1. What to eat in Nha Trang, and what it costs

The dishes invented in this province are the fish and jellyfish noodles, and the grilled pork rolls that came down from Ninh Hoa in the north. Almost everything else on a Nha Trang menu is sold the length of Vietnam, so the table below is where to start.

Two days covers the noodles and the pork rolls

Noodles are a morning dish here and nem nuong is a lunch or dinner one. Fit both into two days and you have eaten the local list. A third day leaves an evening free for seafood on the quayside.

Banh can is the one that catches people out. Most of those shops light the griddle at four in the afternoon, so a lunchtime visit finds the shutters down.

Bowls, plates and pieces

A bowl of noodles is around 40,000 dong and a plate of nem nuong is 50,000. Two people can eat both, with drinks, and stay under 200,000 dong.

Seafood is where a bill can move. One operator on the bay was fined in 2025 after charging the equivalent of 3.5 million dong a kilo for a single fish, so that subject gets a section of its own further down.

2. Two dishes whose names are one letter apart

Clear this one up before you order. Banh can is baked and counted in pieces; banh canh is a bowl of thick noodles. The written difference is a single letter and the two arrive looking nothing alike.

The three noodle names

Bun sua carries jellyfish, bun cha ca carries fish cake, and bun ca dam carries chunks of fish. The noodles and the broth underneath are identical.

Plenty of shops put all three in one bowl and call it whatever the sign says. Ask for bun sua when you want the jellyfish and bun ca dam when you would rather chew fish.

What to say at the counter

A banh can cook asks how many you want before anything else. Five each is a sensible start and you can add more once the first plate lands.

At a banh canh shop the choice is bowl size. Anything marked dac biet has the steamed fish cake, the fried fish cake and the fish chunks in it.

3. The fish cake that turns up in every bowl

Cha ca is the ingredient underneath most of this list. Mackerel, barracuda and mullet are filleted, pounded very fine, worked into a paste and steamed. The broth comes from a different fish again.

Steamed, fried and raw

The paste is sold three ways. Steamed cha ca is pale and springy, fried cha ca is yellow and crisp at the edge, and the raw paste is what households buy to cook at home.

A bowl usually gets both the steamed and the fried kind. Ask for one or the other and the shop will sort it out.

Why this province leans on it

Mackerel and barracuda come off the Khanh Hoa boats in quantity, and both hold together when pounded, which is what gives the cake its bounce.

The same paste goes into the noodles, the baguettes and the thick-noodle bowls. Three days of eating here means meeting one ingredient in several shapes.

4. Jellyfish has a season

The jellyfish in a bun sua bowl is firmest when it has been caught in the second and third lunar months, which land in late spring and early summer. Outside that window shops use stored jellyfish and the texture softens.

Why the legs

The bell of the jellyfish softens quickly in hot broth. The leg section stays crisp, which is the point of putting it in a noodle bowl at all.

It goes in last, on top of the noodles, and the bowl comes straight out to the table. Left to sit, it loses the texture within minutes.

If jellyfish is new to you

It carries almost no flavour of its own. The broth is clear and slightly sweet, so the bowl works even if you push the jellyfish to one side.

Order bun ca dam instead and the same broth arrives with fish on top.

5. Where to eat bun sua and bun ca dam

The two names people give are Nguyen Loan and Nam Beo. Both sit on ordinary streets rather than the tourist strip, and both fill with local customers at breakfast.

Bun ca Nguyen Loan on the map📍Map

Nguyen Loan has two addresses in circulation

Some listings give 123 Ngo Gia Tu and others give 02 Lan Ong. The shop has no website, so there is no way to settle which one counts as the original.

Both come up if you search the name in a map app. Take whichever is closer to your hotel.

A clear broth is a breakfast broth

No oil goes into it and the stock is made from small whole fish. That is why a bowl still goes down the morning after a seafood dinner.

Lime and chilli arrive on the side. Take the first spoonful before you add either, which is the only way to taste what the fish stock is doing.

6. Nem nuong Ninh Hoa at Dang Van Quyen

Nem nuong came from Ninh Hoa, the town north of Nha Trang. The grilled pork rolls arrive with rice paper and greens on separate plates and you build each roll yourself. The best known address in the city is Nem Dang Van Quyen.

