As part of its first ever guide to Vietnam, Michelin has revealed the leading dining destinations in Ho Chi Minh City.

In total, 55 eateries were recognised by the industry leading publication in the city, with one taking a prestigious Michelin star.

Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guide, said: “Ho Chi Minh City is a bustling and rapid-growing city that offers a unique energy to all travellers and has a diverse variety of cuisine.

“Both modern and traditional cooking techniques are well seen, and there is also a great mix of talents and young local chefs eager to present their ideas and creations on the plate.”

Anăn Saigon was honoured with the Michelin star.

A Vietnamese contemporary restaurant, chef Peter Cuong Franklin applies modern cooking techniques to street food recipes to create enticing flavours.

Whether you order the fresh tuna tartare, a roasted duck-mozzarella-herb mini pizza, shrimp and pork tacos, or bone marrow wagyu beef phở, every dish is a masterclass of well-balanced flavours and textures.

Anăn means ‘eat, eat’ in Vietnamese, with the restaurant located alongside a wet market in the bustling city.

Here, street food is elevated toward a fine-dining experience, using fresh, local ingredients, French culinary techniques, but retaining the flavours at the heart of Vietnamese cuisine.

Anăn Saigon was also honoured with the title of Vietnam’s Best Restaurant at the World Culinary Awards in 2022.

A further 16 restaurants were offered the Bib Gourmand designation from Michelin in Ho Chi Minh City.

The distinction highlights the restaurants within the Michelin Guide restaurant selection that stand out for value-for-money offers.

Often considered as the “top tips” from inspectors, the Bib Gourmand restaurants are much followed and highly appreciated by users of the guide seeking affordable establishments, without compromising on the quality of the cuisine and the products offered.

In Ho Chi Minh they include:

