If you’re planning to visit Hoi An, the last thing you need to worry about is where to eat. There are tons of places to eat in Hoi An, easily between 150 and 200 restaurants just in and around the Old Town area alone — and all types of cuisine.
Most of the restaurants are all centralized inside the Old Town area or in the immediate vicinity (which is all pretty walkable).
You’ll really have your choice as far as budget and diet. There are casual, local places, and nicer sit-down restaurants. Plenty of choices for international cuisine (Western, Indian, Italian, Mexican, etc.). There are vegetarian places. Places to get quick bowls of pho, cao lau, or a banh mi.
🏨 La Siesta Hoi An (see on Agoda / Booking): I’m a huge fan of the La Siesta chain in Vietnam; this is a great hotel, about a 10-minute walk from Old Town
🏨 Little Riverside (see on Agoda / Booking): a good choice right on the Thu Bon River in Hoi An Old Town — I’ve covered more Hoi An hotels here
🎟️ Tours & Activities: My Son Sanctuary morning visit and learning to make Vietnamese coffee
Cao lau is the local Vietnamese dish, originating in Hoi An, and there are lots of places to get it. I recommend trying a few different ones, as each family-owned place uses slightly different recipes.
As a rule of thumb, the restaurants inside Old Town will be pricier compared to elsewhere. By even walking 5 to 10 minutes down the road (outside Old Town in any direction), you can find more fairly-priced restaurants.
This article is meant to showcase just some of the places that I’ve eaten at in Hoi An recently. Hopefully, it gives you an idea of what’s available in Hoi An. There’s A LOT more. It’s impossible for one man (me!) to explore all of the food options in Hoi An.
If you find any other great places to eat in Hoi An, let me know so I can check them out and then add them to the list! Join my free Hoi An, Da Nang, and Hue travel planning group on Facebook! The list below is in no particular order.
Great Places to Eat in Hoi An Map
Here’s a map that shows only some of my favorite places to eat in Hoi An. I’ll add more places over time, but remember: once you’re on the ground in Hoi An Old Town, you’ll see for yourself — there are tons of food options, and all different types of cuisine. You can view the full map here.
How to use this map: Ahoy! Click the arrow in the top left-hand corner to view my list of restaurants in Hoi An. I color-coded my favorites as the purple food icons. Tipping isn’t required or expected at any restaurants in Vietnam.
Thanh Cao Lau
Address: Google Maps • Facebook Page
This is one of the more popular places to eat cao lau in Hoi An. The menu is pretty simple: a large bowl of cao lau is 50.000 VND, and a small bowl is 35.000 VND. I always get the large bowl. It’s located north of Old Town, so depending on where you stay in Hoi An, you can walk here in about 10 to 20 minutes. The entire area up here is walkable.
This is not a fancy place. It’s open-air, and you’ll be sitting on metal chairs with metal tables. It’s run by a local family, and a great way to experience a Vietnamese dish often eaten by the locals. Whenever I eat here, there are often other Vietnamese locals eating here, too.
A bowl of cao lau can be a meal, but it can also be a quick bite between meals, since it’s served and can be eaten quickly. Sometimes, if I’m bouncing between attractions, a quick bowl of cao lau hits the spot.
Chops Hoi An
Addresses: Google Maps • Google Maps • Facebook Page
About a year ago, I had my first burger at Chops in Hoi An, and it’s one of the best burgers I’ve found anywhere in the area (Da Nang or Hoi An). Each of their Premium Burgers is between 215.000 VND and 260.000 VND.
It actually took me a while to find a good burger anywhere in Vietnam. A lot of “burger places” will use a generic frozen patty, and/or basic (and sometimes stale) bread. But after I had my first burger at Chops, I left feeling pretty satisfied, and it was exactly what I was looking for in a local burger.
Chops currently has two locations in Hoi An Old Town. One of them is on the corner of Phan Chu Trinh and Le Loi streets, and the other is only five minutes south, along the Thu Bon River.
Lanterns Cafe
Address: Google Maps • Facebook Page
Lanterns Cafe is family-run and right in the middle of Old Town on Tran Phu Street. I stop here every now and then, and usually get the Chicken Poke Bowl and a Vietnamese coffee or one of their smoothies.
Here’s a video I filmed from inside Lanterns Cafe.
The interior is Vietnamese-style, with wooden chairs and, you guessed it, lanterns. There isn’t any air conditioning, but the restaurant is open-air, and they have fans around. If you sit in the front along the benches, it’s a good spot to people-watch the tourists walking through Old Town.
NGHE Rice Paddy Cafe
Address: Google Maps • Facebook Page
I love the location of this cafe: it’s plopped right in the middle of the rice fields north of Old Town. This isn’t a place you can walk to from Old Town, but you can use the Grab app to order a taxi, ride bikes, or ride scooters to get here. They recently upgraded and built an additional outdoor area.
I filmed this video while walking inside NGHE Rice Paddy Cafe.
Places like this are what, to me, exemplify the atmosphere of Hoi An. It’s a laid-back restaurant, usually pretty quiet, with great paddy views, good food, fair prices, and friendly staff. The staff here are always very cheery, and it’s a peaceful and calming experience whenever I visit.
Like many of the restaurants on my list, this is an open-air experience (no air conditioning), but they have fans. There’s parking for scooters and bikes right outside the restaurant.
