KY travel – Five Places to Eat at Nha Trang, Vietnam

The decision for our travel to Nha Trang actually stemmed out from having to utilize my expiring air miles, and since I’ve always enjoyed food in Vietnam having visited Saigon many times and Hanoi once, a new destination to my most visited country made sense.

Here’s my notes on places to eat and visit at Nha Trang that’s hopefully useful for you.

1. Quang Noodle at Mì Xứ Quảng Hà Yên 

Address:
Mì Xứ Quảng Hà Yên 
26B Đ. Hai Bà Trưng, Xương Huân, Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa 650000, Vietnam
Tel: +84944530709

Mi Quang, or Quang noodle, is a specialty of central Vietnam. After a bit of hand gestures and finger pointing, we had two bowls of these noodle that came with chicken, pork slices, quail’s egg, pork rib (for “special” version), and prawn in the yellow noodle that I can only describe as a very soft and bouncy version of fettuccine.

Of course, there’s also a healthy amount of fresh salad served alongside, a slice of lime for you to squeeze on to add that zest, and some crackers. The combination makes for a cacophony of competing taste that somehow worked very well together, we enjoyed it a lot.

2. Dry Pho at Phở Khô Hưng Huỳnh 

Address:
Phở Khô Hưng Huỳnh
17 Đ. Hai Bà Trưng, Xương Huân, Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa 650000, Vietnam
Tel: +84772201188

When in Vietnam, it is of course a must to try their pho, or Vietnamese noodl, and the special version here is “pho kho”

Pho Kho is the specialty from Pleiku, the mountainous region of central Vietnam that isn’t entirely too far from Nha Trang (300 odd km). Anyhow, we tried this version at a little shop called Phở Khô HÆ°ng Huỳnh not too far from our hotel.

The dish comes in two bowls, a dry bowl of rice vermicelli with some vege and pork cracklings, accompanied by another bowl of soup with all the goodness of pork slices, meat balls, and really tender big chunk of pork (if you order the “special” version). The sweet & chili sauce is used to mix with the noodle with the soup being devoured separately, or all at once, it’s up to you.

We just found it super delicious.

3. Local Seafood at Hải Sản Nhà Tôi

Address:
Hải Sản Nhà Tôi
24 Ngô Quyền, Xương Huân, Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa 650000, Vietnam
Tel: +842583816701

Since Nha Trang is a coastal town famous for their fishery industry, seafood restaurants are a dime a dozen, especially on the northern part of town. We picked Hải Sản Nhà Tôi for lunch just to find out what they have to offer.

We ordered three dishes out of their rather extensive menu after a bit of google translate exercise. The fried noodle with crab meat was delightfully heavy in flavor, scallop with butter was perfect with the mix of natural taste of sumptuous scallop and that buttery aroma, while steamed prawn preserved the unadulterated flavor of fresh prawns, a dip to their greenish sour/spicy sauce made this simple and super tasty.

Overall it was a simple and really tasty afternoon treat.

4. KHOẺ™- Bún Cá Nóng

Address:
26 Lý Tự Trọng, Lộc Thọ, Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa 650000, Vietnam
Tel: +84888688377

Another local specialty we tried was the “seafood noodle” at Bún Cá Nóng. Communication was a bit challenging at this place but alas, we managed to order two bowls of dry noodle (we thought it’d come with soup…) with sauce and a side of fresh salad (the usual suspect in any noodle dish in Vietnam).

In the rice noodle there’s slices of pork, fish cake, and jelly fish. The idea is to mix up the sauce and eat them as is.. and to be honest, this is perhaps the only dish that we struggled to enjoy. It was a little too dry (we eventually asked for some soup) and tasted too bland for my liking. Perhaps we just didn’t know how to eat it properly. Your mileage may vary.

5. Bahn Mi at Bánh Mì Ốp La Chảo

Address:
Bánh Mì Ốp La Chảo
65XR+3W5, Lộc Thọ, Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa 650000, Vietnam

Last but not least, how can one visit Vietnam without trying out one of the local banh mi stores?

For those who isn’t familiar with Vietnamese food, banh mi is basically the local baguette filled with savory ingredients of your choosing, often served as breakfast but you can basically find it around the clock for any meal.

We ordered ours with fried egg and every single ingredient this stall had, ended up with a banh mi that had cold cuts, meatball with salted egg, chicken pate, fried egg, vege, and more all in one. The baguette was crispy on the outside yet airy within, and with the various different sauce that was added in, it was absolutely fantastic. Basically the best sandwich money can buy!

So if you find yourself at Nha Trang, you now know a few places to explore, good luck!