There’s a particular kind of dining establishment that exists in every food culture – the pub with proper fish and chips in England, the izakaya with yakitori skewers in Japan. In Vietnam, it’s the bia hơi joints.
The bia hơi culture is growing fast. These places are exploding across Hanoi faster than new restaurants can open, and the food quality keeps getting better. But Vó Bò 88 Hòa Mã has been holding court since 1987 – they don’t need to catch up with anyone.
The difference shows immediately. This isn’t food that’s chasing trends or trying to elevate street food into something precious. This is the genuine article – dishes that have found their perfect form through decades of repetition.
After years of coming here, I have developed a strategic approach to ordering. Starting light before building toward richer territory, and there is no better dish to start than trứng rán ngải cứu (fried eggs with mugwort leaves).
Cost: cheap. Technique: important. They drown it in oil to create a crispy exterior but moist interior. That bitter mugwort taste you hated as a kid now hits different as an adult. It’s nostalgia you can eat.
Then comes nộm ngó sen (lotus stem salad).
Shaved lotus stems tossed with mint, fresh bean sprouts, and peanuts in a light fish sauce dressing. Then they bury everything under a mountain of ground peanuts. I’m talking an ungodly amount, so if you’re allergic to nuts, skip this entirely, or move your stool to the next table until it’s gone.
The fish sauce dressing is perfectly balanced. Nothing overpowers anything. This is technique disguised as simplicity.
This dish is so refreshing I briefly considered becoming a vegetarian. But that thought lasted for a whole four minutes, because the next dish was brought up.
Xách đen xào khế (stir-fried tripe with star fruit). This is where the kitchen’s command of heat becomes evident. Tripe is unforgiving – cook it wrong and you get something resembling rubber. Here, it’s blasted on high heat just long enough to achieve that perfect springy-crunchy texture, paired with soft sweet onions, tangy star fruit, and a measured hit of pepper. This is when you need that big gulp of beer (or trà đá if you’re driving) to reset your palette. You’ll finish the plate fast before you remember to whip out your phone to take pictures.
The main event: vó đuôi hấp (steamed beef shin). Simple as it gets – steamed until soft, deboned, sliced thin, and served. steamed tender, deboned, sliced thin, and presented without a second thought on plating. The shin is an inherently tough cut, which is why the knife work matters. But tasted alone, it borders on bland.
But that’s where tương bần (fermented bean paste) comes in.
That tiny bowl of brown sauce looked unassuming, but one dip in and the explosion of flavors begins. Concentrated funk, sweetness, and umami all fighting for dominance.
When you understand what you’re working with here, everything makes sense. The shin offers a textural journey in each slice: tender meat giving way to that translucent, collagen-rich tendon layer, finished with a firmer outer section that still yields to the teeth. It’s that Vietnamese obsession with texture on full display. Dip it through that sauce and you get the explosion of flavor the meat was waiting to deliver.
The Bonus Round
Once that sauce has you hooked – and it will – order bánh đúc lạc (rice cake with peanuts). Smooth, slightly translucent rice cakes studded with cooked peanuts, soft and subtly sweet with that pleasant sticky texture that isn’t gummy. Kids eat it as a snack. Adults use it as a sauce delivery system while drinking beer.
The menu ventures into more adventurous territory – Brain with mugwort. Stewed penis. Sốt vang hầm (beef stew). Save those for when you’re ready.
Timing matters here. Arrive during peak hours and you’re navigating a full house where two stools transform into a table seating six people, elbows to elbows. It’s part of the experience.
This is your introduction to bia hơi culture. It’s been perfected over 38 years.
Most places are still figuring it out. But these guys finished figuring it out before I was born.