Bún chả que tre Bình Chung — Restaurant in Hà Nội

Walked in, English menus and waitress speaks well, quickly served a delicious portion of bun cha. This dish has to be one of my favorites in Vietnamese cuisine and I've eaten quite a bit of it in my extended journey here. If you're unfamiliar with the dish, it's a very light broth based dish, served with pork slices, and in mini patty form swimming in it. You are served noodle, and fresh herbs to go with at your liking. Spice it up with peppers and or flavor with raw garlic if you please, and oh... I do! Throw in some herbs, grab a portion of noodles and drop it in the soup for a little to soak up the broth. Then grab some herbs, noodles, pork slices, and devour that delicious bite. This is a place I'll be sure to frequent... Why? The portion size, prices, and authenticity is all here! They cook over charcoal, the genuine way, the sliced pork is cooked to perfection and the minced pork patty is quite nice also. The broth is light and sweet, the noodles are... well... Noodles. And most importantly the herbs are fresh during my visit. They also allow you to customize your bun cha, see my picture that shows your choices of meat. There sliced pork is a must, akin to bacon and had a flavorful crunch to it. The minced pork is like a mini slider that's pretty nice. And lastly, an option I've never seen before but decided to try is the "minced pork with blumea lanceolaria" (More commonly known as chapa or lanceleaf blumea) - the same minced pork wrapped in a leaf and cooked, reminiscent of a grape leaf wrapping but with a little more punch. I highly recommend the sliced and minced pork combo, or even just sliced as that's the show stopper. This customization is a nice touch, that I haven't seen elsewhere and will urge me to return also. If I had any minor gripes, it would be a desire for more cilantro in the herbs, and oddly... Spoons, they don't seem to have any to enjoy that delicious broth. This place seems to be mostly an undiscovered gem, as I've only seen locals in my time sitting...

Amazing bún chả - you must come here! We have been to two other bún chả places (in the old Quarter) during our trip to Hanoi but this was by far the best. All the meats were delicious and had the perfect charred flavour. Our favourite were the fatty pork slices. Great to have so much rice vermicelli and fresh greens. One regular and one large bowl (both with mixed meats) and two iced teas cost 145,000 VND.

The staff were really friendly and welcoming, too. We’d love to come back if we had more time!

Note, the bowl pictured is the...

The restaurant is dirty, with areas clearly visible to customers that look like they haven’t been cleaned in years (and I’m someone who is very used to street food). Large plastic bags are stored in bulk directly on the floor, with unknown contents — hopefully not food. I hardly dared to eat, and I didn’t enjoy the food. To be fair, that might have been due to my personal taste, or simply the overall lack of hygiene spoiling...