45 Best Restaurants in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

The old-world charm of the Victoria Chau Doc Hotel extends to its in-house restaurant, which serves Western and Asian cuisine in a stylish riverfront setting. Take a seat on the terrace to enjoy the sunset (and happy hour at the bar) and the attentive but discreet service. This is the priciest place in town, but the food, the staff, and the river views make it worthwhile. Reservations are recommended because sometimes the restaurant hosts bus tours.

The finest dining in town, on a beautiful rooftop terrace overlooking the Hau River, L'Escale serves a mix of French and Vietnamese dishes, accompanied by an extensive wine list and a jazz soundtrack, along with attentive service. The restaurant, in the Nam Bo Boutique Hotel, serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but you can also slide into a seat at the bar and enjoy a drink and the view.

Time your visit around 5 pm, when the light on the river is the most magical.

The hotel restaurant uses only local ingredients and happily accommodates vegetarians. Specialties include crispy elephant ear fish and other local seafood. The multicourse meals here are pricier than those in town but, because Mekong Lodge supports several charities, including a school and a training center for disadvantaged locals, a meal here gives back to the community.

Mango Bay Resort's in-house restaurant serves excellent Asian and Western fusion cuisine from a wooden deck (with rocks peeking through) over the water. The views of the sunset over the Gulf of Thailand are fantastic, the cocktails delicious, the staff attentive, the music mellow, and the food, including the tapas, is some of the best on the island.

La Veranda's in-house restaurant provides a full sensory experience, with refined Pacific Rim cuisine, stunning views over the ocean, and elegant French colonial style. One of the priciest options on Phu Quoc, it's well worth it for the service, setting, food, wine list, and sunset views. It's the perfect location for a romantic dinner.

This is a great find in Ca Mau, with nostalgic style (the name translates as "ancient street"), including quaint little wooden pavilions, a courtyard bonsai garden, and fish ponds. Serving Chinese-influenced dishes as well as Vietnamese cuisine, Pho Xua has a menu that contains English subtitles, although not much English is spoken by the staff. With its proximity to the ocean, it's no wonder that seafood is the house specialty, but there's also a range of chicken, beef, buffalo, and pork dishes.

Tasty bar food is available here day and night—think pizza, burgers, panini, salads, stir-fries, and pasta, served in a giant boat-shaped restaurant. Hosts Rory and Yoon preside over the café/bar, which has a genuinely welcoming atmosphere and fabulous views that stretch to Cambodia.

The newest restaurant on Can Tho's tourist strip is also the city's most stylish, with elegant and comfortable furniture and a coveted terrace with views of the river. The menu is divided between European and Asian and both sections offer plenty of variety (try the chicken braised in coconut). You can also drop by for a coffee or cake, which are baked on-site.

Cassia Cottage Resort's in-house restaurants have romantic settings: beside a pond filled with water lilies in a manicured tropical garden or right on the beach. This restaurant, which specializes in Vietnamese and international cuisine, uses fresh local produce, prepared with care and a bit of a French flourish. This is a great option for a special evening that won't break the bank.

The in-house restaurant at this friendly eco-lodge serves fresh local seafood, vegetarian dishes and lau (hotpots), which can be enjoyed with one of Phu Quoc's best views. Don't miss the house specialty, minted tempura shrimp, or book a beach barbecue for two. It's wise to book ahead before visiting, as the restaurant has only enough electricity for one refrigerator on-site, limiting the inventory of ingredients.

Pull up a stool at this sidewalk restaurant and pop open a Saigon beer while you look to see what the locals are eating. Chau Doc is all about seafood, and you can't go wrong with clay pot fish—unless you don't like fish sauce, in which case go for clay pot pork, with juices that taste great over white rice. There's not a lot for vegetarians, but the plates of sautéed vegetables—morning glory, baby corn, banana flowers—flavored with coriander go well with rice, and there is a vegetable soup.

A basic Vietnamese joint, with a cafeteria-style interior and patchy English abilities, Bay Bong 2 does a range of standard but tasty Vietnamese dishes. The house specialty is com ca kho to (catfish in claypot) and sweet-and-sour soup with catfish or shrimp. The service can be hit or miss, especially if the place is busy, as it often is.

The setting of this charming vegan restaurant, which helps support the nearby Vinh Trang pagoda, is basic but pleasant with a tangle of potted plants. Service is not the fastest, but the food is truly delicious. Don't be fooled by the English menu that lists meat dishes, this is a strictly vegan place and they are made with imitation, soy-based "meats." The house specialty is the vegan Thai-style sour-and-spicy hotpot (lau Thai Lan); the braised vegetables in claypot (rau cu kho) is also a stand-out dish.

