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Rach Gia

Eat and meet

Rach Gia

For a town of its size, Rach Gia has a good selection of places to eat, mostly clustered around the very centre of town. Rach Gia is known primarily for its dried cuttlefish. And though you'll likely see this on offer throughout the town, be warned that it's not to everyone's taste.

For breakfast, head to Ao Dai Moi on Ly Tu Trong St, which will be packed with locals slurping noodle soups and tasty congee. The friendly owner enjoys chatting with foreigners. In fact, he has two Western sons-in-law -- evidenced in a large family portrait hung over the dining room. It closes at 14:00, so for lunch or dinner you'll have to head to Ao Dai Moi 2 (161 Nguyen Hong Son St), which has a roomier dining room serves tasty Vietnamese standards.

The tiny alley of Nguyen Du, which runs west off Rach Gia Park, has two decent dining options, both with English menus. Tay Ho (6 Nguyen Du) offers Chinese and Vietnamese food, in a setting that can almost be described as exotically atmospheric -- faded and grungy, with jars of medicinal snake wine on shelves overhead. Go across the street to Hung Phat (7 Nguyen Du) if the reptiles put you off your meal.

Diagonally across from the Tan Hung Phat sits the Valentine restaurant, a hot pink coffee house decorated in heart-shaped wreathes. It's not exactly a great setting for a date, despite its efforts -- but it should satisfy a craving for air-con eating.

Cheap food stands can be found at any time of day, but they come out in full force in the evening, when all of Rach Gia comes out to snack in the sultry evening air. Rach Gia Park is a particularly choice spot, as it becomes a mini-night market after dark. For something sweet, wander over to Nguyen Cong Tru St where a stack of Vietnamese dessert stalls set up in the evening.


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