Street Food 101 – an insightful tour to Vietnamese food and life
A fun and very tasty overview of Ho Chi Minh City’s best street food. You will have eight (08) to more than ten (10) yummy dishes (depends on the group size)!
Dive into local life in a bustling hẻm (alley) packed with food vendors who have spent decades perfecting their special dishes. While sampling a variety of simple street food, you’ll hear stories about this local neighbourhood and how history has influenced the Saigon’s culinary scene.
Some dishes you’ll try will have a little taste of France, the former colonial rulers of Vietnam. Some dishes contain flavours from China, which ruled Vietnam for 1,000 years. Some nights you might even get a hint of Korean undertones.
Our Street Food 101 tour usually includes six stops, including Vietnamese dessert-in-a-glass at a local market on the way back to your hotel.
This tour is designed to give you the confidence to go out and try street food on your own once you’re released back into the wilds of Ho Chi Minh City. We hope you’ll also have a deeper understanding of Vietnamese culture and history. (As well as a very full stomach.)
We’ll take you to and from our favourite foodie neighbourhood by xe om (motorbike taxis). If you’re worried about riding on the back of a motorbike, we do have the scardey-cat option of taking a taxi. This requires a slightly earlier pickup (to navigate the peak hour traffic) and a small surcharge.
Once in our foodie hẻm, we’ll walk from place to place, in amongst the everyday chaos of motorbikes, bicycles, kids, grandmas, street soccer, hairdressers and drink stations.
(Minimum 3.5 hours, starting around 5.30pm, US$49 per person, maximum 8 people, small surcharge for pickups outside Districts 1 and 3.)
Price: US$49 per person. Maximum 8 people.
Time: 3.5 to 4 hours, starting around 5.30pm
We will confirm your booking via email within 48 hours. (If you don’t hear from us, make sure you check your spam folder. If there’s nothing there, send a follow-up email to saigonstreeteats (at) gmail (dot) com.)
Give us as much contact information as you have. We will confirm your booking by email but we’d like a phone number just in case we need to contact you urgently.
Please don’t use this booking form if you have a question about one of our tours If you’d like to ask a question without booking, click on the “contact” menu and send us a message.
Please book at least ONE day ahead. (We know it’s hard to plan ahead when you’re traveling but we do need a bit of notice. If you book late at night for the Pho Trail breakfast tour the next day we may not see your booking in time)
All Our Tours
The Pho Trail
Start your day slurping a bowl of Vietnam’s unofficial national dish, phở.
Not just any old phở, either. The best pho in Ho Chi Minh City. We’ll even teach you how to pronounce it properly.
The Seafood Trail
Ốc is the Vietnamese word that’s shorthand for all crustaceans. So you will be able to sample a variety of seafood — the best seafood in HCMC, no less — including sea snails that are eaten with a safety pin, mussels, scallops and tasty prawns-on-a-stick.
Street Food 101
This tour is designed to give you the confidence to go out and try street food on your own once you’re released back into the wilds of Ho Chi Minh City. We hope you’ll also have a deeper understanding of Vietnamese culture and history.
Private Tour
Got a special eating interest? Vegetarian? Picky eater? A chef? Team building? Never fear, there IS food for you on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and we can help you find it … and have lots of fun along the way. Let us know what you’re interested in and we’ll pitch you some ideas