HO CHI MINH CITY | One of Ho Chi Minh City’s oldest and best bún thịt nướng spots, Bun Thịt Nướng Bà Thêm, is easy to miss if you don’t know where to look. It’s centrally located, hidden amongst District 1’s glamourous boutiques and beautifully restored colonial-era buildings.
Look for the art gallery at 88 Nguyễn Huệ, and walk through to the rear. You’ll find along, narrow alleyway, filled with stainless steel tables, small plastic stools, and an open kitchen. The walls are full of character, stained by 70 years of smoke, billowing from the charcoal grill.
Bún Thịt Nướng Bà Thêm was opened by Hoang Thi Them, when she immigrated from Hà Bắc, in Vietnam’s North, to Ho Chi Minh City, in the 1960s. Originally selling northern Vietnamese bún chả, Hoang reworked her recipe due to customer demand, into the similar southern dish, bún thịt nướng. The result was a slam dunk, and today, 70 years on, you’ll still find a constant stream of locals enjoying Bún Thịt Nướng Bà Thêm’s signature dish.
There’s attention to detail in each bowl of bún thịt nướng served here, which blends northern and southern Vietnamese elements. Pork sausage skewers are classically southern, grilled hot and fast, using a mix of lean and fatty pork shoulder and spices. The spring rolls, meanwhile, lean northern, by virtue of their rice paper, rather than mung bean paper, exterior, and lack of vermicelli.
Joining the grilled pork and spring rolls in the bowl is vermicelli raw lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumber, pickled carrot and white radish, and a generous handful of roasted peanuts. It’s served with sweet and sour nước chấm, and chilli on the side so you can make each bite as spicy as you like.
Hoang’s children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren run Bún Thịt Nướng Bà Thêm these days, walking up at 4:00am each morning to start prep. Doors open at 7:00am, and the first set of customers stream in, enjoying the same freshly made bowls of bún thịt nướng that locals have been enjoying for over 70 years.
Bún Thịt Nướng Bà Thêm
88 Nguyễn Huệ
District 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam
Telephone: n/a
E-mail: n/a
Website: n/a
Open
Mon – Sun: 7:00am to 2:00pm