Share this tour
Offered languages
- English
Our local guides take small groups (max 8) to family eateries that don't advertise — where cooks have been making the same bánh nậm (flat steamed rice cake with prawn and pork), bánh khoái (crispy Hue-style pancake) and nem lụi (grilled pork skewers wrapped in rice paper) for generations. Eight signature dishes across three hours. These are the foods of Hue, a city where royal cuisine and home cooking have long influenced each other: techniques from the Nguyễn court traveled into neighborhood kitchens, and street-stall flavors made their way back into court banquets. Choose how to move: on foot through hidden alleys, by cyclo along the Perfume River, or by scooter to spots further outside the city center. The kind of tour we'd take a friend on if they came to visit.
What's Included
Meeting and pickup
Guide will wait for you at 15 Lê Lợi str,. It is Hue Traditional Crafts space!
The tour ends after the last tasting stop, a short walk from Thuong Tu Gate inside the Citadel.
Itinerary
-
1
Meet your local guide at 15 Lê Lợi, on the south bank of the Perfume River. A short walk away is the first tasting stop, a small family kitchen where three generations cook side by side. Four dishes come to the table: bánh canh Nam Phổ (thick rice-noodle soup with crab and prawn), bánh nậm (flat steamed rice cake with prawn and pork, wrapped in a leaf), bánh lọc (chewy tapioca dumplings filled with prawn and pork) and ram ít (a soft sticky-rice dumpling on a crisp fried base). The cyclo option makes the same stops as the walking tour; the scooter option follows a different route, to places further from the city centre.
45 minutes • Admission ticket free -
Perfume River (Pass by)
From the first tasting stop you walk along the south bank of the Perfume River and cross Truong Tien Bridge, the iron bridge that has linked the two sides of Hue for more than a century. There is no stop on the river; your local guide talks you across to the north bank, where the rest of the tour takes place.
Admission ticket free -
2Dong Ba Market
Dong Ba is the main market of Hue. When the group arrives while the market is still trading, your local guide walks you through it to see how traders make their living and how local families shop. On later departures the market has already closed for the evening, so you pass by it instead. Either way you taste bún hến (rice vermicelli with tiny river clams, herbs and peanuts), in the market or at an eatery close by.
30 minutes • Admission ticket free -
3
You walk on into the Citadel, the walled old city where many Hue families still live. Here you sit down to bún bò Huế (the city's spicy beef and pork noodle soup, scented with lemongrass), served with fresh herbs on the side. This stop is in the residential streets inside the walls; it does not include a visit to the Imperial City.
30 minutes • Admission ticket free -
4
Near Thuong Tu Gate, one of the old gateways of the Citadel, come two Hue favourites: bánh khoái (a crisp rice-flour pancake filled with prawn, pork and bean sprouts, eaten with a thick peanut-based sauce) and nem lụi (minced pork grilled on lemongrass skewers, wrapped in rice paper with herbs). The last stop is for chè Huế (sweet soups of beans, fruit and jelly), and the tour ends there.
45 minutes • Admission ticket free
Additional info
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- The group option follows a fixed menu with pork, prawn, shrimp paste and peanuts and cannot be adapted, so it is not suitable for food allergies or special diets. On the private options, tell us when you book and we adapt the route.
Tags
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Cancellation Policy
- For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
- If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
- Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
- This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.
- This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
Rating
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Your guide to the flawless travel experience
Popular Countries
Get our app
