Tra Que Water Wheel Restaurant & Cooking classes — Restaurant in Hội An

Listen up peeps! We are Americans, in our 60’s, traveling the world and have been in Vietnam since November.

We’ve been all over Vietnam but came back for round 2 of Hoi An. When we were here for 2 weeks it was raining a lot everyday so we didn’t come out here but today we got a grab and had them drop us off in some random place and just started walking through rice patties and these gardens.

We happened to get dropped off at another restaurant (in the area) and it was very crowded and looked like busses had dropped off large groups of people. We looked at the menu and decided to look around and walk warping.

So after walking all over we ended up at this restaurant and there were so people coming out of the restaurant onto the herb path and they said it was super delicious.

Well, the food was actually a six star as far as I’m concerned. It was so fresh and delicious it was one of our top meals, like 1 or 2 since arriving in Vietnam.

The chicken and ginger was so succulent and the morning glory was crisp and well seasoned with great garlic, the fresh juices were amazing, fried rice hot and fresh and the shrimp … oh my the shrimp was out of this world. Well SO enjoyed this meal and it was very reasonable.

The service was exceptional, the flavors were superb, the food was so fresh and the prices were much less than the other restaurant we were dropped off at. It was an excellent experience and I strongly recommend going (as an activity) to walk around in the area and also eating lunch at this restaurant.

We’ve taken cooking lessons in Hoi a before but the next time we come to Hoi an we will go to school here because o need to learn how to make food like this!

Last word…. GO you...

We had of the most beautiful and diverse experiences of our trip with Xuân from Tra Que Water Wheel cooking school. We wanted to book 2 classes first because we did bot want to choose between cooking more meals or havin the water buffalo experience. They were so kind and offered to make 1 connected experience with all of it just for my boyfriend and me. We had a great time riding with the bikes and paying a visit to the market. And Xuân made sure we learned the different types of fruit, vegetables and herbs and what else there was to offer. Our dessert should be a composition of fruit we have not tried before. Then we rode our bikes to the village, had a fun time in the basket boat with Xuân and her uncle (who made us hilarious crowns). We visited the water buffalo and learned how they have to be trained to let people ride on them and that they are still important animals to the farmers and that there, they don't eat their buffalos (or cats or dogs). It felt crazy and great to ride the big boy for a while - and he really appreciated it, if you chased the nasty flies away^^ Afterwards, we got a short experience on how tough farming life is, ploughing, fertilizing, planting saplings and watering (I sucked 😂). Nevertheless, we got an amazing massage after a herbal foot bath. Then the cooking started, and Xuân was really good prepared and just made it a beautiful time with her quirky, vibrant and cheerful personality. She has a good sense of humor and a really nice singing voice as well ;) We totally loved the food and the overall experience and would do it all over again at this very cooking school. I am sure my boyfriend...

I joined the 3-in-1 experience tour. For those who wants to experience a little bit of everything and take nice pictures of each task, this is the program to join.

After studying the many tours on offer in Hoi An, I choose to go with them for the following reasons:

1. Solo travellers welcomed Many tour operators require minimum of 2 pax to sign up, but Waterwheel accepted my application for one. I am truly impressed with how accommodating they are and that they do not discriminate solo travellers

2. Pick up from Da Nang Most operators in Hoi An only offered hotel pick up from within Hoi An City. However, waterwheel very kindly helped arrange pick up from Da Nang at a reasonable price – which means I did not have to coordinate with two parties, but had a centralised contacting point

3. Lovely family! Mrs Thuong have been very helpful from the moment I was interested in joining tours and even did all she could to ensure my safety by touching base with the driver taking us back. I also really appreciate that they have very timely response on Whatsapp, which makes communicating much easier.

Vu, our tour guide was energetic and passionate about his job. He welcomed us to his family’s premise and did all he could to ensure we had the best experience from the tour possible.

I would definitely recommend this tour to those with limited time but would like to experience a condensed version of market tour, farming lesson, basket boat, rice paper making, buffalo ride, massage and cooking. (by the way make sure to try their CLAYPOT FISH which is the...