Dang Van Quyen branch 1 on the map📍Map

The published price list

This shop puts its prices on its own website, which is rare for street food here. The numbers below are taken from it.

Two people ordering two nem nuong sets and drinks land around 120,000 dong. Add the beef skewers at 120,000 a plate and the bill roughly doubles.

How to build the roll

Lay one rice paper flat, cover it with lettuce and herbs, put a pork roll on top, add a few slices of cucumber and green mango, roll it and dip.

If a fried rice paper comes with the set, snap it into pieces and tuck them inside. That is where the crunch comes from.

The sauce carries the dish

What arrives is thick and brown, simmered from prawn, pork and ground beans, so it reads sweet and savoury rather than salty.

Ask for more when it runs out. Most shops do not charge for the refill.

7. Banh can is counted by the piece

Banh can is rice batter poured into small clay moulds and baked under a lid. Each one is about half a palm across, so you order in numbers rather than portions. The dish comes from the Cham communities around Phan Rang, and the fired clay moulds come from the same pottery tradition. The 2025 merger folded Ninh Thuan province, where Phan Rang sits, into Khanh Hoa, so both are now one province. The coastal version puts seafood inside.

Three sauces on the table

Plain fish sauce, a thick sauce with pork meatballs in it, and a sharp one with shredded green mango. A plate commonly comes with two meatballs.

There is no correct method. Drop the whole piece into the sauce bowl, lift it out and eat it.

Most of these shops open in the afternoon

Banh can 51, at 51 To Hien Thanh, runs from four in the afternoon until nine at night. Arrive at lunchtime and it is closed.

Banh can 51 on the map📍Map

Five to eight pieces feed one person. Twelve pieces and drinks for two stays under 100,000 dong.

8. Banh canh cha ca and where to find it

Thick, slippery noodles in a broth made the same way as the bun sua stock. Many of these shops run from breakfast into the night, so the clock matters less than it does with banh can.

Banh canh Ba Thua on the map📍Map

Where the price difference comes from

A plain bowl gets fried fish cake only. A bowl marked dac biet adds the steamed cake and chunks of fish, which is most of the gap between 15,000 and 35,000 dong.

The cheapest bowls are small. If this is breakfast rather than a snack, order the special.

Ba Thua has been open more than forty years

The kitchen is said to build its stock from fish bones alone. With no official page, opening hours cannot be pinned down, but the shop is usually serving in the morning.

Shops here close when the pot is finished. If you are heading out in the late afternoon, have a second address in mind.

9. Banh mi comes with fish cake in it

The default filling in this city is cha ca. Pick the steamed cake, the fried cake, or ask for both. It eats nothing like a pork banh mi.

Two words at the counter

Cha hap is the steamed cake and cha chien is the fried one. Ask for both and you get half of each.

If coriander is a problem, say khong ngo. To take the heat out, say it cay.

When a noodle bowl feels like too much

A baguette at around 20,000 dong is a light breakfast, which is why so many are bought on the walk down to the beach.

The filling here is not what you get further north. → Compare it with what Da Nang puts in a baguette

10. Seafood on the Bo Ke and the snail stalls

The seafood houses line the mouth of the Cai river along Thap Ba and Pham Van Dong streets. Locals call the stretch Bo Ke, which means the embankment.

Snails start in the evening

Oc covers sea snails and shellfish generally, and each kind has its own name: oc huong, oc nhay, oc ban tay, oc mong tay. They are ordered by the plate.

Oc Long Vu, at 30 Thap Ba, runs from four in the afternoon to eleven at night, with plates at 50,000 to 80,000 dong.

Oc Long Vu on the map📍Map

Choose the cooking method

Once you have picked the ingredient the kitchen asks how you want it done. Knowing the words speeds the whole thing up.

Some kitchens price the same ingredient differently by method, so ask for the figure as you choose.

Cheap and expensive share one menu

Clams, squid and fish are sold by the plate, which makes them easy to budget. Lobster, crab and large fish are sold by the kilo.

The kilo half of the menu is where bills go wrong. The next section is about that.

11. No price list is itself an offence

Restaurants in Vietnam are required to display their prices. In the enforcement notices from Nha Trang, failure to post prices appears as one of the listed violations. Asking to see the price list is something a customer is entitled to do.

