Bún Chả Hàng Quạt — Restaurant in Hà Nội

It’s been nearly five years since my visit to this restaurant, but I still think about the experience regularly, so I figure I owe them a proper review. In short, I’d put this bowl of bun cha up against any food I’ve ever had.

The location is about as quaint as it gets, with just a few tables tucked away in an alley that offered a respite from the monsoon rains. As you walk down the alley, you can watch the women preparing the pork you’re about to eat. We had our food quickly (the bowl of noodles with all the options in it), and it didn’t take long to realize this one was special. I don’t need to explain bun cha here, so, briefly- it hits the five basics tastes with perfect balance, and the pork (particularly the meatballs) is perfectly spiced, juicy, and browned over the fire. Of the several bun cha restaurants I tried in Hanoi, this was far ahead of the rest of the pack.

As we walked out, one of the women cooking the meat nonverbally asked me how I liked it. I tried to communicate as best as I could that I’d just had a religious experience in that alley. She seemed to get the idea, beamed, and gave me a few free meatballs right off the grill on the house. An...

My favorite street food in Hanoi and Vietnam, maybe the entire world! This is our second motorbike trip across Vietnam and I had to come back to this place. What makes this bun cha different is how well the meat is cooked, smokey and charred in an oven. The broth is a delicious sweet caramel and fish sauce but that’s expected of a good bun cha. The second thing about this place is the ambience. After going down an alley you’ll get seated at one of three places: Grandma’s living room, grandma’s foyer, or the alley’s courtyard. Every time I come it’s a different experience.

To address some negative reviews:

Price: some have complained that the price is slightly higher for foreigners at almost $1USD price difference. Considering you make 20x as much money, I think you can handles this.

Customer Service is “poor”: well, if you’re not getting yelled at in an Asian restaurant upon entry then you’re in the wrong place. Besides, the staff is lovely.

Sanitation: it’s street food.

It’s not spicy: never been served a spicy bun cha but this place along with others serve it with a giant plate of fresh chili and garlic.

“I didn’t order spring rolls!”:...

I went to vietnam with my wife in 2019 and actually forgot to put a review with this street food vendor. As we are sitting at a wonderful plate of mi goreng right now in lombok/indonesia, i thougt about all the street foods we tried in the past and memories of the infamous bun cha in hanoi came back. Found because of a youtube channel, we went in with little expectations. But boy were we wrong. To this day i have never ever tasted such a unique and great street food dish again. The combination of charcole grilled pork belly with the sweet and sour sauce and pickles in it with greens on the side is really a chapter on it's own and you must have tried it on your own to experience the unique flavors. I have not been around the world too much: Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. And we tried as much street food as possible everywhere. But i can really say that this bun cha is the most unique and best street food i ever had. We got some nice viet restaurants in our home town in austria, but none can do the bun cha like the original. It's also quite hard to cook it on your own. Vietnam as a whole is the king of...