Vietnam tries Big Macs as first McDonald's opens in Ho Chi Minh

Four decades after the Vietnam war ended, US fast-food company McDonald's opened its first restaurant in the communist country yesterday, aiming to lure a rising middle class away from rice and noodles.

The arrival of one of the symbols of US capitalism in Ho Chi Minh City, known as Saigon when American troops withdrew in 1975, is the result of a partnership with the son-in-law of Vietnam's powerful prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung.

McDonald's is following US rivals Burger King, KFC and coffee shop chain Starbucks into Vietnam, a country many Americans associate more with an unpopular war than a newly wealthy middle class.

Signs of the country's rising affluence were on display on Saturday as hundreds of people, mostly young students or families with children, queued at the McDonald's store on Dien Bien Phu street, named after the battle that ended French colonial rule.

"I like fast food. I don't like Vietnamese food. I don't like fish sauce," Nguyen Hoang Long said as he devoured a Big Mac meal.

"McDonald's in Vietnam is seen as a high-class restaurant. In the US, it's just normal," added the 25-year-old, who acquired a love of fast food while studying in California.

A Big Mac costs about US$2.85 at the Vietnamese outlet, while a bowl of traditional pho noodle soup can be bought on most street corners for around US$1.50.