The Best Walking Street Food Tour In Ho Chi Minh

Last Updated on 27th September 2025

This walking street food tour in Ho Chi Minh post contains affiliate links.

Without a doubt one of my absolute favourite memories from our time in Vietnam was the walking street food tour in Ho Chi Minh that we experienced on our first full day in the country.

Despite both Matt and I being huge food lovers, we’d only ever done one food tour before and that was in our hometown of York so I’m not really sure that even counts. While we always spend a good amount of time in any new country exploring the food scene, we didn’t embark on a food tour until we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnamese food isn’t my favourite by any means but the walking street food tour we did in HCMC was incredible and an amazing and fun way to get used to a new city and learn more about Vietnam’s culture and cuisines. I’d highly recommend taking a food tour when heading to a new city and it’s definitely something we’ll be doing more of in the future!

How to find and book a food tour in Ho Chi Minh

We booked our food tour in Ho Chi Minh on Airbnb hosted by Phước who is the co-founder of the Saigon Vibes Company. Phước then offers local students the chance to be tour guides which is an awesome way for the students to learn English and meet new people. Our tour guide was called Chulia and she was such a lovely young woman. Her knowledge about food and Ho Chi Minh City was impeccable and she was so sweet and funny.

Of course, there are many more companies who offer food tours in HCMC too and we did have a few bookmarked on Get Your Guide too, before deciding to go for the one on Airbnb.

Banh Xeo

The first place that Chulia took us on our food tour in HCMC was to a little stall run by a local woman, not too far from our hotel.

The food stall’s speciality was Banh Xeo – directly translating to ‘sizzling pancake’. It’s made from rice flour, water and tumeric powder; not the nicest sounding ingredients, but it made for an intriguing first delve into Vietnamese cuisine nevertheless.

Our particular offering of Banh Xeo was stuffed with various assorted fillings including shrimp, pork, beansprouts and mung bean. Again, all ingredients that I’m not a huge fan of (aside from pork), but I gave it a try anyway.

The pancake itself was surprisingly scrumptious, it was nothing like a “normal” pancake that I’m used to back at home, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The fillings however, weren’t really to my taste as I’m not a huge fan of seafood so the shrimp was an unwelcome addition to my Bahn Xeo.

Chuối nướng nếp

Next up, the dish that Matt and I were arguably the most apprehensive to try – Chuối nướng nếp – or simply; Vietnamese grilled banana with sticky rice and coconut milk.

It was perhaps the most unappetising-looking dish of our food tour, I mean, just look at it! But it was also surprisingly edible…

One food item that I hate the most is bananas, so I was really reluctant to even try this dish, but to my surprise, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting and dare I say, it was actually pretty enjoyable.

The coconut milk combined with the sticky rice and grilled banana flavour made for an eclectic taste; Matt wasn’t a big fan, but I found it surprisingly enjoyable.

Banh Mi

Banh Mi is one of the most famous and popular dishes in Vietnam. It’s essentially a baguette cut down the middle and filled with as many varying fillings as you can imagine.

Just some of the things in our Banh Mi included pate (acting as a layer of butter), grated carrot, onion, cucumber, tomato, coriander, shredded pork and thickly cut ham, plus more!

As a concept, I think Banh Mi is a truly delicious Vietnamese delicacy. I love the idea of a hearty baguette stuffed with assorted meats and spreads being a staple part of a country’s diet but unfortunately, the ones we ate in Vietnam were always too much for my liking.

There were too many ingredients stuffed inside one sandwich which made the whole thing too heavy and hearty. Matt on the other hand, absolutely fell in love with Banh Mi and continued to eat them at every chance he got as we travelled up Vietnam.

Phở – food tour in Ho Chi Minh

Another incredibly popular Vietnamese dish and one that you’ll see prepared and served ever-so-slightly differently depending where you are in the country – Phở.

