Introduction
If you are a food-lover and have a huge passion for tasting all the delicious food in the world, you cannot miss the opportunity to discover the kingdom of quintessential cuisine culture, Hue Citadel in Vietnam. With the diversity in cooking processes and ingredients, there is a big source of flavorful dishes, which creates difficulty in selecting to try for tourists. Hence, there are many people wondering what to eat in Hue Vietnam.
However, it will be no longer a big deal since you already have Phong Nha Locals Travel. We will give you a hand to solve your dilemma through this article. This article shows you the features of Hue cuisine and answers the question: “What to eat in Hue city?” for you. Let’s take a look!
The history of Hue cuisine
Back in the old days when Nguyen Dynasty was in a prosperous period, Nguyen Lords decided to choose Hue to be the citadel of the dynasty. Furthermore, when coming here, they founded and built the Hue citadel and created a luxurious life with many tombs, palaces, and temples on the bank of the Perfume River.
There are a couple of reasons why Nguyen Lords chose Hue to become the imperial city. One of them is because Hue is the land of abundant natural resources with forests, river flows leading to the sea, and other valuable creatures. Moreover, this place has the most amazing produce in Vietnam such as fresh seafood, sweet fruits, and valuable herbs. Hence, they have a better flavor than the rest of our country.
Taking advantage of that, Nguyen Lords highly required a lot of things in royal meals, so they wanted their chefs to be creative in cooking and dishes. Especially under Dong Khanh King and Tu Duc King, Hue Asian cuisine reached the highest level of quintessence.
As a result, the Hue Vietnamese food has soon influenced by Hue royal cuisine for thousands of years. Until now, it has developed into three main models of cuisine culture: Hue royal cuisine, Hue folk cuisine, and vegetarian cuisine.
To know more about Hue royal dynasty, it will be great if you book our Hue Royal Tombs Tour. Do not miss the chance to discover Hue Royal Tombs and the life of kings here!
The diversity of Hue foods
Hue royal cuisine
Hue royal cuisine is referred to as the elite of Vietnamese cuisine culture due to its delicacy and meticulousness. The feature that makes Hue royal cuisine different is the process of delicate cooking and presentation, so everything creates a masterpiece of art from the outside to the inside of each dish.
According to the statistic, Vietnam has a total of 3,000 dishes with different types of cooking styles and flavors. However, there are 1700 dishes cooked and affected by imperial Hue food.
Following the rules of cooking royal meals, each meal of esteemed kings, such as Minh Mang King, and Dong Khanh King, must prepare from 35 to 50 dishes, including the 8 most precious dishes. All dishes have to make from the best ingredients or valuable herbs. Plus, they will be served in a bowl and placed in gold-painted wooden boxes.
Some of the most famous and quintessential dishes of Hue royal cuisine are peacock imperial pies and phoenix patties, swiftlet nests, etc.
Hue folk cuisine
Hue folk cuisine is also as amazing and delicacy as Hue royal cuisine. It possesses the unique features of Vietnamese locals food. Moreover, this Hue cuisine is notable for its features that are influenced a part by Hue royal cuisine art.
Ingredients such as meat, and vegetables originating from the local farms are selected carefully. Besides, folk food in Hue includes diverse ingredients including meat, fish, and vegetables. Hue local food can be cooked into the soup or baked, braised, fried, boiled, or steamed, which is the reason why the menu is very various every meal.
Moreover, Hue locals have the tradition to eat together, so the food will be served on the table for all family members to enjoy. For Hue locals, every dishes are not only tasty but also has to be catching.
If you would like a perfect trip to try Hue cuisine, let’s book our Hue Street Food Tour! We ensure that you will have an opportunity to approach the best dishes in Hue city.
Hue vegetarian cuisine
If you are vegan or vegetarian, Hue vegetarian cuisine is for you because it suits both. The reason for that is because, according to a report, there are more than 600000 Buddhists or monks here. Or you can say that Hue is the biggest Buddhist city in Vietnam. Hence, the culture of vegetarian food is extremely diverse in ancient Hue city.
There are a lot of vegetarian food types in Hue city from vegetable noodle soup to vegetarian cakes such as tapioca cake. Hue vegetarian cuisine is quite complicated with different types of ingredients. Therefore, it is also cooked very carefully and decorated beautifully.
What to eat in Hue?