How the 2025 fine broke down

Trading without a food safety certificate accounted for 12,500,000 dong, changing the registered business type without notice 7,500,000 dong, and failing to display prices 750,000 dong.

The 2026 inspection made the same point in writing: the restaurant gave prices verbally and handed the customer no price list.

Three things before you order

1. Ask for the price listCo bang gia khong is the phrase.
2. Ask the price per kiloBao nhieu mot ky. Order after you hear the number.
3. Watch the weighingFish from the tank is netted and weighed. Stand up and go with it.
4. Settle the cooking method and its price togetherThe same ingredient can cost differently by method.
5. Read the bill line by linePlenty of diners photograph the scale reading as well.

If a menu says thoi gia

It means the price follows the market that day, which amounts to no figure at all.

Ask what the figure is today, and order after you hear it. Asking for it in writing is reasonable. The obligation to post prices sits with the restaurant.

If the bill looks wrong, call from the table

The province says it aims to respond within fifteen minutes. Both cases above began with a complaint and ended in an inspection.

The wider set of tricks is worth reading first. → Common scams in Vietnam

12. Dam Market has moved

The traders left the round building and moved into the new hall. The deadline was 31 March 2025, and trading now happens in the new building. Go looking for the round one from an old photograph and you will find it shut.

Those figures come from the provincial industry and trade department.

What happens to the round building

Demolition has not been settled. The provincial party committee noted the architecture and the local history attached to it and asked for expert opinion first, and an independent structural assessment was commissioned after that.

The building still stands. People photograph it from outside, but no trading goes on inside.

Dam Market on the map📍Map

What there is to eat in the market

Food stalls sit on the first and second levels of the new hall, selling noodles, banh can, che and fruit.

Some stalls post prices and some do not, so ask before you buy. The takeaway goods are mostly dried squid, fish cake and packaged snacks.

13. The pre-dawn fish markets

Arrive when the boats land and prices are lower than in town. Vinh Luong fishing port and Binh Tan market are busiest between four and six in the morning. Both are north of the centre.

Buy it, then hand it over to be cooked

Take what you have bought to a nearby stall or restaurant and they will grill or steam it. Some charge a cooking fee and some do not.

Ask about that fee before you hand anything over. The same rule as the seafood strip applies here.

Getting there

Nothing runs on public transport at that hour. Vinh Luong is about twenty minutes from the centre by car.

Finding a ride back can be slow, so ask the driver to wait or book the return at the same time. → How Grab and Green SM work in Vietnam

14. The night market after dark

The city night market sits at 46 Tran Phu. It opens at five in the afternoon and closes at eleven, and the crush is between seven and nine.

Nha Trang night market on the map📍Map

Prices here are not fixed

Some stalls post a figure and some do not. Ask before you order, and ask for a total when you order several things at once.

Stalls selling the same goods stand side by side, so one lap of the market before deciding costs nothing.

Fitting it into an evening

The market is on the beach road, which makes it an easy extension of an evening walk. For a proper seafood dinner head to the embankment instead; for small tastes of several things, the market is the right call.

Prices soften late in the evening at some stalls. Which stalls still have stock is anyone’s guess.

15. Eating vegetarian in Nha Trang

Vegetarian food is called chay. Chay kitchens cluster near the pagodas and in the centre, and they fill up on the first and fifteenth of the lunar month.

What is in the noodles

Bun sua and banh canh are built on fish stock, which puts both out of reach.

Chay kitchens make the same shapes with vegetable stock, and soy or bean protein takes the place of the fish cake.

Asking for fish sauce to be left out

In a regular kitchen you have to rule out fish sauce and shrimp paste as well. An chay is the phrase, and most staff understand it.

Where the broth was made hours ago, nothing can be taken out of it. Starting at a chay kitchen is the reliable route.

16. Where the Korean and Russian restaurants are

Restaurants aimed at foreign visitors sit together in one district that locals call Pho Tay.

Which day of a trip this is for

Past the third day most people want something familiar, and this is where it is.

Prices run two to three times the local shops. Menus have photographs and English, which makes ordering quick.

Halal and Indian kitchens

Both are in the same district, and one of the halal restaurants has a prayer room, so check ahead if that matters.

