It’s 5am in Hanoi’s Long Bien market.
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It → ’ → market
A boy sits in front of his mother on a motorbike, his sleepy head resting on a pillow folded over the handlebars.
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head → sit → handlebars
They’re puttering at walking pace through the sporadically neon-lit perimeter road of this all-night wholesale market, straining bags of plucked chickens evenly distributed on either side of the back wheel.
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They → putter → wheel
Nearby, a woman sits surrounded by a three-sided wall of pineapples, a perfectly groomed Pomeranian sitting pertly at her feet.
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woman → sit → feet
This is the banquet of ingredients disseminated throughout Hanoi every day, ferried to thousands of smaller street markets, food stalls, roving vendors and restaurants, feeding a city of nine million and all the visitors who arrive not just with backpacks and suitcases, but also with voracious appetites.
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who → disseminate → appetites
Hanoi is the most delicious of cities, threaded with influences from Vietnam’s many regions, as well as China to the north, and the colonising French who headquartered in Hanoi from the late 19th century into the 1950s.
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who → thread → 1950s
You can get pho all over the country, but there’s nothing like a Hanoi crawl for pho bo (beef noodle soup).
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You → get → bo
Generally eaten as a morning meal, street stalls set up before dawn and many shopfront restaurants run out of broth by 9am.
Good places to sit elbow to elbow with other diners include Pho Loc (14 Hoe Nhai), which is tucked away at the northern end of the Old Quarter and has light, sweet broth.
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which → eat → broth
This broth is enriched with marrow bones so it’s cloudy, the beef is stir-fried so there’s a smoky tinge and there are huge handfuls of spring onions scattered over the noodles.
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beef → enrich → noodles
Coffee
Vietnam has a vibrant coffee culture, supported by homegrown beans – the country is the world’s second-largest coffee producer after Brazil (with similar deforestation issues).
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country → have → issues
The classic drink is dark-roasted coffee made using a metal “phin” filter, stirred with condensed milk, and usually iced.
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drink → make → milk
Egg coffee is a Hanoi tradition dating back to the 1940s.
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coffee → date → 1940s
The story goes that Nguyen Van Giang dealt with a milk shortage by whisking egg yolks, sugar and condensed milk to create a sturdy foam that was spooned over the coffee.
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that → go → coffee
Another great place for coffee is Cafe Duy Tri (43A Yen Phu) in Tay Ho neighbourhood: sit on the tiny upstairs balcony and sip a surprising and delicious iced yoghurt coffee.
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place → sit → coffee
Vying with pho and banh mi for the title of Hanoi’s most essential street food, bun cha comprises charcoal-grilled pork meatballs and pork belly slices served with broth, herbs and rice noodles.
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cha → vie → broth
It’s a DIY assembly that’s both hearty, fresh and sustaining.
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that → ’ → ?
You’ll find it at pop-up stalls all over the city, generally around lunchtime: sit down on a tiny plastic chair and eat with the locals.
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You → find → locals
Cocktails
Hanoi’s bar scene doesn’t have the density of Hong Kong or the cool factor of Bangkok but there are plenty of cool places to land for a fancy sip.
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scene → have → sip
There’s a thrilling reveal at speakeasy-style Rabbit Habit: down a dark alley to an unmarked door and up a narrow staircase and you’re in a cosy den with theatrical and creative cocktails.
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you → ’ → cocktails
It’s near Train Street, which is a fun place to pay too much for a beer and watch the trains pass dangerously close.
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trains → ’ → beer
YY Bar (10 Tran Nguyen Han) at the new Fairmont Hotel (fairmont.com) is a plush lounge for beautifully made signature cocktails with Vietnamese ingredients such as lotus root and dracontomelon, a sour fruit.
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Bar → make → root
Upscale
Hanoi’s street food is incredible but there are also contemporary expressions of local flavours in extremely comfortable settings.
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food → be → settings
Australian chef Luke Nguyen has just opened Tran Dynasty (trandynastyhanoi.com) in the Fairmont Hotel, an opulent expression of cuisine from its prosperous namesake era (1225 to 1400).
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Nguyen → open → 1400
The open kitchen delivers thoughtful and tasty food (I’m still thinking about the caramelised fish sauce with seasonal vegetables) but my true obsession is the pho cocktail, presented over an ice bath scattered with spices.
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obsession → deliver → spices
Another option – more rustic and cosy – is Tam Vi (nhahangtamvivn.com), which specialises in northern Vietnamese homestyle cooking.
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which → specialise → cooking
Opened in March 2026, Fairmont Hanoi is a luxury, medium-rise hotel located between the French Quarter and the Old Quarter, close to Hoan Kiem Lake.
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Hanoi → open → Lake
There are 241 rooms, eight dining options, and the swank, subterranean CIRUA Bathhouse, which offers everything from ice rooms to very hot saunas and meditation pods.
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which → be → saunas
FLY
Vietnam Airlines flies directly from Sydney and Melbourne to Hanoi.
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Airlines → fly → Hanoi
See vietnamairlines.com
The writer was a guest of the Fairmont Hotel.
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writer → see → Hotel
The Aporia