Hue noodles is the best things to eat in Hue
Hue beef noodle soup (Bun Bo Hue)
It will be a big mistake if we do not mention Bun Bo Hue noodle, one of the best things to eat in Vietnam. You can easily find this delectable dish anywhere in Vietnam. However, nowhere has the typical unique taste as the original Hue beef noodle soup. It is a typical Hue style cuisine.
Hue beef noodle includes mainly beef, rice noodle, and other flavors. Its soup will be cooked with beef bones, beef shanks, and lemongrass, which creates the sweetness and freshness of noodle soup.
Moreover, you can add some fish sauce or chili when eating to make it more flavorful. Besides, it will be served with a plate of raw vegetables such as lemon, green onions, lettuce, banana blossom, and some herbs like mint, perilla, basil, and coriander.
All ingredients play an important role to have a scentful bowl of Hue beef noodle soup. More importantly, although its cost is very cheap, it is still served as the favorite dish for Kings in royal meals.
There is the list of best restaurants in Hue Vietnamese food to eat beef noodle soup:
- Ba Tuyet Restaurant
Address: 47 Nguyen Cong Tru Street, Hue city, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam.
Price: 15.000 VND– 33.000 VND
Opening time: 7:00 – 22:00
- Ong Vong Restaurant
Address: 5 Nguyen Du Street, Hue city, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 20.000 VND – 45.000 VND
Opening time: 15:00 – 18:00
- Hue Cam Restaurant
Address: 45 Le Loi Street, Hue city, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 20.000 VND – 40.000 VND
Opening time: 6:00 – 22:00
Hue mussels noodle (Bun Hen)
Another famous Hue noodle type is Bun Hen, or Hue mussels noodle. This is also a dish on the list of royal menus. It is an amazing noodle mixed with fish sauce, mussels, sliced banana blossoms, white taro, roasted peanuts, etc.
When visiting Hue city, you can easily find this dish at many restaurants serving Hue mussels noodles at an inexpensive price on your way, even when you are at Hue Night Walking Street. Besides, these restaurants also serve mussel rice. If you want to discover other special flavors, you can call for a bowl of mussels rice.
Some the famous Hue Vietnam restaurants serving Bun Hen Hue:
- Hoa Dong Restaurant
Address: 64/7 Ung Binh Street, Vy Da Ward, Hue city, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 10.000 VND– 15.000 VND
Opening time 7:00 – 22:00 - Hue Nho Restaurant
Address: 28 Pham Hong Thai, Hue city, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 10.000 VND – 39.000 VND
Opening time: 6:00-11:00
BBQ pork noodle (Bun Thit Nuong)
The Hue BBQ pork noodle including rice noodles mixed with grilled pork, raw vegetable, and sauce is flavorful and quite well-known in the central and the Southern part of Vietnam. The most important ingredient of this dish is pork, so the pork is always marinated carefully to increase the sweet taste.
BBQ pork noodle restaurants in Hue:
- Ba Ti Restaurant
Address: 81 Dao Duy Tu Street, Hue city, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 20.000 VND – 25.000 VND
Opening time: 16:00 – 19:00 - Huyen Anh Restaurant
Address: 50 Kim Long Street, Hue city, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 22.000 VND
Opening time: 9:00 – 21:00
Hue bread soup (Banh Canh)
Hue bread soup, or thick noodle soup, is made from tapioca flour or a mix between tapioca and rice flour. There are diverse types of Hue bread soup such as crab bread soup, bread soup with quail eggs, and fish sausage.
Nevertheless, Hue has a reputation for Banh Canh Nam Pho, Nam Pho soup. This dish is truly perfect in taste and appearance. Banh Canh Nam Pho has a red vibe with crab eggs and shrimp. The noodle is transparent, soft, and very special.
Hue bread soup (Banh Canh) restaurants in Hue:
- Banh Canh Nam Pho Restaurant
Address: 54 Nguyen Cong Tru Street, Phu Hoi Ward, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 2.000 VND – 20.000VND
Opening time: 06:00 – 21:00 - Huong Restaurant
Address: 30 Pham Hong Thai Street, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 20.000 VND – 30.000VND
Opening time: 06:00 – 19:00
Hue cake can be added to the list of what to eat in Hue
Bot loc cake (Banh Loc)
Bot loc cake is a popular cake in Hue city. The cake is made from tapioca with pork and shrimp. Moreover, it is wrapped in banana leaves. After that, people will steam cakes until it is clear and transparent. Then we can unwrap and eat bot loc cake with sweet-spicy fish sauce.
