Hội An’s restaurants come in all shapes and sizes, from steamy sidewalk food stalls to chic bistros fashioned from French colonial-era row homes. The Vietnamese coastal city has been an intriguing food destination for centuries, its dishes inspired by the Chinese, Japanese, and European spice traders who imported culinary traditions from their homelands along with their seasonings. Fortunately for today’s hungry traveler, these early global influences still infuse Hội An’s food scene.

A stroll through the storybook old town is often met with servers and chefs imploring you to try their cao lầu— Hội An’s signature soba-inspired noodle dish. This competitive spirit arrived with the tourists in the late 1990s when the country fully reopened its doors to foreigners for the