Eat in Danang (Vietnam)

Before my trip to Danang, I searched some information about what to eat there, from street foods to fancy restaurants. I did not manage to eat all in my list but here’s some that I tried. I will try my best to write what I ate and where to find them. The street food such as noodle normally costs around VND 15-30k /bowl. 

1. Banh Canh (Noodle Soup) @143A Nguyen Chi Thanh St.

The first local food that I tried in Danang is the ‘banh canh’ or noodle soup. It is like a rat tail noodle in a spicy seafood broth, served with ‘you tiao’ (dough fritter), pickled red onion and green chilli, fish sauce, home made chilli sauce and lots of chinese celery leaves. It’s cheap and not too much or heavy. Perfect for people like me who want to hop around and try variety of foods in a day.

2. Mi Quang (also Noodle Soup) @1A Hai Phong St.

This Mi Quang is very popular in Danang. The place was packed with people when we arrived but luckily there are seats upstairs as well. It’s got a thicker kind of ketchup sauce (I’m not sure what it is) but red colour gravy, more stuffs like dry prawns, pork ribs, fresh bean sprout and lime. 

3. Bun Cha Ca (Fish Cake Noodle Soup) @61B Le Hong Phong St.

This one is interesting as the broth is very rich in flavour, they have fishcakes, pumpkin, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts and all the fresh lettuce and herbs.

4. Pho 75 beef noodle @91 Ngo Gia Tu St.

This beef noodle is the clear soup version but it is rich in flavour, you can taste the heat from the black pepper, sweetness from the beef stock, and freshness from the onions and herbs. The owner was friendly and chatted with us awhile before we left.

5. Nuoc Mia (Sugarcane Juice) @65 Tran Phu St.

This shop sells the refreshing sugarcane juice, local Vietnamese coffee and western Italian coffee. I just tried the sugarcane which is very sweet. It is recommended by Helen from Helen's Recipes which I followed in Youtube.

6. Coffee time +Danang Souvenirs & Cafe @34 Bạch Đằng

This cafe is in the main street facing the Han River and beside the Novotel Hotel, this cafe looks very cozy at night and it’s hard to resist not to visit. We went twice there, once for the local coffee and the other time for the western espresso. There is nothing special about the coffee but it's nice place to sit and relax.

 

7. Madame Lan @4 Bach Dang St.

We visited this restaurant twice. They serve good Vietnamese food including variety of seafood. Very satisfied dinner for 2 costs around VND 900k (RM 135 or USD 42). I actually ordered too much. The second visit, we spent less than half only. For more info on their menu, visit http://www.madamelan.vn/site/menu/

 

 

8. Seafood Dinner Buffet at Cafe Indochine Furama Hotel @Vo Nguyen Giap Street, My Khe Beach

This I will NOT recommend. It was a buffet and we can order seafood to be grill, fry, steam whichever cooking method we want then put condiments ourselves. But I found all the seafood was so bland and it was not as tasty as the seafood at the roadside I would imagine ;P The buffet dinner for 2 person costs around VND 2 million (RM 300 or USD 95), which is still not very expensive but it's not worth the money. 

 

 

 

9. Dinner at La Maison 1888 by Michel Roux Team, InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort @Bai Bac, Son Tra Peninsula

The resort itself was by far the most memorable experience I had in Danang. We arrived there before 7 pm which was already dark. But the place was so tranquil and serene. You can feel the staff were very sincere and welcoming. From the lobby, a staff escorted us to the restaurant which we need to take a wooden lift to go down to. As we go down slowly, the view from the peninsula to the sea was magnificent, so surreal. I can only recall it in my memory as it was too dark to take a nice picture.

Below are some of the food pictures taken while dining at La Maison 1888. For a full review of this restaurant, click here.

Scallop, Baby Octopus

Foie Gras with Caramelised Watermelon

Sugarcane Sorbet

Fillet of Rabbit

Pork Iberica

Millefeuille with Passionfruit Sorbet

10. Banh Mi (Vietnamese Baguette)

Banh Mi can be found almost everywhere in Danang. It normally comes in a small cart at the roadside.

 

11. Spring Roll 

Spring roll can also be found almost everywhere in Danang. And again, I do not have any specific restaurant to recommend but this one I had on my first night at the food court in Indochina Riverside Mall along the main street, Bach Dang, facing the Han river.

12. Drinks: Vietnamese beer, coffee & coconut @everywhere 

 

 

13. Hotel Breakfast Buffet +Northern Hotel Da Nang @40 St. Joseph Cathedral

I stayed in Northern Hotel which is slightly a little far from the sea view and those crowded areas. The hotel itself was good, clean and peaceful. Had I not set any budget when booking hotel in Agoda.com, I would have chosen Novotel which is just so strategic, so near to the Han River Bridge and so many hang out places. The Northern hotel costs about RM 200 (USD 63) and the Novotel costs RM 320 (USD 100). Well well…

Back to the food, the Northern hotel’s buffet breakfast was good. They have the normal Asian and western breakfast stuff as well as the Vietnamese breakfast like those I picked on my plate - rice cake, fish cake, some dim sum with fish sauce dipping, steamed corn and sweet potato.

 

14. Airline Meal +Vietnam Airlines 

I went to Danang from Kuala Lumpur via Ho Chi Minh by Vietnam Airlines.
KUL - SGN 50 mins
Transfer time 2 and half hours
SGN-DAD 1 hr 15 mins
Total journey almost 5 hours

It’s a little troublesome to transfer but there is no direct flights at the time of my booking. But I heard that Air Asia is going to launch direct flight to Danang from Kuala Lumpur later this year (2014).

The airline meal was pretty good. On our way going to Ho Chi Minh, I had fish with potato, berry mousse cake with some fruits. And on our way back, I had beef with potato and the vermicelli salad which was awesome, love it.

 

Useful links:

Helen Journeys http://www.youtube.com/user/HelenJourneys
Danang Cuisine http://www.youtube.com/user/danangcuisine
Wikitravel http://wikitravel.org/en/Da_Nang

Some nice pics I took there that I would like to share.

Dragon Bridge

Han River Bridge

Sunrise at My Khe Beach

Sunrise at My Khe Beach

My Khe Beach

Ba Na Hills Fantasy Park

View from Cable Car Ba Na Hills

Danang City

Warming up before jogging, Dragon Bridge