How Vietnam’s first Michelin stars signal a change in its food scene, and the chefs making Ho Chi Minh City a fine-dining destination

Anthony Bourdain championed Vietnam’s street food, but the arrival of the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City Michelin Guide highlights its burgeoning fine-dining scene

Chefs leading the change in Ho Chi Minh City talk about what global recognition means and how it will ‘inspire a new generation of chefs’ to take things further

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Vietnamese-born chef Peter Cuong Franklin, previously of Hong Kong’s Viet Kitchen and Chom Chom, with team members at Anan Saigon, one of four restaurants to earn a Michelin star in the publisher’s first guide to Vietnam. Photo: Anan Saigon

Published: 8:45am, 17 Sep 2023Updated: 5:13pm, 18 Sep 2023

Nothing signals that a city is a destination for gourmands quite like having a Michelin Guide. And in June this year, the first edition devoted to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam was published.

The guide features 103 restaurants, including four with one Michelin star and 29 with Bib Gourmand recommendations for good value.

Before this, it was the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain who put many restaurants in Vietnam on the map – the best known being Bun Cha Huong Lien in Hanoi.

The humble noodle shop rose to fame after Bourdain dined there with Barack Obama – then president of the United States – in 2016. The table where the two men ate bun cha (grilled pork and rice noodles) and drank cold beer has been preserved behind a glass case like a museum exhibit.

Anthony Bourdain (right) and then US president Barack Obama enjoy noodles and beer at the now famous Bun Cha Huong Lien, in Hanoi.

But the advent of the Michelin Guide, and the awarding of stars, marks a sea change in Vietnam’s dining scene and signals there is more to it than just noodles and banh mi sandwiches.

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