Vegetarians eating in Vietnam

Before I start my post, I must admit that I am not a food blogger. Hence, you may not be treated with culinary adjectives commonly found in a food blog. This post is a continuation to my endeavor to share unique travel and life experiences that could be of value to those reading and sharing these posts. 

We were an eclectic group of 10 traveling to Halong Bay, Hanoi, Hoi An and Danang in Vietnam in the first week of May. While there is much to talk about the overall experience of traveling in Vietnam, I choose to restrict my post to places we enjoyed eating and drinking at as vegetarians (not vegans) from India. 

Since the group had one member who had religious dietary restrictions (Jain food only), we stuck to the safe bets of Indian restaurants viz. Annam in Hanoi, Sri Spices in Hoi An and India Family in Danang. The idea of this blog is to share places / food other than the above where we found good vegetarian options, besides of course trying the local brands of beer. 

1. Beer Street, Hanoi - We walked in a fully packed beer street. There were so many people it was difficult not to step onto somebody's shoes or trip onto somebody's table set up on the street. We found a spot for 6 at a bar named Hay Bar, just because they had live music playing. While we ordered some beers, we did not risk ordering food. We just ordered a side of peanuts which we thought was exorbitantly priced. The beers seemed reasonably priced.

2. Binh Minh Jazz Club, Hanoi - As someone who loves listening to jazz radio all the time, this place was on my list even before we started the trip. It was also recommended by friends and travel bloggers. It was a bummer that we entered the place at 11.30 PM only to realize that the place shuts at 11.45 PM. As soon as we entered, the band was playing 'The Girl from Ipanema', it hit the right chord. We had one round of beers, no food. But I strongly recommend this place to those who love listening to jazz music. 

3. Lapis Cafe and Hostel, Tam Coc

We were famished on a late afternoon after a hectic morning of sight seeing in Binh Minh province and before taking the Tam Coc Boat Cave tour. We were originally looking to eat at Aroma Indian restaurant. To my good luck, that restaurant was full and we had no choice but to look at an alternate. We stumbled upon Lapis cafe. It is often the case that you cherish unplanned experiences. This is one of them. We loved the vegan Banh Mi, Bao and my personal favourite in Vietnam - the vegetarian Pho! Good thing we could just walk a few 100 meters to the Boat Tour start point right after our meal. 

4. The Hanoi Social Club, Hanoi

After a day full of hectic travel and sight seeing, you're almost ready to skip dinner and hit the bed. Instead, if you end up at a place that offers comfort food, it's even better. Walking distance from our hotel, a couple from our group went and checked out the place while the others were busy packing bags for departure from Hanoi the following morning. They thought the place is too dingy. We all went and checked it out once again. We place was dimly light, no doubt. The place would be a great place for breakfast or lunch, no doubt. But we loved every morsel of the avocado toast and spaghetti that we ordered. 

 

5. Hoa Champa Cafe and Tea Market, Old Town, Hoi An

Generally, the typical Indian palette loves anything prepared with coconut. The coconut hot or cold coconut coffee in Vietnam is no exception. Among the many that we tried, our best coconut coffee experience was at Hoa Champa Cafe in Old Town, Hoi An. We loved the natural sweetness of coconut milk and the crunchiness of the sweet coconut chips topped on the coffee. 

6. Shamballa Vegetarian Restaurant and Lounge, Old Town, Hoi An

Like many travelers, we rely on tripadvisor for popular vegetarian and vegan restaurants. This one was also one of the highly recommended ones. We ordered pineapple fried rice and noodles. The food was good, the quantity not so much and very highly priced. We concurred that we could have given this one a miss! 

7. Nourish Eatery, Hoi An

The heat in Hoi An was unforgiving. After an early breakfast at the hotel and walking in the streets of Old Town, we needed to stop for lunch before going to An Bang beach. Nourish Eatery was high on the list of recommended vegetarian restaurants. It was already 3 PM and we had to make a dash to the restaurant as it shuts at 4 PM daily. Of course, it is a breakfast and lunch place. We came out of this place, all very happy! Nourish probably ranked the highest in our group. Enough said! 

   

8. 7 Bridges Hoi An Taproom, Old Town, Hoi An

The fun thing about most cafes, restaurants and bars in Old Town Hoi An is that they look deceptively small from outside. But when you step inside, most of these places are huge with multiple seating areas and all very tastefully decorated. We had passed by this place and decided we will come back here in the evening. And we did! The menu is super extensive with 100's of different options for freshly brewed tap beer. We tried a couple recommended by our waiter and we loved them all. There weren't many food options, so we decided to move along. Personally, I loved the vibe of the place. 

9. Co Food & Bar, Old Town, Hoi An

Not everything you do on a trip is about checking the boxes. No matter if it's not in the list of recommended places by your friends, no matter if it does not fit in your itinerary, if you're in Old Town Hoi An and you like the vibe of a place, just sit there for 30 minutes without any agenda and enjoy the vibe. We did that at this place called Co Food and Bar. I couldn't have enough of listening to the two musicians. 

10. V Vegan, Old Town, Hoi An 

You can run out of days in Hoi An without even doing justice to the many many vegetarian / vegan food options available in Hoi An. We stopped for a quick meal at V Vegan. I loved the vegan spring rolls. Also because we reached the restaurant rather late (9.15 PM), we rushed to order what we did and were out by 10 PM. 

11. East West Brewing Company, Danang

We wanted to make the most of our last night in Vietnam. We could see this place from the deck of our gorgeous ocean view room hotel in Danang. The place did not disappoint. It has a super location bang on the beach. The menu was extensive with many options of fresh brewed beer, not too many vegetarian options to eat. We ordered a beer sampler and some vegetarian starters. The beer did not disappoint, the starters were ok! The place, as expected, was exorbitantly priced. We enjoyed the beach side lounge seating and the view. 

In conclusion, if you are a vegetarian, not a fussy eater, if love eating local cuisines, if you do not feel shy asking for all your vegetarian preferences to the waiter, even if it means extensively using google translate, you would love the vegetarian eating experiences in Vietnam!