Across the road from the marina, this small, neat, and cozy café is a good place to stop for a coffee, ice cream, milk shake, or smoothie, as well as light meals such as salads, burgers, and Vietnamese dishes. It's probably the only place in town where you can get toasted Vegemite-and-cheese sandwiches, reflecting the owner's Australian roots. Famous for its "scoop" on Phu Quoc Island, Buddy is a de facto tourist information center, so stop by to pick up the latest copy of the Phu Quoc Island guide and free tourist map.

This basic street food outlet serves a great version of the local specialty, bun nuoc leo, a murky pork noodle soup. Patrons can expect celebrity treatment at this place, with extra plates of spring rolls, fried prawn cakes, and banana-leaf-wrapped roast pork offered, along with wide smiles. Don't worry—if you don't eat any of the extras, you don't have to pay (but they are very good).

This humble street food eatery is as good a place as any to try bun nuoc leo, a Mekong Delta specialty of broth made with fermented fish, served over fresh bun noodles, with slices of fish, roast pork, shrimp, and local greens. Pair it with a glass of sugarcane juice.

Offering very basic Vietnamese café fare, such as stir-fried noodles, pork and rice, and baguettes, this café associated with the Que Toi Hotel is a place more for satisfying hunger pangs than enjoying fine dining. Like most Vietnamese cafés, it's a place for people to meet, drink coffee, and smoke cigarettes. On the plus side, it has an English menu, which most places in town don't have.

For authentic Northern Indian cuisine, including great tandoor and naan, stop by this little restaurant, with simple style and friendly staff. Portions are generous and the masala tea is very delicious, although service can be on the slow side.

There's a range of street food stalls in the streets surrounding Ha Tien's impressive market, which comprises several buildings, including one marked "an uong" ("eat and drink").

The food at this cheap local joint is tasty, and though the interior is basic, the restaurant is air-conditioned and the menu is in Vietnamese, English, and Chinese, so ordering is relatively simple. Mekong Delta specialties include lau (hotpot), ca kho (caramelized fish), and suon xao chua ngot (sweet-and-sour pork riblets) as well as bo luc lac (shaking beef—because it dances around the pan while being cooked) and chao tom chien (prawn paste on sugar cane sticks).

Usually packed with locals, this big eating hall with metal tables and plastic stools is the best place in town to order hu tieu My Tho, a noodle soup that's the specialty of My Tho. The staff don't speak much English but the food more than makes up for any challenges with ordering. The menu, printed on the walls, is simple: hu tieu (rice-noodle soup), banh canh (rice-and-tapioca noodle soup), bot nui (rice-macaroni soup), and hoan thanh (pork wonton soup). There are different prices for hu tieu: thit (pork), xuong (pork knuckle), muc tuoi (fresh squid) and tom tuoi (fresh shrimp).

Popular with locals, this restaurant is designed to look like a bamboo village hut, and is a bit of a point-and-order eating adventure for visitors—the menu has no English, only a few photos on each page that vaguely correspond to the dishes listed below. The menu offers seafood, salad, beef, chicken, sparrow (chim se), and hotpot. Luckily the prices are so low it doesn't really matter if you mis-order a few dishes.

Western tourists will find an English menu (with some very unusual translations) at this basic Vietnamese restaurant, where a range of standard dishes includes the local specialty, lau mam (fermented fish hotpot). A big plus is the air-conditioned room, in a town where many places are fan-cooled only. The style is basic, with check table cloths and wooden dining settings inside and plain marble-topped tables on the terrace.

This garden restaurant is popular with locals. The specialty is whole chicken (including the head and feet), but if that's too adventurous, you can choose a beef, pigeon, or pork dish.

This modern café on the ground floor of an apartment block serves Korean and Japanese-influenced dishes, including ramen and bi bim bap. The dual language menu is useful to travelers.

Part of the highly acclaimed Nam Bo Boutique Hotel, this all-day café-restaurant serves a variety of traditional Mekong specialties and European staples in a casual French bistro--style setting. For local fare, try the lau (a hotpot served with rice noodles, lean pork, seafood, and a pile of vegetables) or, if you're feeling adventurous, the snake set (menu de serpent in French). The stylish, artsy interior is complemented by a superb riverfront setting and free Wi-Fi, making it a pleasant spot for a coffee break. Reservations are recommended at peak times, as large tour groups can arrive en masse.

Fresh seafood, ribs, chicken, and vegetables are barbecued on sidewalk grills made from 44-gallon drums at this barbecue joint, where your food is selected from the blue canoe out front. The simple outdoor setting is even enjoyable in inclement weather, thanks to a canvas cover. Service can be chaotic but that's part of the fun. Noname also offers motorbike rental and a laundry service.

A plain and simple bar serving a range of drinks, including super cold beers, Oasis lives up to its name for the wealth of free travel information English owner Andy provides. (There is also a small travel agency inside the bar.) Oasis is the only place in town serving Western food, starting with breakfast, including the full English hot breakfast, and continuing through the day with bar-style meals such as chili con carne, baguettes, and Thai green chicken curry.