Join us in exploring the delicious dishes that truly represent the culture of Nha Trang.
Bánh căn Nha Trang
Bánh căn is made from finely ground rice and cold rice batter, diluted with water and grilled over charcoal. The cake comes with various fillings such as minced meat, eggs, shrimp, and squid. It’s often eaten with green mango and a sweet and salty dipping sauce.
For details on delicious Bánh căn restaurants, check [HERE].
Nha Trang Jellyfish Vermicelli
The main components of this dish are the broth, vermicelli, fresh jellyfish, fish cake or fish meat, tomatoes, and herbs. The broth is made from Liệt fish, which gives it a very sweet taste.
For details on delicious jellyfish vermicelli restaurants, check [HERE].
Nha Trang Fish Vermicelli
The broth for fish vermicelli is made from various types of fish such as Macropodus, unicorn leatherjacket, tuna… The main topping of the dish is fishcakes. Additionally, the dish might also contain pieces of fish and jellyfish.
Vạn Ninh Squid Vermicelli
The main ingredient for this dish is squid. From the broth to the toppings, everything is made of squid. Selected squids are fresh tube squids or leaf squids. The broth from the squid is clear, and the squid is chewy and crunchy.
Nha Trang Grilled Pork Skewers
A complete serving consists of skewered grilled meat, rice paper, fried spring rolls, fresh herbs, and dipping sauce. The grilled pork is made from pork mixed with spices, skewered, and grilled. The dipping sauce is made from over 20 different ingredients, offering a harmonious sweet and sour taste.
Nha Trang Grilled Meat Vermicelli
The dish includes vermicelli with marinated and grilled pork. There are also other components like wrapped crispy spring rolls, fresh vegetables, roasted peanuts, and fried shallots. It’s served with a sauce or sweet and sour fish sauce.
Nha Trang “Bánh Đập”
The main component of this dish is steamed rice cake inside combined with crispy grilled rice paper on the outside. The cake is served with various toppings such as shrimp, sausage, grilled meat skewers, shredded green mango… and is dipped in shrimp paste or diluted fish sauce.
Nha Trang “Bánh Canh”
This dish consists of broth, bánh canh (a type of Vietnamese thick noodle), and other toppings like fish cake, squid cake, fish organs, fish meat, fish roe, quail eggs… The broth is entirely made from fish bones, giving it a clear, sweet, and appealing taste.
Nha Trang “Bánh Bèo” and “Bánh Hỏi”
“Bánh Bèo” is made from soft, sticky rice flour, topped with fillings like minced shrimp, fragrant fried shallots, minced meat… It’s served with a slightly sweet and spicy fish sauce.
Bánh bèo
“Bánh Hỏi” is also made from rice flour, sprinkled with fried shallots on top, and eaten with roasted meat, grilled meat, pork organs, spring rolls, fresh vegetables. When eaten, it’s served with a spicy, salty, sweet, and sour dipping sauce.
Bánh hỏi
Lạc Cảnh Grilled Beef
This dish has a history of over 40 years in Nha Trang. The beef is cut into square chunks, marinated with special spices, and grilled over a clay oven. The grilled beef is accompanied by fresh vegetables and bread; it’s dipped in salt with chili and lemon or a special sauce.
Fish Cake Wrapped in Rice Paper
The ingredients include fish cake, fried fish cake or pork, boiled eggs, rice paper, and fresh herbs. When consumed, all those ingredients are wrapped inside the rice paper and dipped into a salty-sweet and fragrant sauce.
Nha Trang Grilled Foods
Besides grilled beef and grilled pork skewers, you can also find grilled chicken wings, grilled chicken legs, grilled ribs, and grilled tripe. Additionally, there are countless varieties of grilled seafood such as grilled fish, grilled shrimp, grilled squid, and grilled snails.
Grilled foods can be found throughout Nha Trang
Nha Trang Chicken Rice
The dish consists of rice served with boiled chicken, sweet and sour fish sauce, pickled sweet and sour vegetables, and fresh herbs. The rice is cooked using the chicken broth, making it sweet and rich in flavor. When eating, pour the fish sauce over the rice, mix it well, and enjoy.
Nha Trang Baguette (Bánh Mì)
Nha Trang baguettes offer a wide variety of fillings for you to choose from, including pate, pork roll, beef roll, pork head roll, meatballs, grilled meat… Inside, there are also fresh vegetables, pickled sweet and sour ingredients, topped with a rich sauce or savory fish sauce.
Delicious Seafood Dishes from Nha Trang
Nha Trang Anchovy Salad
Fresh anchovies, deboned and mixed with toasted rice powder and various spices. It is eaten wrapped in rice paper and dipped in a special sauce, which has a balanced taste of sour, spicy, salty, and sweet.
Nha Trang Grilled Lobster
Nha Trang lobsters are very fresh and tasty, with an affordable price. Among them, grilled lobster is a popular and famous dish in Nha Trang.
Nha Trang Grilled Abalone with Green Onions
There are countless dishes made from abalone when traveling to Nha Trang, of which the most popular is grilled abalone with green onions. The grilled abalone has a crunchy texture combined with the rich flavor of green onions and peanuts.
