Bo Boutique Hotel, this all-day café-restaurant serves a variety of traditional Mekong specialties and European staples in a casual French bistro--style setting. For local fare, try the lau (a hotpot served with rice noodles, lean pork, seafood, and a pile of vegetables) or, if you're feeling adventurous, the snake set (menu de serpent in French). The stylish, artsy interior is complemented by a superb riverfront setting and free Wi-Fi, making it a pleasant spot for a coffee break. Reservations are recommended at peak times, as large tour groups can arrive en masse.

This is a small outdoor market that sets up shop most evenings from 5 pm right on the riverside. You'll find Saigon beer for around 15,000d a bottle and stalls selling grilled meat and seafood as well as those with hotpot set-ups. Sit down on a little plastic stool alongside the locals and tuck in to plates of grilled squid and steaming bowls of pho.

There are two parts to the night market, one section selling clothes and tourist items and the other serving food from a variety of mobile stalls, with vendors who are well versed in the point-and-nod style of ordering. Most of the food can be munched while strolling and is more of a snack than a meal, but what's on offer can change from day to day, so it's best to just go and see what is available. Food stalls start appearing at around 6 pm each day.

An eccentric tourist restaurant catering to domestic travelers, Phuong Hoang can be quite the experience, whether you choose to dine in a thatched hut, the fake floating restaurant, or the dining area that's in a giant cement reproduction of a helicopter cabin (minus rotor and skids). The menu offers a range of traditional Vietnamese dishes and a host of local specialties, such as bat, snake, and field mouse. The staff has limited English, but the restaurant does have one English menu, which makes things easier. An abandoned-looking children's playground fronts the complex, but keep walking until you see the huts.

A basic riverfront restaurant targeted firmly at the tourist trade, Phuong Nam does a range of Vietnamese favorites and some of the Mekong Delta's more exotic specialties, such as field mouse, snake, and crocodile. The interior is basic, with check tablecloths and chunky wooden furniture, and the fan-cooled restaurant is open to the street. If you don't fancy the adventurous options, there are also vegetarian, seafood, pork, and chicken dishes.

A plain and simple restaurant, associated with the Cuu Long Hotel across the road (which issues guests with tickets to the breakfast buffet), the riverside Phuong Thuy has a range of standard Vietnamese dishes, including hotpot, and a few Western choices. The main drawcards here are the English subtitles on the menu and the great river views, though service can be a bit slow. The staff don't mind if you grab a riverside seat for a few quiet drinks rather than ordering a meal.

Alongside a French colonial villa once home to a Nguyen Dynasty official, Mekong serves up fresh and tasty Vietnamese dishes, has an English menu, and serves cheap cold beers. The location could be described as a courtyard if it didn't look so much like a parking lot, and the metal tables and chairs are rather basic, but the striped awnings and red tablecloths do give the place a certain touch of sophistication. The menu includes southern Vietnamese staples such as seafood, eel, quail, and frog, but there are plenty of less exotic options as well.

Locals will tell you that this is the best pho in town. There's no English menu, but they really only serve one thing (beef noodle soup), so there shouldn't be too many mishaps. Unlike many other pho restaurants in Vietnam, this joint serves the national dish all day long.

In a superb riverside setting inside Can Tho's beautiful old market hall, Sao Hom's friendly staff serves a range of Vietnamese and Western favorites, including the local version of cha gio (spring rolls). The service and venue are as relaxed as the river flowing by. Just a short walk from Ninh Kieu pier, Sao Hom is a great place to pause before exploring the local market beyond.

A Long Xuyen institution, Thang Loi is a large outdoor restaurant known for its seafood, although the spring rolls and beef dishes are pretty good, too. There is an English menu (and cheap beer) to make things easier.

A pint-size eatery near the market and just in from the river, casual Thanh Tinh serves mostly vegetarian dishes. There's plenty to choose from, including a flavorful vegetarian pho made with coriander, tofu, diced vegetables, and tender noodles as well as a piquant dish of tofu stir-fried with citronella (safe to eat—it's a plant) and red peppers that pairs nicely with fried wontons in a fragrant broth. Mix-ups seem to be fairly common, so double check your order after it's been taken.