Hoi An Street Food (2026): Where Locals Eat and What It Costs

By Anh Khoa Hoi An·84 Phan Chau Trinh, Hoi An·Updated 2 Nov 2026

Hoi An street food is not one market or one dish. It is a set of places that each come alive at a different hour: a noodle hall that sells out before ten, a lunch street of chicken rice, an island across the bridge that fires up its grills in the late afternoon, and a lantern-lit night market that runs until half past ten. Turn up at the right place at the wrong time and you get a closed shutter, or the tourist version.

We rent bikes at 84 Phan Chau Trinh and send riders out to eat every day, so this guide is organised the way we explain it at the counter: by place and by hour, with the addresses, closing times and prices we checked in 2026. For the story behind each dish, our what to eat in Hoi An guide goes deeper.

Hoi An street food by the hour

Noodle broths are cooked before dawn and sold until the pot is empty; there is no second batch. Chicken rice runs through lunch, the island snacks come out after the heat, and grilled food is an evening thing. Plan your day around this and the best street food in Hoi An more or less falls into your lap.

Hoi An Market food hall: everything in one sitting

The covered food hall in the middle of Hoi An Market, at the top of Tran Phu Street, is the cheapest place to taste almost every Hoi An street food in one go. Each counter cooks its own dishes and posts a price board; order a drink or a dessert from the next stall and they settle up between themselves. It is about 700 m from our shop on foot.

Market prices are typically 30–50% below a restaurant on the main street for the same dish. Go before 9:00, when the street is still open to bikes and the noodle pots are full. More on the building itself in our Hoi An Market guide.

Cao lau and mi Quang: eat them before 9am

Cao lau is the one dish made only in Hoi An: thick, square-edged noodles soaked in wood-ash water before they are steamed, served with sliced pork, crackling, greens and a few spoonfuls of dark sauce. It is not a soup. If your bowl arrives swimming in broth, you are in a tourist kitchen. Beyond the market hall, Cao Lau Thuong at 79 Tran Cao Van is open until 21:30 on a street outside the walking zone, so you can park at the door. Our cao lau guide lists more kitchens.

Mi Quang is the province’s breakfast, and its craft was added to Vietnam’s national intangible heritage list in August 2024. Mi Quang Co Sinh, in the alley at 170/5 Ly Thuong Kiet, is the one we send people to, but it shuts by 14:00. For a later bowl, Mi Quang Co Mai at 470 Hai Ba Trung stays open until 19:30. More in our best mi Quang list.

Banh mi on Phan Chau Trinh and Tran Cao Van

Hoi An banh mi has a lighter, crackly crust and more filling than most: pate, cold cuts, roast pork, egg, pickles, herbs and each stall’s own sauce. It became famous after Anthony Bourdain ate at Truong Thi Phuong’s stall and came back with his TV crew in 2009.

Banh Mi Phuong at 2B Phan Chau Trinh is the one with the queue. Madam Khanh, the Banh Mi Queen, at 115 Tran Cao Van, about 450 m from our shop, is the local favourite; her own website lists 6:30–19:00 while Google Maps says 22:00, so check before an evening visit. Tran Cao Van is outside the walking zone; Phan Chau Trinh closes to bikes in the evening, with the barriers usually up from about 17:30.

Follow the plastic stools and the queue of motorbikes, not the menu with photos.

Lunch on Hai Ba Trung: chicken rice and white rose

Hoi An com ga is not the Hainanese dish: the rice is cooked in chicken stock with turmeric and the chicken is shredded by hand and tossed with herbs and onion. The famous name, Com Ga Ba Buoi at 22 Phan Chau Trinh, closes at 14:00 and reopens at 16:30. For a later meal, Com Ga Hoi An at 561/2 Hai Ba Trung is open until 22:15. Our chicken rice comparison has more.

White rose (banh bao banh vac) are steamed rice-flour dumplings so thin you can see the shrimp through them. One family has made them for more than a century and supplies restaurants across town. Eat them at the source: White Rose Restaurant, 533 Hai Ba Trung, open until 20:30, where a plate costs 60.000–80.000₫. Order the fried wonton alongside. Full story in our white rose guide.

