This guide is built from the live tour page of Hanoi Food Tour on A Chef’s Tour — price, start time, group size, tastings and dietary notes come straight from the operator, never invented.

Two Hanoi Tours, Same Price, Different Day

A Chef’s Tour runs four food tours in Hanoi, and two of them are close twins: the Hanoi Food Tour (evening, starts 4:00PM) and the Hanoi Food Tour (lunchtime) (starts 10:00AM). Both cost US$45 per person, both promise 15+ tastings, both last 3.5 to 4 hours depending on the group and both cap the group at eight. The routes are different, though, and so are some of the dishes and some of the dietary notes.

How we wrote this: we are Joona and Alla, family travellers based in Rovaniemi, Finland, and we have not taken either tour. We research food tours from the live tour pages and send readers to the ones that hold up, so every fact below comes from A Chef’s Tour’s own pages. We don’t repeat ratings we can’t check. Our separate review of the evening tour covers price, kids and booking in more detail; this guide is only about choosing between the two.

The Two Routes

Evening (4:00PM). According to the page, this one breaks out of the Old Quarter. It starts at St. Joseph’s cathedral, tracks down family recipes “tucked into doorways and down narrow corridors”, and finishes back at the cathedral, now illuminated. Named dishes include banh mi, beef pho, sugarcane juice, banh xeo pancakes, bun cha, wok-fried eel cakes, crab spring rolls, nom bo papaya salad with beef, tapioca dumplings, and morning glory and tofu in scallion oil at a decades-old bia hoi joint.

Lunchtime (10:00AM). This one stays in the historic Old Quarter. The page names pillow cakes, tapioca dumplings and caramelised pork belly near the morning market; chả cá lã vọng, turmeric-stained fish sizzling in dill, at a century-old institution; pho at a Michelin-rated joint; bánh cuốn rice rolls; bún chả; young green rice flakes in banana leaf; dracontomelon juice; and an egg coffee to finish. The page describes 7–8 stops, some of them signless spots tourists walk past.

Side by Side

The table shows how much the two overlap and where they diverge. The prices, tasting counts and policies are the same; the differences are in the dishes, the district and the dietary notes.

Heat, Crowds and Timing

Hanoi’s weather changes with the season: summers are hot and humid, winters can be cool and damp. The 10:00AM start finishes around 1:30–2:00PM, which in summer means walking through the hottest hours; the 4:00PM start finishes around 7:30–8:00PM, when the heat has eased and the streets are livelier. In winter the difference narrows, and a late-morning walk can be the more pleasant of the two.

Street vendors keep their own hours and menus change, so treat the dish lists above, which come from the tour pages, as a guide rather than a contract; the pages themselves keep many tastings secret, which is a sign that the line-up is not fixed. If one dish is the reason you are booking, email the operator to ask whether it is on your date.

Practically, the lunchtime tour suits travellers who want their evenings free for a show, a bar street or an early night. The evening tour suits those who prefer to spend the day sightseeing and eat as the city comes alive.

Dietary Needs: How They Differ

If you or a family member has a dietary need, the lunchtime page is the more informative one. “Possible” means possible with compromises, not suitable.

• Lactose: lunchtime only — “Suitable for lactose intolerances, only 1-2 tastings have lactose”.
• Seafood / shellfish allergy: lunchtime only — “Possible for mild allergies, though whole seafood is used in 1-2 tastings. Fish sauce is used in more tastings.”
• Pork: evening “Possible, though pork is used in 2-3 dishes”; lunchtime “3-4 dishes”. Both “Unsuitable for halal diets”.
• Halal: both “Unsuitable, as there are no vendors on the tour route that hold halal certification.”
• Pescatarian: evening meat in 2–3 tastings; lunchtime meat in 4–5 tastings.
• Gluten: both possible for mild intolerance with soy sauce in more tastings; both “Unsuitable for celiac disease”.

Neither page lists vegetarian or vegan information: A Chef’s Tour doesn’t list this — ask them before booking (info@achefstour.com). The evening tour’s crab spring rolls and eel cakes suggest seafood, but the page lists no seafood-allergy line, so ask. Severe allergies: street kitchens share woks, oil and sauces, and no street-food tour can guarantee an allergen-free dish.

Which One Should You Book?

Book the evening tour if you want the Hanoi of banh xeo, bun cha and bia hoi, prefer cooler temperatures and have no particular dietary needs. It is also the pescatarian-friendlier of the two.

Book the lunchtime tour if you want the Old Quarter’s classics such as chả cá lã vọng, bánh cuốn and egg coffee, want your evenings free, or need the lactose or seafood information the lunchtime page gives. Check the calendar as availability varies.

Book neither if you are vegetarian or vegan and need a firm answer, if you are coeliac or need halal food, or if a severe allergy is involved. For night owls there is a third option, the Hanoi Food Tour with a Chef Guide (US$49, 10pm–2am, taxi pick-up from the Old Quarter), and a fourth, the Hanoi Old Quarter Food Tour (US$59, around four hours, meets at Old East Gate). Neither lists a child policy.

A practical way to decide is to look at your other plans. If your day has a morning free and a dinner reservation or a show booked, take the lunchtime tour. If you are arriving on a morning flight and expect to be tired, take the evening tour on your second day. If you are travelling with children who rise early and fade by dinner, the lunchtime tour may suit them better, provided you plan for the heat and bring water, hats and sun cream. Either way, leave an hour on each side of the tour for travel to St. Joseph’s cathedral or the Old Quarter meeting point, because Hanoi’s traffic is heavy at the start and end of the working day.

If you have three or more nights, the two US$45 tours overlap on pho, bun cha and tapioca dumplings but little else, so doing both is a sensible plan. We would start with the evening tour.

How to Book

You book directly with A Chef’s Tour on achefstour.com — we never take payment. Open the Hanoi Food Tour through our link, choose a date on the live calendar, add your guests and pay. According to the tour page, confirmation is instant and the exact meeting details come with your booking.

• Choose the departure on the live calendar. Evening times and lunchtime times are separate listings.
• Arrive hungry and skip a big breakfast or lunch beforehand.
• Flag diets and allergies when booking and email info@achefstour.com about anything not covered above.

Cancellation, from the tour pages: “You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.” The lunchtime departure is the Hanoi Food Tour (lunchtime).

We are an A Chef’s Tour affiliate and earn a commission on bookings made through our links — it does not change the price you pay.

FAQ

Our Honest Final Word

Evening or lunchtime? The two Hanoi tours are priced the same and carry the same policies, so the choice comes down to dishes, heat and dietary notes. We lean towards the evening tour for a first visit and the lunchtime tour for travellers who want the Old Quarter by day. Neither suits vegetarians, coeliacs or halal travellers. We haven’t taken either tour ourselves — we send readers to them because the facts on the pages add up.

Book the Hanoi Food Tour or the Hanoi Food Tour (lunchtime), or look at the Hanoi Food Tour with a Chef Guide if you would rather eat after midnight. Further south, the Ho Chi Minh City Food Tour costs the same.