Located at 18 Phan Boi Chau Street in Hoan Kiem District, Quan An Ngon, meaning a delicious restaurant, was named one of Vietnam's best casual dining restaurants by the Asia’s Excellent Awards 2025 on March 19.
The casual dining category celebrates restaurants that offer a relaxed setting with affordable meals, while placing emphasis on unique culinary styles.
This award celebrates chefs, restaurants, and food products across Asia, while also recognizing efforts to elevate the value of regional cuisine.
According to owner Pham Thi Bich Hanh, the restaurant opened in 2005, initially serving more than 160 dishes from Vietnam’s three culinary regions. Over time, the menu expanded to over 220 dishes, reflecting changing customer tastes and culinary trends.
The two-story restaurant spans nearly 1,000 square meters and can accommodate up to 400 guests. It operates as a full-service restaurant, offering an extensive menu of meals, rather than beverages, with service available during breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Upon entering the courtyard, guests are greeted by 15 open cooking stations, each managed by a chef specializing in a particular dish. These stations face the dining area, allowing customers to watch the food being prepared in real-time.
The second floor of the restaurant.
The restaurant mainly targets Vietnamese diners from across the country.
"I want Hanoi locals to say the banh cuon (rice rolls) and pho here taste exactly like northern-style dishes. I want central guests to nod in agreement that our bun bo Hue (spicy noodle soup) is just like what they're used to back home. And southern visitors should feel right at home with our banh xeo (crispy pancakes)," Hanh shared, naming three inonic dishes from three Vietnames regions.
She believes that achieving regional flavor is key to winning over Vietnamese diners, only then can the restaurant attract international guests. When people travel abroad, they often seek out the places locals frequent, not tourist spots. That is where the most genuine taste of a country's cuisine can be found.
Hanh said no single chef, not even a MasterChef, can master every Vietnamese dish. For example, someone might be an expert in Hanoi cuisine but struggle to capture the essence of a Hue dish. She recruited chefs from different regions, each bringing their specialties to the restaurant.
"Each station has its own head chef," she explained.
In addition to the 15 outdoor kitchens, there are indoor kitchens to prepare other dishes. The head chef oversees more than 50 cooks working across the restaurant.
Vietnamese cuisine has thousands of regional dishes, and selecting the most distinctive ones to serve is no easy task.
Pictured here are dishes like boiled peanuts, corn, steamed cassava, and rice crackers. These are displayed at the entrance to highlight the restaurant's focus on authentic Vietnamese food.
To achieve the regional taste, even the smallest ingredients matter. For example, in the south, banh xeo is often wrapped in mustard leaves, but northern-grown mustard greens do not have the same flavor. So the restaurant needs to buy these leaves from the south.
Similarly, for bun mam (fermented fish noodle soup), diners expect banana blossoms and shredded morning glory. But in the north, morning glory gets tough in winter and banana blossoms turn brown quickly. These, too, are shipped in from the Mekong Delta to preserve the dish's authenticity.
Steamed snails with lemongrass and lime leaves served with sweet-sour fish sauce is one of the restaurant's Hanoi specialties and a customer favorite.
Nguyen Ngoc Linh Trang, 35, said she has been dining at the restaurant since her youth, through marriage and motherhood.
"My favorites are the snails and pho. I order them every time," she said, adding that she often brings overseas relatives here to enjoy a taste of home.
Other specialties include Hai Phong-style fried dumplings and Hanoi-style shrimp fritters.
Dish prices start at VND35,000 ($1.40), with desserts and light bites from VND25,000 ($1). A typical meal for 3 to 4 guests featuring dishes like steamed clams, steamed rice rolls, steamed snails, grilled pork with broken rice, and banh xeo, along with dessert, costs around VND500,000 ($19.50).
According to head chef Nguyen Van Thanh, peak hours are typically from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
"The only downside is the price, it's higher than street food or sidewalk eateries. But everything comes at a price," said Nguyen Trong Trung, a 25-year-old customer who has visited the restaurant twice.
Shrimp spring rolls, one of the restaurant's bestsellers.
Besides familiar dishes from all three regions, the restaurant also revives long-lost or rarely found traditional recipes in Hanoi. One example is moc van am (cloud-covered pork balls), a dish once associated with Tet celebrations in the capital. It was reintroduced to diners in 2025 and received a warm welcome.
Another almost-forgotten dish is banh duc nom (cold rice cake salad), now rarely sold in Hanoi. The restaurant offered it before the pandemic and plans to bring it back soon, with hopes of preserving and honoring Vietnam's culinary heritage.
The restaurant's beef pho, served with dough sticks, chili, lime, and iced milk coffee.
The lead pho chef is Hanh's younger brother, who learned his craft from a famed pho eatery.
Similarly, the steamed rice rolls banh cuon station is run by a veteran vendor who once sold the dish in a central Hanoi market.
Hanh grew up eating banh cuon there with her parents. When she opened the restaurant, she invited the vendor to bring her signature dish to the menu.
Chefs preparing banh cuon and steaming snails with lemongrass. Video by VnExpress/Hoang Giang