Cam Nam island, banh dap and a bowl of xi ma

Most visitors never cross the Cam Nam bridge at the end of Hoang Dieu Street, which is a pity, because the island has its own street food and its own prices. Banh Dap Ni Ba Gia at 34 Nguyen Tri Phuong is 1.3 km from our shop, about five minutes by bike, and open until 22:00, with no walking-street barriers once you are over the bridge.

• Banh dap, “smashed cake”: a grilled rice cracker pressed onto steamed rice paper, cracked by hand and dipped in fermented fish sauce.
• Hen tron: baby river clams stir-fried with herbs and peanuts, scooped up with rice crackers. Order it with the banh dap.
• Che bap: sweet corn pudding from corn grown on the riverbank, sold along the same street.
• Banh xeo: a small turmeric pancake with shrimp and pork, a late-afternoon snack rather than a meal.

Xi ma: Hoi An’s black sesame soup

One dessert you will only find on the street is xi ma (che me den, or chi ma phu): a hot, glossy black sesame soup that came to Hoi An with Chinese merchants, its name taken from the Fujian words for black sesame. It is sweet and nutty with a faint smell of Chinese herbal medicine, and it is sold from small stalls and shoulder-pole carts rather than restaurants. The best-known vendor, Mr Thieu, sells opposite 118 Nguyen Truong To.

Nguyen Hoang night market: snacks under the lanterns

Every evening since 2000, around 150 stalls set up along 300 m of Nguyen Hoang Street on An Hoi islet, across the river from the Ancient Town. It runs from about 17:00 to 22:30, rain or shine, and entry is free. One end is charcoal smoke and grilled skewers, the middle is the famous corridor of silk lanterns.

It is snack territory rather than a sit-down meal: graze your way down the street for under 200.000₫. Arrive between 17:00 and 18:30 to eat before the queues, then stay for the lanterns after sunset. Full guide: Hoi An night market on Nguyen Hoang Street.

What street food in Hoi An costs

Street food in Hoi An is still cheap by any standard. A full day of eating at local places costs roughly 150.000–300.000₫ per person. The same dish costs less at the market hall than on Tran Phu, more at the night market, and most at a riverside restaurant with an English menu. Seafood at An Bang beach, 5.1 km and about 15 minutes away, is the exception: dishes run from about 100.000₫ to 600.000₫ and are priced by weight, so ask the price before anything goes on the scale.

Ordering, hygiene and getting there by bike

• Pick the busy stall. A queue of locals means food that turns over fast and was cooked this morning.
• Look for the price board. Market counters post their prices; where there is none, ask “bao nhiêu?” before you sit down.
• Eat noodles early. Broth stalls sell out and do not cook a second batch; after 10am you are often eating the tourist version.
• Hot and in front of you. If your stomach is new to the country, start with dishes cooked to order in front of you and go easy on raw herbs for the first day or two.
• Vegetarian? Chay Tuoi Vui at 432 Hai Ba Trung is the place we recommend.

Nearly every stall above sits outside the walking streets, which is why a bike helps. The Old Town core (Tran Phu, Nguyen Thai Hoc, Bach Dang) is closed to motorbikes from 9:00 to 11:00 and again from the afternoon until about 21:30. Park at a ticketed lot (5.000–10.000₫) and walk in there; Hai Ba Trung, Ly Thuong Kiet, Tran Cao Van, Cam Nam and An Bang you can ride to the door at any hour. For a ready-made route, see our Hoi An food crawl by motorbike.

FAQ about Hoi An street food

Addresses, closing times and prices were checked on Google Maps and at the stalls in September and October 2026; distances are measured from our shop at 84 Phan Chau Trinh. Background on xi ma from Vietnamese press including SGGP. Street stalls change hours without notice, so treat closing times as a guide. We do not run food tours ourselves. Updated November 2026.