The Lunch Lady of Saigon - Famous Street Food in Vietnam

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Rating: 4.0; Vote: 1

The Lunch Lady is one of the most famous street food restaurants in Saigon, Vietnam. Get all the details here: Nguyen Thi Thanh, better known as the Lunch Lady, owns and operates a street food stall in Saigon that serves soup noodles. The restaurant was made famous by Anthony Bourdain, who ate there on his No Reservations show on the Travel Channel, and deeply loved both the noodles and the experience of eating there. So during my trip to Saigon, along with eating all sorts of incredibly delicious Vietnamese street food, I made it a point to eat at the legendary Lunch Lady. One of the cool things about the Lunch Lady in Saigon is that she serves a different noodle soup dish everyday of the week. After reading about all the days and her rotating menu, I decided to go on Monday, because I wanted to try her version of bun Thai, a Vietnamese and Thai fusion noodle dish. As we arrived for lunch, the restaurant was already buzzing with customers, both tourists and many locals as well. I could immediately sense the kindness and the passion of the food I was about to eat. I ordered a large bowl of noodles, which didnt take long to arrive, and I was impressed with the beautiful decoration of ingredients and the colors of everything together. In order to make the bun Thai, the Lunch Lady first added a handful of bun, or rice noodles to a bowl, topped it with a few rings of squid and some beef, then ladled on a spoon of the slow and continual simmering broth. Then in went a handful of sliced vegetables and herbs, and finally a couple of shrimp on top. The bowl of bun Thai smelled incredible, slightly sweet and sour, with a lovely acidic, almost citrus aroma to it. Before adding any condiments, I first decided to try the soup. It tasted almost the same as it looked, sour and sweet, and with a lovely balance of flavor. Im not sure what meat the soup was based from, but I think it was beef. Being a lover of chili, I decided to dress my bowl of noodles with some fresh dry roasted chili oil, along with a squeeze of lime juice. The chili added some much needed heat, while the lime juice gave it a bit more sourness. The noodles were slightly chewy and about the size of spaghetti, and the mixture of ingredients was superb. One of the things I really like about how the Lunch Lady assembled her bowls of noodles was that she cooked the items separately, so nothing got overcooked. Along with serving bowls of noodles, theres a stall next to the Lunch Lady that serves goi cuon, or Vietnamese fresh summer rolls. As a lover of the fresh summer rolls, I couldnt resist, so we ordered a plate, that came with 3 rolls. They were very fresh tasting, and I thought they were some of the best I had during my trip to Saigon. The rolls were filled with lettuce and basil, a couple of shrimp, and I really enjoyed the hoisin sauce topped with peanuts and fresh chilies. The Lunch Lady was a great Vietnamese street food experience in Saigon. Ive only eaten there once, and I ate the bun Thai, so I for sure cant say how the food is everyday, but the day I went it was pretty decent. On top of the good food, just as Anthony Bourdain mentioned, the Lunch Lady is a fantastic atmosphere - its in the shade, its a nice location off the main road, and there was a beautiful breeze as I slurped down my bowl of noodles. Overall, I was very happy, and even though the Lunch Lady is very famous, its worth a visit when you are in Saigon. And on top of that, Nguyen Thi Thanh is also very nice. Address: 23 Hoang Sa St, District 1 Phuong Da Kao, District 1 (Quan 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Open hours: Its best to eat here sometime around lunch. Prices: 40, 000 VND (1. 83) for a nice sized bowl of noodles, pretty decent portion size How to get to the Lunch Lady: The restaurant is located not far from the Saigon zoo, tucked away into the neighborhood. You can either take a taxi directly there, or take public transportation to the zoo, and walk for just 5 - 10 minutes to get there. Thank you all for watching this video
Date: 2019-08-19

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Comments and reviews: 10

aznsorpor
Hi, I think it should be noted that the lunch lady tries to overcharge tourists constantly not just subtly, as I saw similar commotion with other tourists but we weren't sure what happened. The bowl noodles that rotate was charged 40K VND and she scams people with the side dishes. Although the noodle soup was good, the side dishes (spring rolls, shrimp summer rolls and banh khot) was average at best and left our throats hurting since it was so deep fried. When asking for the bill, she gave us an ridiculous price of 460K and when we doubted it, she started to change the price to lower. When someone nice nearby finally helped us talk to her, he said she claimed that we had 10 pieces of each side dishes and was charging us 10K each which I'm sure isn't what the locals were being charged per piece either because I saw others order it and wasn't charged as much. Good thing we took a picture of the food ahead of time as our practice and she had to lower down to 270K. This situation left a sour taste with us.
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aramis2288
The Lunch Lady is unreal hype, read it first before going1. Tourists are being charged prices several times higher than locals straight ahead (260. 000 VND for 2 soups vs about 70. 000 VND in any other place for locals)2. Without asking ) they put on your table a lot of badly fried food making you think it is a free snack, but you are being charged for it heavily, even though you did not order it3. Food quality is low. In fact it is lower than in most places where locals eat. 4. There is a man for whom The Lunch Lady works who collects the money and lunch ladies works for him. Then he shamelessly hands them (small) part of it. DO NOT go there.
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Pistol
Mark Weins did they pay you to promote The Lunchlady we went there walked all the way from Ben Thanh market we found her very average wasn't friendly didn't even want to know us as I told her about you and wanted to chat with her then at 1pm they said that she gone for a lie down the only thing she wanted from us was to buy her book very very disappointed think you need to do better research if you want promote people Mark
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Tod Ganzer
Lol the woman behind you on left is so behind in culture, ,lol I think she is attempting to use chopsticks with one in each hand, and cleaning her face like a dog, , the lady on right behind you too, struggling, lol wiping her nose with hand, ,lol ugh, thank you Mark for being sophisticated and educated, ,love it,
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Paw Htoo
I have watching you video almost every day when I on YouTube. Watch your video made me want to go back to thai land eat street food, hot dog, meat ball. and my favorite noodle soup. hopefully I go back at thai land in 2019. I don't know what to say watching your video make me happy cause you always smile.
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7.5M views
i visited the Lunch Lady twice when i was in HCMC. both soups were good, but the chicken curry soup on Wednesday was absolutely incredible. fun story: i asked to use the restroom, they directed me into the building in the back and after walking in, I realize that it was their house.
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Senthil Rathna
hi mark. i see all ur videosall r diffnt. and the words u use and ur expression really temt people to hav the fud wat u taste. superb wording and all new discoceries in fud u go really markable mark. stay safe frm junks. reedssenthil kumar. rfrm india ( tamil nadu)
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Bill Gates
it looks great but 1 thing i would never ever eat it look at all the lady touching the food without glove im 100 percent sure they go to toilet and never wash their hands go back grap food and serve you trust me you will catch them if you go to toilet with them
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MrHW1968
I watch alot of your videos. You are a young guy, and your stomach can probably handle the spicy food now. I myself live spicy food, but in the long term too much will harm your stomach. You should enjoy, but not so much spicy. Take care of yourself.
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Maria luisa Uy
Vietnam ess spring rolls have invaded our malls n restos. Phad Thai as well. With mark promoting it makes it. Hundred percent better. After watching I have to eat something. Whether it is morning or wee hours in the morning. Kudos n thumbs up
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