• Bếp Mẹ ỉn (Le Thanh Ton) is a hidden gem near Ben Thanh Market. With its pleasant buzz, the restaurant offers a welcoming atmosphere. Perch on one of the wooden stools, as the regulars do, and sample the signature Vietnamese pancake with shrimp and pork, served in a shallow bamboo basket. The fried rice with shrimp and egg, served in a coconut shell, is also worth trying. The service is friendly, portions are perfect for sharing and MSG is banished.
• Chay Garden - located at the end of a quiet pedestrian street in the busy city centre, this vegetarian restaurant crafts delicious, affordable Vietnamese nosh, such as braised eggplant with banana and green beans. The old colonial-style house sports a charming tree-lined patio, which provides the perfect foil to this fine dining experience.
• Cơm Tấm Ba Ghiền - The Saigonese have always held food in great respect, so broken rice grains never go to waste. Since the 1990s, this unassuming stall has been serving what many locals consider to be the best cơm tấm or broken rice dish in town. Their most popular version is steamed broken rice topped with pork chop marinated in a secret sauce and perfectly grilled over charcoal, along with pickled radish and sweet and sour fish sauce.
• Cuc Gach Quan sports two dining rooms facing each other on the same street, flanked by a supremely relaxing koi pond and leafy garden. The menu is mostly traditional Vietnamese, such as đậu hũ chiên sả ớt (deep-fried tofu with finely chopped lemongrass), and the signature canh chua cá hú fish soup, rich in tangy sweetness. Make sure you save room for desserts like deep-fried banana or the sương sâm jelly with an intense herbal flavour.
• Dim Tu Tac (Dong Du) Out of the four restaurants in the city, the Dong Du branch seats over a hundred and is always busy, particularly at lunchtime. They serve traditional Cantonese cuisine in a comfortable, modern setting, including a large selection of dim sum, BBQ dishes, soups, seafood and much more.
• Hồng Phát (District 3) - Hủ tiếu hồng phát noodles symbolise the culinary marriage of Choazhu and Khmer culture that was introduced to Saigon in the 1970s. Friendly service is de rigueur at this simple shop, which offers all-day dining but where locals particularly flock for breakfast. The soft rice noodle soup comes with minced meat, liver, fresh tiger shrimps or braised blood curd accompanied by an assortment of herbs and bean sprouts. The chả giò tôm cua (shrimp and crab spring rolls) make a great appetiser.
• Hum Garden is an attractive house with a pleasant courtyard, patio and quaint furnishings outside the city centre, nestled on a quiet street in a residential area. The Vietnamese-inspired vegetarian cuisine, rich in modern twists, uses mostly organic, fresh ingredients, sourced direct from farmers. The deep-fried mushroom rolls are simply out of this world.
• Phở Chào should be on everyone’s bucket list. Mama Dung started out in the northern city of Nam Dinh in 1986, armed with her grandmother’s recipe for a light, clean, pure broth. Now, in her Ho Chi Minh City shop, diners choose between a three-day beef-bone stock or chicken broth; stand-out dishes include the phở bắp hoa, featuring crunchy medium-rare beef, and Mama Dung’s gà tôm mắm sốt (crispy fried chicken). There is also phở tine – a creative Western-style take on phở, served with golden French fries, beef noodle soup and cheese.
• Phở Hoà Pasteur is a popular restaurant has been serving delicious phở to the locals since it opened in 1968. The interior and service may not be glamorous, but the food is appropriately affordable and their delicious hallmark broth is a masterclass of balanced flavours. The menu offers a wide range of quality toppings including beef brisket, flank, tendon and tripe, as well as meatballs. Small Vietnamese side dishes are also available.
• Phở Hoàng – This phở shop has been around since 2008 and the owner Mr Hoang is justly proud of his clear beef broth that takes over 12 hours to make. Feel free to customise your beef noodle soup by ordering tendon, flank, minced beef or even a raw egg on the side. Every bowl comes with garnishes like coriander, basil, lime wedges, onions and bean sprouts. For drinks, try their monk fruit herbal tea made with over 10 different herbs.
• Phở Hương Bình is a simple stall that has been proudly serving Vietnam’s national rice noodle soup dish, phở, since 1958. There are only two items on the menu – phở gà (chicken noodle soup) and phở bò (beef noodle soup). Feel free to order additional toppings such as chicken skin, egg yolk, beef brisket and tendon. The broth is clear and light, rich in full-bodied flavours and a savoury sweetness.
• Phở Lệ (District 5) - Vietnam’s national noodle soup dish has taken the culinary world by storm, and Pho Le, one of the leading restaurants in town, insists on making it exactly the same way they have been doing for over 70 years. Come here for authentic southern Vietnamese style pho – in rich broth with a robust meaty flavour and a hint of sweetness from vegetables.
• Phở Miến Gà Kỳ Đồng is a true gem in the bustling city. The chicken phở here is nothing short of amazing. The essence of its deliciousness lies in the rich, aromatic chicken broth made by slow-cooking chicken bones for 3-4 hours. The tender chicken slices and rice vermicelli are also cooked to perfection.
• Phở Minh - Despite its hard-to-find location down a narrow alley, Phở Minh has been attracting hungry Saigonese with its traditional beef noodle soup since 1945.Choose between beef tenderloin, brisket and a mix of different cuts available on the day. Their freshly baked pâté chaud is a must: the puff pastry is flaky and the meat filling piping hot.
• Phở Phượng - Like most phở shops, you can order the house special to sample different beef cuts with the ubiquitous noodle soup. But the most popular ingredient here is oxtail – braised for 40 hours until the meat is tender and the skin gelatinous.
• Xôi Bát - Xôi (steamed sticky rice) is a Vietnamese staple popularly eaten as a quick breakfast or lunch. Determined to shatter the stereotype of xôi as a frugal fast food, in 2021 a young team opened Xôi Bát, a charming little eatery with a contemporary design and great attention paid to detail. They put their recipe for a relatively soft sticky rice into dishes such as xôi phá lấu trứng non, which includes quail eggs, pig ears and fried shallots, and is served with soup and kimchi as a simple, appetising meal.

Finally, a further 38 establishments in Ho Chi Minh City achieve ‘selected’ status.

If street food and local cuisine are here again widely represented in this selection, the traffic of international travellers to Vietnam allows the blossom of various cuisine types. A good mix of French, European, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Latin American or Mediterranean restaurants are for example featured.

Some examples are Truffle, a French contemporary restaurant, Monkey Gallery Dining, with European contemporary cuisine/ and Lửa, serving Japanese cuisine.

More Information

Vietnam was recognised with the title of Asia’s Leading Destination at the World Travel Awards in 2022, while Ho Chi Minh City was honoured with Asia’s Leading Business Travel Destination.