Bà Gái — Restaurant in Hue City

We drove 2.5 hours from Da Nang to Hue for a day trip. We starved ourselves and avoided breakfast, in anticipation of eating Bun Bo Hue at its place of origin. We're huge fans of Bun Bo Hue and we had very high expectations. Our driver recommended this place and it was the first stop on our Hue tour. What a fantastic find this was.

We ordered the 'Tham Cam' or fully loaded, which came with all the essential cuts of meat that make up a bowl of the famous noodle soup. It was 50k VND, it was generous in both vermicelli noodles and meats. A common misconception about Bun Bo Hue is that it should be spicy from the get go. It is not. The base of the soup should be sweet, heavily scented with lemongrass and have a generous hint of fermented prawn paste, which this soup has copious amounts of. It was a very hearty and deeply flavourful soup. The spiciness comes from adding the home made chilli paste and pickled chilli vinegar. You add the chilli paste slowly until the spice level is right. It's a really nice chilli paste, not the best I've had, but really good and compliments the dish. It was fantastic, 4 bowls of the special bun bo hue devoured.

A special mention to the nem and cha they had, specially made in banana leaves. It was so good we ate and then took away more. You can't get this stuff and at these small prices. We were eating it until evening. Made a great snack.

This is a great place if you want really good, hearty Bun Bo Hue. Highly...

We’ve only eaten it in Đà Nẵng , but so far, this is the best bún bò Huế we’ve had in Vietnam in the 4 months we’ve been here. Broth was clean and very flavorful. Had a good amount of spice to it. Our 7-year-old, who is becoming a foodie, approves of it as well. Finished his bowl and proceeded to help mommy with the rest of her bowl. The only small complaint that one of us has is that they do not use the thicker cylindrical noodles. Doesn’t seem like that many places do, and that’s the bún bò Huế that we’ve grown accustomed to in the US. Prices were good. Each of our bowls ranged from 30K to 40k dong/VND. Atmosphere isn’t anything special, typical of a good local mom and pop place. Owner was very nice, however, and came over and made some small talk with us. We joked about taking another trip back to Huế just to eat. If we do that, we’ll likely be by here again....

With just one night in Huế, there was no question we had to seek out bún bò Huế in its birthplace. And Bà Gái delivered exactly what I was hoping for clean, deeply flavorful broth, rich with lemongrass and slow-simmered depth, yet light enough to keep you coming back for more.

But the real star of the show? The fresh noodles soft, silky, and carrying the broth like they were born for it. This isn’t the firmer, mass-produced version you find in the south. This is Huế. This is how it’s meant to be.

On a chilly Huế night, a steaming bowl of this spicy, fragrant masterpiece warms you up in a way that lingers, long after the last sip of broth is gone. Before the night retires, this is exactly the kind of meal you want to end...