Phở is essentially a Vietnamese noodle soup, usually consisting of broth, beef, rice noodles, lemongrass, coriander and sometimes a crab leg (like the one we were served above).

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As Phở is so incredibly popular throughout Vietnam and is almost-always raved about by fellow travellers once they’ve returned from Vietnam, I had very high expectations for my first ever dish of the beef noodle soup.

While it didn’t quite meet my absurdly high expectations, I must admit that it was surprisingly tasty. The only thing that I don’t like about it is the lemongrass and coriander – two of my absolute least favourite herbs – and the fact that there was a crab claw in it. Other than that, the beef was so succulent and juicy and the rice noodles, despite me usually preferring instant noodles, complemented the dish beautifully.

Phở is definitely a must-try if you’re ever in Vietnam.

Sugarcane juice

After eating numerous dishes consecutively, Chulia took us to a sugarcane juice stand so that we could have a bit of a breather from all the yummy food and so we could try another Vietnamese delicacy.

You’ll find sugarcane juice stalls all over Ho Chi Minh City and beyond and as I was watching the man prepare the juice (see the pictures below), I was very reluctant to try something that looked like it came straight from a bamboo-style stick…

To my disbelief, the sugarcane juice actually turned out to be one of my favourite things we tried all evening. It tastes somewhat like a mixture of orange, lemon and grapefruit juice and it was so unbelievably thirst-quenching.

The whole process was so much fun to watch and it was even more enjoyable to drink!

BBQ grilled beef

In terms of actual “food” that we had on our walking street food tour in Ho Chi Minh, my favourite dish was the BBQ grilled beef that we ate behind a tiny little stall in the middle of the city.

Instead of being cooked on skewers like you’d usually expect from grilled meat, the beef is wrapped around sticks of lemongrass and then cooked on a grill.

As soon as I heard the word “lemongrass”, I was instantly put off at the thought of it, but I really couldn’t have been more wrong about the BBQ grilled beef.

Before cooking, the beef is marinated in various herbs and spices (I’m not entirely sure what, but the end result is immense) and then cooked over a high heat before serving with a sweet chilli dipping sauce.

A seemingly incredibly simple dish, but one that I remember most fondly from our food tour and one that I’ll definitely be looking into recreating at home.

Vietnamese pizza

In my opinion, no pizza will ever come close to Domino’s Meateor, or an actual proper Italian pizza in Venice or Rome, so I didn’t really expect too much from a traditional Vietnamese pizza, but I was excited to try it.

It’s a pretty damn good job my expectations weren’t very high for the pizza as it was possibly our least favourite thing we ate on our food tour in HCMC.

A base made from rice paper and toppings including sweetcorn and a weird Vietnamese cheese, amongst other things, the pizza was certainly not to our taste at all.

However, we weren’t too upset by this dish as we’d already eaten so many delicious things and our host, Chulia, promised us that the best was yet to come!

Rolled ice cream – food tour in Ho Chi Minh

Our eighth and final stop on our walking street food tour was at a little stall ran by an older local man.

This particular stall’s speciality was rolled ice cream – something we’d seen plenty of in Cambodia and Thailand but never actually tried for ourselves, so we were very excited to get stuck in.

Vietnamese ice cream walking street food tour in Ho Chi Minh

Watching the man “make” the ice cream was so fascinating; he simply poured milk and a spot of strawberry jam onto a freezing cold metal surface and then began mixing them together continuously.

Once the ice cream had set to an appropriate standard, he then rolled them and cut them into little pieces and served them in a rose shape, topped with sprinkles, chocolate sauce and an orange flavoured wafer.

The ice cream itself was absolutely divine; so refreshing and scrumptious and paired with the orange flavour of the wafer and the chocolate drizzle, it was a recipe for success – and a very full tummy!

Our food tour in Ho Chi Minh City was so much fun and such a great way to introduce ourselves to the city, and Vietnam as a whole. I’m already so excited to embark on another one once we’re able to travel again!

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