Yet another option for those seeking something to do on an evening or if you are sick of bia hoi and expat bars. Unfortunately unlike teahouses say in Canada, this place get noisy, I guess as such the Vietnamese way. But noisy early in the evening, as people leave or maybe if on a weekday, there are less people and you can actually relax here. Tra Hoa has 3 outlets in Hanoi, but this one, on Bui Thi Xuan near Vincom Tower, in particularly has good mood atmosphere: dim lights and candles. The floor seating adds a nice touch like that at Chim Soa restaurant. Peg as a Chinese tea house, the selection is largely Chinese teas: Taiwanese too and Confusian influence. If you feel pickish, then there are some condiments to order. Apparently, the Vietnamese women I came here with love the beef jerky. Tra Hoa does have an English menu but the names are far fetch: "5 blessings teas", or "bitters for my lovely wife"...or something like that.

Prices are 16k+ per cup to 45k for a pot. Definitely a place for a date, though noisy at time or a place to chill out. Has Wifi, but I really can't imagine coming here during the day to do work. In the end, this place offers an good alternative to the bars and clubs scene in Hanoi.

No, this is not the BBQ chicken Hanoi franchaise chain near Hoam Kiem lake. This place is better, loads better. Located beside the busy street of Pham Ngoc Thach, this side street restaurant has one specialty: coal roasted BBQ chicken. Spawling over a large section of sidewalk, crowds of Vietnamese, and for some reason plenty of couples on dates, squat themselves on plastice tables and chairs. Chicken parts dominate the menu: wings, feet, drumstick and other morceaux. Nothing like watching the love of your life nibbling away at crispy chicken feet and getting her hand dirty, which is a common sight here. Then watch as the mountains of bones pile up on the ground. The Vietnamese women particularly love feet, the part that looks like the cursed, wish-making monkey claw from the Simpsons Halloween. Scary huh! and not much meat either.

But for those of you who's palatte can't stand the thought of creepy looking claws, the wings are the supereme option. Hawkers regularly circle the area offering chicken pieces skewered on bamboo sticks. Just yell out how many you can handle. Each table gets some sticks of cucumber, cleanwipes, and some chilli sauce right off the bat. Other items like french fries, bread, chicken rice porridge and even seafood (shellfish) can be ordered. That along with other more sustancial chicken parts.

So to eat where locals eat, and have great chicken (I think the best places to have chicken in Hanoi), give My Mieu a go. This place gets crowded, really crowded, overflowing with Vietnamese. One annoying aspect to expect is the number of beggars who go table to table. Some elderly, some young children. Although a Vietnamese street restaurant, the final tab can be high depending on what and how much you eat. So not surprising of the beggars to frequent here.

My Vietnamese students suggested this place for sticky rice. My Vietnamese friend took me here as she said it's one of her favourite places for lunch. So the locals obviously have a liking for this place. There are a couple of the same type of restaurants near each other. So this happens to be where the sticky rice sector in Hanoi's old quarter.

The place is simple for ordering, though all in Vietnamese. Menus are at all tables. Start with your base. "Xoi" means sticky rice and at this restaurant, you get three choices of the base: Xeo (sticky rice with yellow bean flavouring), Ngo (boil corn), or Trang (plain white sticky rice). Then, you get topping, which is all protien. Examples I have tried: Ga (chicken), gio bo (beef spam), thit luoc (pork), and some sausage I can't remember how to say. All come with a bean paste and fried onion topping with some sort of meat. Simple and great lunch. Two bowls are quite filling. I only wish I discovered this place sooner.

On the recommendation of my Vietnamese friend and the fact that I needed some new glasses, I came to this optician store. The place is pretty big and gets plenty of clients.

Lets say you wear glasses regularly for prescription purposes. I am nearsighted myself. Back in Canada I use to have the privilege of getting free eye exams by an Optometrist, where the exam was covered by public health care. Now with cutbacks to medicare in Canada, it's now 40$ for an eye exam for most adults. Come to this VietnamOptical and you get an eye exam for free. Takes about 20 mins, then they make you wear these X-ray looking type, mental glasses for a few minutes just to get to use to the prescription. One would look very dorky, if not scary, walking around in these.

So, with the precription in hand, you can now purchase your new set of glasses. The place is just like a factory, they can do all the adjustments and fittings and assembly of your new glasses on site. As such, they have a wide selection of frames and lens to choose from. I brought a pair of metal frame glasses for 100USD, with super dense lens as to lessen the weight. In Canada, the price would be double or triple. More recently I brought a pair of prescription sunglasses (I am have very poor eye sight). The cost was 20USD and the glasses are nicely made. I still wear them today. The way it works is that after you picked out your frames and lens and pay at the cashier, it takes about 30-40 mins to get your new specks ready. The cutting and polishing and assembly are done on site. Sometimes less time if they are not busy. The first time I was there and waiting for my glasses, the salewoman saw how dirty my existing pair of glasses looked. She offered to have the technician do a thorough cleaning job on them, which in the end made a huge difference to a pair of older opticals.

The staff do have some English. Vietnamese would help of course. The Optometrist on site speaks english. All prices are labeled.

Lotteria, this breed of restaurant has had a breeding problem in HCMC, with one on most corners. Now the chain has spawned at least one or two restaurants in Hanoi. I believe someone told me the Lotteria chain started in Korea, but your not going to find Korean food here. Essentially this place is a knockoff MacDonalds, albeit a poor imitation. Hence the single star.

