Exploring Ho Chi Minh City at night, visitors cannot miss eating places that are open late.
While famous restaurants and food chains often close around 10-10:30 p.m., many popular restaurants hidden in alleys in Ho Chi Minh City keep their lights on until past midnight. If you are hungry when you go out late at night, you can refer to the dining addresses below.
Huyen broken rice
Address: Alley 95 Dinh Tien Hoang, Ward 3, Binh Thanh District
Sales hours: 4pm – 4pm
Every day at 4pm, the alley 95 Dinh Tien Hoang is fragrant with the smell of freshly cooked rice and smoky charcoal-grilled ribs. This restaurant has been open for more than 20 years, and is known by locals as “ghost broken rice” because it only sells from afternoon to late night.
The broken rice shop has 20 plastic tables and plastic chairs, neatly arranged along a small alley. The menu here has dishes similar to many other broken rice shops such as rib rice, pork belly, pork skin, egg rolls, and pha lau. Unlike many shops, the dipping sauce here is not stored in small bowls but in a large bowl, allowing customers to eat according to their needs. Each meal at the restaurant has the lowest price from 40,000 VND.
The restaurant is usually crowded with customers after 7:00 p.m. The seating location is right in a small alley, so some guests feel inconvenient when there are cars passing by.
Lam Vinh Mau tea cart
Address: 31 Nguyen Thai Binh Street, Nguyen Thai Binh Ward, District 1
Selling time: 6:30 p.m. until sold out
This tea cart has been operating since 1958. For the past 65 years, it has only been set up at a corner of Nguyen Thai Binh Street, in the center of District 1. When the city lights up, it is also the time when the tea cart opens, from about 7pm to midnight. The shop’s closing hours are not fixed. If the tea runs out early, the shop will close early. If you are afraid that the shop will run out of sweet soup early, diners should visit before 11pm.
The tea cart sells all kinds of traditional Chinese foods such as green bean sweet soup, seaweed, lotus seeds, water chestnuts, soaked chicken seed sweet soup, and almond sweet soup. The average price for a cup of tea at the shop is about 20,000 VND. A cup of mixed tea costs 35,000 VND. The downside of the restaurant is located on the side of the road, when eating, diners have to watch their cars carefully.
Blood cockle porridge
Address: 207 Nguyen Tri Phuong Street, Ward 9, District 5
Sales hours: 10am-24pm
The Blood Cockle Porridge shop is always full of customers on Nguyen Tri Phuong food street from evening until late at night. This is a suitable place to eat at night at the end of the year when Saigon is often chilly in the late evenings. The porridge at this restaurant is cooked in the Western style, fragrant roasted rice, simmered thinly, not pureed and cooked thick like some porridge styles in the North.
Blood cockles here are of regular size and firm meat. Boiled and cooked with porridge, without seasoning, it is easy to recognize the freshness of the scallops. If the oyster is dead, it will leave a strange smell when boiled. The bowl of porridge has a sweet taste thanks to the addition of oyster broth. The topping also has cilantro and fried onions to add flavor. Porridge is served with raw pennywort, shredded cabbage and bean sprouts, diners can add more if they suit their taste.
A bowl of blood cockle porridge here costs about 70,000 VND, higher than a regular porridge shop but in return for spacious space and clean ingredients.
Nguyen Loi noodle shop
Address: 333B Xo Viet Nghe Tinh, Ward 24, Binh Thanh District
Sales hours: All day
This is a rare dining address in Ho Chi Minh City that serves customers day and night. This shop specializes in selling Chinese-style noodles, opened in the 1960s. The shop is a small 4-level house located on Xo Viet Nghe Tinh street, always busy with traffic. The shop does not have a prominent sign, in front of the house is just an old wooden cart. If you don’t pay close attention, visitors can easily pass by the shop without realizing it.
The famous dish here is wonton noodles, the crust is fragrant, not mushy, the noodles are chewy and firm. The meat on the wonton side is well seasoned and fragrant with pepper.
A bowl of noodles here has the lowest price from 35,000 VND. The menu posted on the wall has only 5 dishes, but the owner will cook upon request if visitors do not like the available dishes.
Heavenly dumplings
Address: 195 Ha Ton Quyen Street, Ward 4, District 11
Sales hours: 2:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m
Located near the Cho Lon area, Ha Ton Quyen street is famous for selling Chinese-style dumplings. Every early afternoon, this street is bustling and crowded with passersby. The dumpling menu here is rich with shrimp, vegetarian, mixed, and fried.
Among nearly dozens of restaurants on this street, Thien Thien restaurant stretches across 8 houses and is always full of customers. The shop is open from late afternoon to 2 am. Dumplings and wontons filled with fillings will help you soothe your hunger at night. The dumpling shop has 8 units on Ha Ton Quyen Street, District 11. The most prominent restaurant on Ha Ton Quyen Street is not because of the bustle of customers but because of the sound of the owner ordering food. Because the restaurant is spread across many houses, the owner has to use a microphone and a portable speaker to read the customer’s order out loud for the kitchen staff to hear clearly.
A portion of dumplings here ranges from 60,000 to 80,000 VND.
Mrs. Hao’s rib porridge
Address: 109/15, Tran Khac Chan Street, Tan Dinh Ward, District 1,
Sales hours: All day
The rib porridge shop with nearly a dozen sets of plastic tables and chairs lined up along a small alley on Tran Khac Chan Street, District 1, is a famous address for those who often go out early and stay late at night in Saigon.
The shop sells a bowl of porridge for 30,000 VND. The day the porridge is cooked, it will sell out that day. Unlike the rib porridge in Hanoi, the rib porridge here is served with many ingredients such as shumai, stomach, liver, pho, eggs, squid, and pork skin. The porridge is thick but not smooth.
Choi oi Noodle ramen
Address: 25, Le Thanh Ton Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1
Sales hours: 11am-3pm
This noodle shop is located near Japantown in Saigon, focusing on restaurants opened by Japanese people and also specializing in serving Japanese and Korean customers. The restaurant has a small area, low ceiling with an open kitchen, similar to ramen noodle shops that often appear in Japanese movies.
The restaurant serves traditional ramen noodles and some strange-sounding noodles such as Tonkotsu Cappuccino Ramen. The broth for this noodle dish is not made from cappuccino coffee but has a similar layer of white foam, so the owner named it that way. In addition, there is also 10-level spicy ramen noodles for diners who love spicy food. The price of the dish ranges from 140,000 VND to 280,000 VND.
($1=24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)