The 70 Best Restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City

Ănăn translates roughly as "eat, eat," which doubles as a mission statement for a contemporary Vietnamese restaurant sitting inside Ho Chi Minh City's oldest wet market. Chef Peter Cuong Franklin, a Vietnamese-American who went from banking to kitchens at Nahm in Bangkok, turns street food references into a Michelin-starred menu. The building also holds a cocktail bar and a noodle joint, so the name is working overtime.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The 50 #86 · Asia's 50 Best Restaurants

A chandelier of 1,100 suspended glass tubes catches the light above the dining room at this fine dining restaurant on the ninth floor of Le Méridien, run by Australian chef Sam Aisbett. The name is an Aboriginal word for flowing water, and the Australian thread runs through the room, from the paintings down to the bread course, where pan-fried dampers arrive plump and beer-enriched. It holds a Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

A seasonal tasting menu built around a single narrative theme, each course designed to advance the story rather than just fill a plate. This is contemporary Vietnamese fine dining inside a sleek room of black granite tables and a kitchen counter, part of a larger compound that also runs a whisky bar and a grill next door. The chef earned a Michelin star weaving traditional Vietnamese recipes into something more theatrical, without losing the plot.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Yellow walls painted to mimic a village house, blue shutters included, sit a short walk from Ben Thanh Market. This Vietnamese home-cooking spot earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand for the kind of food regulars perch on wooden stools to eat without glancing at the menu. The pancake with shrimp and pork, served in a bamboo basket, gets most of the attention. Portions run generous and friendly to sharing.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Shelves of house-made ferments line the interior of this Vietnamese restaurant in Thảo Điền, chilli sauces and garlic vinegars signaling that the kitchen takes its prep seriously. Phở is built on three broths simmered from fresh bones for a full day, and the grilled bagrid catfish with crispy rice crackers is the kind of dish that makes you forget what you ordered before it. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, with a garden terrace out back.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Wicker lampshades throw a warm glow over the high-ceilinged dining room at this Latin American restaurant in District 1, where the kitchen swings between Mexico and Argentina with tacos and empanadas that have pulled in a loyal following fast. The chef behind it has a Michelin Bib Gourmand to show for the effort. It reads relaxed but runs professionally, which is a combination rarer than it sounds.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A 20th-century villa tucked far enough from the tourist trail that you'll need a cab, An's Saigon is an innovative Vietnamese restaurant spread across a garden, a lounge, and an eight-seat chef's table where the menu shifts into something more personal. The kitchen leans on artful plating and creative riffs on familiar flavours, with each course leaning into Vietnamese culture and nature as loose inspiration.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A café tucked inside a two-floor clothing boutique on Phung Khac Khoan Street, where the menu runs to European cooking with Vietnamese touches and plating that matches the surroundings for effort. Sit in the glass-roofed garden room or climb to the mezzanine for something quieter. The pho broth made with consommé and roasted duck breast is the dish that earns its own conversation. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Velvet curtains, a chandelier, and foie gras on the menu: La Villa is a formal French restaurant that seems entirely unbothered by its Ho Chi Minh City address. The kitchen leans into the classics, and the wine list and cheese trolley hold up their end of the bargain. On warmer evenings, the garden terrace offers a little breathing room from all that starched Gallic dignity.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A Lyon-trained French chef doing modern European fine dining in a quietly elegant room on Le Thanh Ton, the street Ho Chi Minh City has quietly handed over to this sort of thing. Private dining rooms make it a natural choice when someone has news to share over several courses. The cooking leans into precision and presentation, with classic French foundations pulled in a cleaner, more contemporary direction.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Indochine-meets-Art-Deco interiors set a relaxed tone at this contemporary Vietnamese restaurant, where the chef draws on the central region where he grew up. Dishes from that tradition arrive with a refined, creative edge, and the grilled abalone with spring onion oil and fish sauce makes a strong case for ordering from the sea. The banana ice cream with coconut milk and crushed peanuts is a quietly satisfying way to finish.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Dinner ends at the bar with mignardises and vinyl, which tells you something about how seriously this place takes the whole arc of a meal. Nephele is a tasting-menu restaurant tucked into an alley inside a renovated historic building, and the kitchen leans hard into Vietnamese flavors through sauces that drive each course. The sourdough, fermented 36 hours and charcoal-baked, arrives with truffle butter and housemade miso and makes a strong case for bread as a destination.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A concrete counter faces an open kitchen on the third floor of a Mac Thi Buoi address, and the minimalist, Japanese-leaning room is spare enough that the food has nowhere to hide. The chef grew up in Central Vietnam and trained in Europe, and the tasting menu pulls that tension into something interesting. Named for three founders all born in the Year of the Monkey, which is either a charming origin story or a great excuse for the name.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. World Coffee Map Ho Chi Minh City Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors