With the spectrum of prices for eating out ranging widely, using your budget as a guideline is a good way to help you narrow down where to eat in this city. Top-end restaurant can be found at all of the city’s major five-star hotels, where you will find delicious cuisine served in stylish surroundings.

Alternatively, for a special dining experience, head just out of the city to Binh Quoi Village, which offers some classy riverside restaurants, with great seafood and sunset views over the Saigon River.

Mid-range restaurants feature heavily around the tourist district of De Tham street, where you can not only find good and reasonably-priced Vietnamese cuisine, but you can also seek out ethnic dishes such as Indian curries as well as European favourites.

The more developed areas of the city have seen the likes of Starbucks and McDonalds sprout up to cater for the changing tastes in palates and those who miss a taste of home, but these establishments are expensive in comparison to the excellent value for money that you can find at the street-side cafes.

Markets and street-side vendors are hotspots for anyone serious about getting to grips with Vietnamese food. Here, you will see meats being fried, noodles being dipped in hot water, whole ducks hanging from hooks as well as rows of fold-away tables and small plastic chairs, which more often than not, look like they may struggle to support some of the heavier westerners who perch themselves on them.

Local cuisine

The majority of Vietnamese meals are noodle-based or come served with rice. You will also be hard pushed to find a dish that is not flavoured with at least one of the following: fish sauce, soy sauce, lime and lemon grass as well as an array of fresh herbs.

The country’s cuisine is divided into Northern, Central and South, with dishes from all regions being available in the HCMC. There is also evidence of French influences from the colonial days, and it is possible to sit and sip on a delicious Vietnamese coffee while munching on a fresh baguette that could have come straight out of a Paris patisserie, while watching the world go by.

Not known for being overtly spicy, a typical Vietnamese meal might consist of a bowl of pho, a beef noodle soup; banh bao, steamed bun dumpling that are filled with onion, mushrooms, vegetables or other combinations; banh mi thit, a French bread sandwich, filled with pate, mayo, Vietnamese cold cuts, pickled daikon, shredded carrot and cucumber slices; and spring rolls, or goi cuon, which are available at virtually every eatery.