Nha Trang Grilled Mantis Shrimp
Mantis shrimps are usually grilled with green onions, offering a sweet, delicious, and rich taste. Mantis shrimp meat is chewier and sweeter than crab meat, while its roe is richer and creamier compared to fish roe and highly nutritious.
Nha Trang Rooster Fish
The rooster fish has sweet, firm, and chewy flesh with few bones, allowing for a variety of exquisite dishes. It can be cooked in various ways, but grilling is the best, served with rice paper, fresh vegetables, and dipping sauces.
Nha Trang Steamed Silky Shrimp
Silky shrimps in Nha Trang are characterized by their thick, sweet, and firm flesh. Dishes made from silky shrimp are diverse, such as grilled ones or in a noodle soup. Even better, you can enjoy enticing steamed silky shrimps with beer or lemongrass.
Snails in Nha Trang (Stir-fried snails, steamed snails, grilled snails…)
Nha Trang offers a variety of snails, and they can be cooked in many different ways, such as stir-fried, steamed, grilled, roasted, simmered, and salads. You can easily find numerous snail eateries while strolling around the city.
Other Dishes in Nha Trang
Nha Trang Dry Pho and Hu Tieu
Hu Tieu is blanched in boiling water and served in a bowl with boiled liver, boiled meat, shrimp, squid, quail eggs, fresh vegetables, and fried garlic onions. When eating, add sweet-salty sauce, mix all the ingredients well and enjoy. Besides dry Hu Tieu, you can opt for Hu Tieu soup, which is made from bone broth.
Hu Tieu
Nha Trang Dry Pho consists of two parts: A bowl of pre-blanched pho with toppings like shrimp, minced meat, crispy fried pork fat, and quail eggs. It comes with a bowl of sauce and a separate bowl of broth. To eat, pour the sauce over the pho, mix well, and savor.
Phở khô
Clam Rice (Com Hen)
A bowl of clam rice consists of white rice mixed with clam broth, crispy fried pork skin, peanuts, fresh vegetables, and stir-fried clam meat. When eating, mix everything in the bowl and add a few spoons of shrimp paste.
Northern Pho (Pho Co, Hanoi Pho)
There are many eateries offering authentic Northern flavors in Nha Trang. Some famous pho brands, such as Pho Co, Pho Ly Quoc Su, Pho Bat Dan, and Pho Thin, have also made their presence in Nha Trang.
Mi Quang
This dish consists of noodles made from rice flour served with pork meat, chicken, or fishcake, sausage, shrimp, quail eggs, rice crackers, peanuts, etc. Lastly, pour in the broth and relish
Thai-style Cuisine in Nha Trang
There are many Thai restaurants, or sidewalk eateries in Nha Trang that specialize in serving premium dishes characteristic of Thai people.
Japanese-style Cuisine
There are numerous Japanese restaurants in Nha Trang, specializing in dishes like sushi, sashimi, and maki. In addition, there are many other dishes such as: grilled squid with sauce, Japanese folded pancakes, tempura shrimp, grilled meat, ramen…
Korean-style Cuisine in Nha Trang
Many famous culinary brands from South Korea have also established their presence in Nha Trang such as King BBQ, GoGi, Buk Buk… Moreover, there are countless other small Korean-style eateries throughout Nha Trang.
Street Foods in Nha Trang
Fruit Sweet Soup (Chè Trái Cây)
The ingredients for a cup of Nha Trang fruit sweet soup are incredibly diverse, such as watermelon, honeydew melon, dragon fruit, milk fruit, papaya, and rambutan… Each cup contains up to 10 different fruits.
Chou Chou Peanuts (Đậu Phộng Chou Chou)
This dish is made of crispy roasted peanuts enveloped by a layer containing a mixture of flavors and aromas such as avocado, chili garlic, salt pepper, durian, mango, matcha, and cappuccino.
Durian Thai Sweet Soup (Chè Thái Sầu Riêng)
This sweet soup is characterized by the scent of durian combined with pomegranate seeds, crispy agar agar, refreshing assorted jellies, and the richness of coconut milk.
Ice Cream (Tràng Tiền, French, Italian…)
In Nha Trang, there are various types of ice cream, from upscale parlors serving French, Italian, and American ice creams to small stalls offering popular flavors like Tràng Tiền ice cream, Thai rolled ice cream, popsicles, and cup ice cream.
Rolled Ice Cream
Ingredients like milk, cream, and sugar are mixed evenly, spread thinly on a cold pan. When served, a spatula is used to scrape and roll the thin layers of ice cream, placing them upright in a cup, topped with a variety of toppings such as peanuts, almonds, chocolate, fruit…
Thai Crepes
The batter, mixed with bananas, avocados, and eggs, is spread thinly and fried to a crisp. Once fried, it’s served on a plate, drizzled with condensed milk or chocolate or various other toppings like ice cream, fruits… and then enjoyed.
Above is an article answering the question of what to eat in Nha Trang. We hope this will be a useful guide for you when visiting this beautiful coastal city.