Nam cake (Banh Nam)
Nam cake is one of the renowned traditional cakes of Hue city. It is the same as Bot loc cake when wrapping it into banana leaves and steaming. However, this cake’s shape is thin rectangular and it is made from rice flour with minced shrimp and meat. You also can dip it into chili fish sauce and taste it.
Hue Pancake (Banh Khoai)
Banh Khoai, or Hue Pancake, is one of the most special cakes in Vietnam. When tourists travel to Vietnam, especially Hue city, they always want to try eating Banh Khoai. It has a rounded shape of nearly 15 centimeters.
Moreover, there is also another cake called Banh Khoi. Its appearance is quite similar to Banh Khoai, however, Banh Khoai is thicker and crunchier. Made from rice flour, it will be dipped into full cooking oil until it is swollen and the chefs will add other ingredients such as shrimp, spring onion, grilled beef, egg yolk, and so on.
Beo cake (Banh Beo)
Beo cake is a kind of traditional steamed rice cake of Hue city. Its shape is round and can be served in small cups. Moreover, there is dried shrimp, crispy pork skin, and green minced onion on the top. You can eat it with chili fish sauce. Beo cake is well-known for being a home cake when Hue locals really love eating it for snacks during the day with their family.
The best Hue cake restaurants:
- Ba Do Restaurant
Address: 8 Nguyen Binh Khiem Street, Phu Cat Ward, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 10.000 VND – 50.000VND
Opening time: 8:00 – 21:30 - Di Xinh Restaurant
Address: 82 Le Thanh Ton Street, Thuan Thanh Ward, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 10.000 VND – 20.000VND
Opening time: 13:30 – 19:00
Hue sweet soup – Top things to eat in Hue
As one of the most famous street food, Che Hue – Hue sweet soup, is a must-eat dish when traveling to this city. It is a well-known Hue specialties food. There are different kinds of sweet soups and each of them has its specific flavor. They are all delicious and nutritious. Some famous Hue sweet soups are lotus seed sweet soup, corn sweet soup, roasted pork sweet soup, etc.
Top places serving Hue sweet soup:
- Che Hem
Address: 29/1 Hung Vuong Street, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 10.000 VND – 15.000VND
Opening time: 8:00 – 21:00 - Che Thai Le
Address: 111 Le Thanh Ton Street, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 10.000 VND – 15.000VND
Opening time: 9:00 – 22:00
Vegetarian dishes in Hue
As we mentioned before, Hue vegetarian dishes are so diverse and contain the quintessence of Hue Buddhists. Most dishes are carefully cooked from the bottom of all chefs’ hearts, so the process of choosing the ingredients are always serious to get the freshest ones.
There are fresh vegetable rolls or tapioca cakes and rice cakes. All of them are cooked following the specific recipe for vegetarians. Plus, the most popular vegetarian dish in Hue is hot pot. The ingredients are fresh tofu, fried tofu, vegetable, mushroom, and other flavors. Hue locals often cook and eat vegetarian hot pot on vegetarian diet days.
Famous places serving vegetarian dishes in Hue:
- Dieu Lac Restaurant
Address: 1 Han Mac Tu Street, Vy Da Ward, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 10.000 VND – 60.000VND
Opening time: 7:00 – 22:00 - Lien Hoa Restaurant
Address: 3 Le Quy Don Street, Phu Nhuan Ward, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam
Price: 15.000 VND – 55.000VND
Opening time: 8:00 – 21:00
Other Hue food specialties
It is not difficult for you to answer the question of what to eat in Vietnam. Hue Lemongrass Skewers (Nem Lui Hue) is a kind of grilled meat, such as ground pork, on lemongrass skewers (or bamboo sticks).
Firstly, the meat will be carefully marinated with fish sauce, shallot, salt, and black pepper. Then, we will use skewers to firm the meat into an oval shape and burn hot charcoal to grill them on both sides. When trying Hue Lemongrass Skewers, do not forget to dip them in peanut sauce! We ensure that it can satisfy your appetite.
Furthermore, Com Am Phu (The Hades Rice), with 7 colors, is a good dish in Hue city. Many tourists wonder about its strange name and they are curious about what it is. If you would like to taste and figure out the answer behind its name, let’s visit The Hades Rice Restaurant on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street. The restaurant is close to Hue Stadium and it has existed for hundred years.
To sum up, Phong Nha Locals Travel has just provided you with a list of what to eat in Hue City and shown valuable information about cuisine in Hue. So, if you have any plans to visit Hue city and have no idea about what to eat in hue province, do not forget our Hue Vietnam food list. It will be useful for your trip!