The moment you walk in, I expected it to like a MacDonalds us westerns are use to. And the feel of the place is as such. Oddly though as this place is billed as a fast food outlet, after you finish ordering, you receive half your menu, and you go sit down just to wait for the rest. Someone brings it to your table of course. But if the place is busy, the wait could be awhile. Disappointing when you were to quickly finish your drink before the hamburger and fries arrive..lolol. Speaking of food, I ordered the cheap combo of cheese burger with fries and a drink, 35K. They do have other burgers: fish, beef, cutlet (pork), and shrimp...yes only in Vietnamese. And apparently trying to copy KFCs success, they have a menu for fried chicken too. Sadly though the chicken pieces (leg or thigh) are small compare to Northe America. And to satisfy the Asian crowd, they have the rice dishes with chicken, beef and what not. Oddly, the beef is in the form of a hamburger patty. So patty with rice and a fried egg.

Burger or fried chicken combos are more expensive than the rice dishes. The combo meals makes this place a bargain. But that is about it. The actually taste of the food is utterly flavourless. Even the suppose-it ketchup tasted odd, a dark discolouration makes it look more like bone marrow than tomato sauce. The fries resembled like MacDonalds fries but tasted like crispy, bland crackers. This begs the question whether Lotteria actually uses artificial flavouring in their foods. The foods looks heavily processed. The complete lack of flavour in the foods I've tried here makes MacDonalds the better alternative. I mean the type of chemicals MacDonalds puts in their food can make cardboard taste good. If I am going to kill myself with fastfood then better to go out satisfied. Better yet, head to the bia hoi right across the street. They open til midnight and have good food.

I was surprise this place wasn't already listed on the New Hanoian website. Given its location and apparent popularity. At least the times I have passed by, the place has quite a few patrons. I should point out that the restaurant cafe has two parts to it. One is an indoor area and another is the outdoor area right beside Hoan Kiem Lake. Both areas of the establishment are clean and modern. The indoor part is like a sit down restaurant, and coffee house. The outdoor sorta reminds me of those resort cafes/bar beside the beaches.
I know that the indoor area has wifi, which is one reason i come here. Going to Highlands too often.

So why the low star count, well...the pricing and quality of what you get. I am also not a big fan of the sexy, cigarette selling women trying to get you to lite up. I have ordered their drinks, coffee and milkshake..and both times I thought the end products were pretty average. Even the presentations of the drinks was a disappointment. Considering the price, 30k-50k for a drink, I expected better. For once, it's actually worth it going to Highlands. I haven't tried the ice cream desserts here, but it seems that much of the product is merely transferred over from Fanny ice cream next door.

The food is also nothing to praise about. Considering what you pay, about twice the average price, and you get the same stuff like from a mid price restaurant.

So in the end, this place is all looks and appearances, but lacks substance.

So why come to this place as it is a bit far from the city centre? Well, the 100s or so selection of international beers of course. I believe they have selections from North and South America, Indian, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and a few parts of the former Soviet Union. You can even order a small barrel (keg) to share with friends.

The food here is bar cafe food, great burgers as reviews have said. The place is a chilled atmosphere with wide screen TVs, great for watching sports.

Oh yeah there's also a pool that patrons can use if you order something.

I remember coming to this place a couple weeks after it open. I was greeted by a pair of young VN women at the door who bowed to me and handed me a complementary facemask. Interesting promotion.

The food here is cheap and western fast food. I remember ordering one of their chicken meals and a burger. Both were pretty small and I was pretty hungry. I could have mistaken it for a children meal. But at less than 40k, including a drink as other reviews have said, that ain't bad. I just wished the food tasted better. Apparently the fast food restaurant here still haven't gotten to using artificial flavourings properly.

This was the first cafe I visited in Hanoi. Also the place where I found an ad looking for roomates. It was the first house I lived in Hanoi and the first roomates I had here. So I owe it to puku cafe. I still come to the cafe on occasions and I love it. The atmosphere is so hippy like, relaxing and although it can be hot in the summer, during the autumn months, it d be a great place to hang out. They have wifi of course, and some very decent food. The burger is a classic menu item there. But perhaps the best thing I had at puku is their egg plant lasagna, very nicely done.

Puku is a nice refuge place, I haven't sat upstairs yet, but from the photo, I am sure it very lovely. Oh yeah, I love the possess of getting a drink from the fridge and opening it yourself. That's what you do when you walk in. Take a cold drink from the fridge for yourself, open it yourself, then pay for it. Makes the place feel like home.

Yay!!! first one to review. This korean restaurant is hidden down a long alley off the street of Kim Ma. Sorta reminds me of how Kaiser Kaffee is hidden. I patronized this place during the hot summer month of july and electricity was out. So on a hot summer day, there were no fans nor aircon. My friend and I spent the next hour or so sweating like pigs and eating some great korean food. Nope, your not going to find the bbq grill on your table, or massive piles of meat, but we ordered a potato pancake and some beef i think.

Anycase, what is special about this place is the complimentary dishes they give to each table. When you come here, order a dish or two to shared...if you are on a budget order the cheapest dish you can find. Then lo and behold the side dishes start to come. Pickled kim chi, some fried cakes, some pork, some whatnot...and who knows what else I ate. But the side dishes alone can fill someone up. All together we ordered from the menu two main dishes...they turned out to be pretty big dishes actually, and got some 7-8 side dishes to compliment. Quite a filling lunch. We didn't ask for refills to our side dishes, though, someone should look into that.

We spend about 10USD for both of us. The menu is in Korean, Viet and English, I think. Prices are marked in USD.