The choice across the city is narrower than in Da Nang. For a longer stay, a room near this district saves taxi fares in the evening. → Where to stay in Nha Trang

17. What to take home

Most of it is dried seafood and sweets. Liquids and fermented pastes are what airport security stops, so check how a jar is sealed before you buy it.

What muoi ot xanh actually is

A dipping salt for seafood. Coarse salt is ground with green chilli, lime juice and lime leaf, which is where the green colour comes from.

It sells in small jars, weighs nothing, and works at home on grilled fish or clams.

Markets and supermarkets price differently

Markets expect haggling and supermarkets do not. Check a supermarket shelf first and you walk into the market with a reference figure.

Dried goods are sold by weight, so watch the scale. The rule from the seafood section applies here too.

18. Birds nest and the state company

Khanh Hoa has harvested swiftlet nests for generations. The state-owned company sits in the city at 248 Thong Nhat, Tay Nha Trang ward.

Yen sao Khanh Hoa head office on the map📍Map

The bottled drink is the easy purchase

Sweetened birds nest drink is sold in bottles and cans in supermarkets and at the airport, with the price on the shelf.

Dried nests are sold by the gram and the numbers climb quickly. For a gift, an official shop at least gives you something to check.

Telling a real nest from a fake one

In water a genuine nest swells four to six times without the strands breaking down, and it lets light through when held up.

Treat anything far below the going rate with suspicion. Sellers describe their own product in different ways, so price alone settles nothing.

19. Addresses changed in 2025

A reorganisation that took effect on 1 July 2025 dissolved Nha Trang city as an administrative unit and replaced it with four wards. Street names and house numbers are unchanged; what changed is the line that follows them.

The same reorganisation merged Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan provinces. The new Khanh Hoa covers 8,555 square kilometres with a population of about 2.2 million.

Blogs and map apps disagree

Older posts still carry the previous format, along the lines of P. Xuong Huan, TP. Nha Trang.

When you are looking for a shop, read the street and the number only. 16A Lan Ong is in the same place whatever follows it.

Searching for a shop

Map apps respond better to the Vietnamese name. Type Nem Dang Van Quyen and both branches come up.

Searching in English brings up reviews, sometimes pinned to a branch that has moved. Where a phone number is listed, that entry is usually the current one.

20. A day of eating, and what opens when

Put the prices above into a day and it looks like this. Sticking to local shops runs about 135,000 dong a head; adding an evening on the seafood strip roughly doubles it.

Noodles and seafood cost much what they cost in Da Nang. The gap between the tourist streets and the local ones is wider here. → Da Nang and Nha Trang compared

What opens when

Paying, and having food sent

Carts and noodle shops want cash. Larger restaurants take cards and many now take a bank transfer by QR code. Carrying 10,000 and 20,000 notes saves waiting for change.

Delivery runs on GrabFood and ShopeeFood, used by 49 and 45 per cent of Vietnamese app users respectively. Type a shop name into either if you would rather eat in your room. → Vietnamese money and payment

Shops close when the pot is empty

A stated closing time is not a guarantee. Noodle kitchens shut early once they run out, and after about nine in the morning that becomes likely.

Put the noodle shop you care about at the front of the day. Banh can and snails belong at the other end of it.

21. Ordering words and two half-day routes

Many kitchens have no English menu. These six lines cover most of what comes up.

Leaving things out

For a shellfish allergy, say di ung tom cua. Prawn turns up in broths and sauces here, so raise it before the order goes in rather than after.

With children, ask for the chilli to be left out. Noodle bowls are mild by default and the heat arrives as a separate dish of chilli paste. Tipping is not the custom. → Etiquette and tipping in Vietnam

A morning route

Bun sua at Nguyen Loan, then a walk to Dam Market to look at the dried goods, then a baguette on the way out. That is a morning.

All three sit in the centre, inside twenty minutes of each other. The city sights pick up from there. → Things to do in Nha Trang

An evening route

Banh can at 51 To Hien Thanh, then the night market, then the embankment for a plate of snails if there is room left.

The order matters because banh can opens at four. Run it backwards and the griddle is cold.

Boat days need no food plan

Island tours feed you lunch on the water and return after four, so only dinner is left to arrange. → Nha Trang island hopping

Mud bath days sell food on site as well. → The Nha Trang mud baths

Frequently asked questions

Read the full Nha Trang guide

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