Hanoi: 5-Dish Cooking Class & Market Tour with Rice Wine

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/6

Duration3h 15m

GroupUp to 10

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

Cook Five Hanoi Dishes in One Morning, Then Eat Them

You spend the morning at Hanoi's biggest market learning which vendors to trust, then cook five authentic Hanoi dishes—pho, bun cha, spring rolls, papaya salad, and egg coffee—in a kitchen in the Old Quarter. You eat everything you make, taste rice wine with your classmates, and leave with a cookbook and certificate. The whole thing takes 3 to 4 hours and includes an English-speaking chef.

3h 15m

Step-by-step itinerary

Market tour and cooking class

Explore local market with guide
Learn about Vietnamese ingredients
Cook 5 traditional Vietnamese dishes
Enjoy your cooked meal together
Try Vietnamese rice vodka
Receive cookbook and certificate

The Experience

The vendor at Dong Xuan Market didn't speak English, but she knew exactly what our chef needed. She handed over a bundle of fresh dill, nodded at the pork shoulder, and moved on to the next customer—all in about ten seconds. That's the moment you realize this isn't a cooking class that happens to include a market visit. It's a market visit that teaches you how to actually shop like someone who lives here, and then you cook what you just bought.

The class runs 3 to 4 hours, starting with that market walk through Dong Xuan, the biggest market in Hanoi and right next to the Old Quarter where the school sits. Your English-speaking chef points out which vendors have the best herbs, how to pick ripe papaya, what the dried spices actually smell like when they're fresh. Then you head back to the kitchen and cook five dishes: pho bo (the beef noodle soup everyone knows), bun cha (Hanoi's grilled pork with noodles), nem ran (fried spring rolls), papaya salad, and egg coffee. If you don't eat meat or prefer vegetarian, they teach you the vegetarian versions instead. You're not watching someone else cook—you're doing it, your hands in the work, tasting as you go.

After the cooking, you sit down and eat what you made. It tastes different when it's yours. There's rice wine on the table, coffee or tea, and usually a few other people from your class who are just as surprised as you are that they managed to pull this off. You get a cookbook and a certificate at the end, which sounds like a souvenir until you're actually using the recipes at home and realizing you remember how to do this.

The school is in the Old Quarter itself, so getting there is straightforward—no long drive, no confusion about where to go. If you're planning to cook Vietnamese food after you leave Hanoi, or you just want to understand how the flavors actually work, this is the class that sticks with you. Book a morning slot if you can; the market is fullest early, and you'll have the rest of your day free.

What’s included

Your morning includes a guided walk through Dong Xuan Market with your English-speaking chef, instruction on five authentic Hanoi dishes (pho bo, bun cha, nem ran, papaya salad, and egg coffee), hands-on cooking of all five, a meal with rice wine, coffee or tea, a cookbook, and a certificate. Vegetarian versions are available for all dishes.

Good to know

Wheelchair accessible

Operated by Apron Up Cooking Class

Is this one for you?This works well if you want to learn how to cook Vietnamese food properly and understand where ingredients actually come from—the market walk is what makes that possible, and it's built into the class so you don't have to figure it out on your own.