Su Deli Restaurant & Cafe
Address: Google Maps • Facebook Page
This restaurant in Hoi An offers great value for money. It’s not fancy, but it’s a real, solid place for a quick and affordable bite to eat. I’m a frequent eater here when I’m riding around Hoi An on my scooter and want to eat somewhere a bit outside the touristy area.
I usually get something simple, like the Hoi An Chicken Rice for 50.000 VND and one of their great smoothies for 40.000 VND. I’ve had their banana, mango, and strawberry smoothies, and I would recommend all of them (but start with the strawberry).
Su Deli is on Cam Nam Island, just south of Old Town.
If you’re staying at the Moire Hoi An (see on Agoda / Booking), Su Deli is right around the corner.
Lemongrass Restaurant
Address: Google Maps • Tripadvisor
Lemongrass is a restaurant in Hoi An Old Town that I debated keeping on this list. I ate here one time, and while what I ordered was good, “something” just felt missing. I had the Lemon Leaf-Infused Grilled Chicken for 175.000 VND. It came with a small side bowl of rice, but I thought the dish was on the smaller side for the price. The chicken was good, though.
I think because there are so many Vietnamese restaurants in and around Old Town, the local competition is very steep. So if you’re going to pay this much for Vietnamese cuisine, you have a lot of options in the immediate area. Compare this to a burger place, like Chops above, where there really aren’t tons of great burger joints, so it’s easy to become a repeat visitor.
For me, there are other places in Hoi An with similar Vietnamese cuisine to check out instead of visiting Lemongrass again. But I would still look to visit one time, since it does have a lot of great reviews on various travel platforms.
Purple Lantern (An Bang Beach)
Address: Google Maps • Facebook Page
Purple Lantern is a Vietnamese restaurant in a convenient area of An Bang Beach. In these photos, I had fresh-squeezed orange juice, morning glory with garlic, and their grilled fillet chicken with lime leaves (with a small side bowl of rice). The total cost for all three of these was 230.000 VND.
This is an open-air restaurant (no air conditioning), but they have a lot of fans. There are plenty of tables and places to sit. I also found the staff to be friendly.
They also have plenty of Vietnamese dishes, seafood like scallops, stuffed squid, and grilled red snapper, and vegetarian options.
Claypot Hoi An
Address: Google Maps • Facebook Page
Claypot is another popular restaurant for cao lau and Vietnamese food. This is also family-owned, and it’s more of a sit-down restaurant (with air conditioning). This is slightly further north of Old Town — about 20 minutes. But the whole area up here, all the way down to Old Town, is all very walkable. This article covers getting around Hoi An.
As you can see, my bowl of cao lau from Claypot looks different than the others. That’s because each restaurant (or family) has their own recipe for making cao lau. A bowl of cao lau here costs 79.000 VND, which is a bit more expensive compared to other places in Hoi An — but it’s tasty.
Claypot also has Vietnamese cooking classes.
Mom’s Restaurant
Address: Google Maps • Tripadvisor
Mom’s Restaurant is right in the middle of the An Bang Beach area, on Nguyen Phan Vinh Street. It’s just around the corner from Purple Lantern mentioned above. This is a family-owned, open-air restaurant.
I had a whole red tilapia fish, rice paper rolls with shrimp, and a Diet Coke for a total cost of 240.000 VND. I personally thought the fish was fresh and excellent.
Nhà Hàng Bảo Phương
Address: Google Maps • Tripadvisor
This is another family-owned restaurant in Hoi An, specifically on An Hoi Island, south of Old Town. It’s a simple, open-air restaurant with plastic chairs and tables. I had a quick bite to eat here before seeing the Teh Dar Show nextdoor at the Hoi An Lune Center.
I had a quick bowl of chicken pho (phở gà) for 45.000 VND. Both the husband and wife owners were very friendly. The restaurant is tucked away on An Hoi Island, and I was the only person eating here at the time. There are a lot of small hotels and villas nearby on An Hoi Island, so if you’re staying there or planning to see a show at the Lune Center, this is a good spot for a quick bite.
Orivy Restaurant
Address: Google Maps • Tripadvisor
Orivy is another family-run restaurant that’s a bit west of Hoi An Old Town. You can easily walk here along Tran Hung Dao Street, then it becomes Cua Dai Street, and the Orivy is right on the main road.
This is another open-air restaurant, with wooden chairs and tables. The owners are also breeding and raising small birds as a hobby, so there are lots of cages outfront with birds.
On my recent visit here, I had…you guessed it…a bowl of cao lau (60.000 VND), and the white rose dumplings (75.000 VND). I also had a Vietnamese phin filter black coffee. A very nice owner, who speaks English, and good food in a good location. I’ll be visiting again.
Bibo Caphe & Restaurant
Address: Google Maps • Facebook Page
Bibo Caphe is tucked away on one of the small side streets directly inside Hoi An Old Town. There are a lot of smaller alleys and streets like this within Old Town, and they’re all fun to wander down and explore. They’re all safe and walkable, and you can sometimes find little coffee shops, eateries, souvenir stores, and more.
Bibo Caphe has a small seating section outfront, seating inside on two levels, and a small balcony area on the second floor. I’ve been here a few times, and this is where I come when I want to fill up on some form of Western brunch. The prices are fair, and all of the staff that I’ve ever interacted with have been very friendly.
This restaurant is in a very convenient location to be able to grab a filling meal, then continue wandering around Old Town.
