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What the night markets are like
A Saigon night market is a street market in the cooler evening air: clothes, shoes, hats, jewellery, phone cases and hair clips on one side, and rows of food stalls and plastic stools on the other. Prices are often lower than in daytime shops, because stallholders pay less rent. For the people who live here it’s a place to meet, eat and have a drink outside after work.
The markets for tourists sell souvenirs and tourist-priced food. The markets that locals use are further out, near universities and workplaces, and the food is cheap and very good.
Ben Thanh night market
Ben Thanh is the one in the middle of the city. After about 6 pm the streets next to the market building (Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh) close to traffic and fill with stalls. It’s busy and touristy, and the souvenirs are what you would expect, but the food is good and the atmosphere is part of the visit.
There are plenty of street-side eateries around it, serving dishes from all over the country: bun cha and pho from the north, small steamed cakes in banana leaf from Hue, crispy banh xeo pancakes from the Mekong, grilled seafood and barbecued pork. You can watch the cooking in front of you. On many nights a good share of the diners are Vietnamese families and friends, not only tourists, which is a good sign for the food.
Bargain on souvenirs, check food prices before you order, and watch your phone in the crowd.
Ho Thi Ky: the food night market
Ho Thi Ky, in the old District 10 near Ly Thuong Kiet street, is Saigon’s best-known food night market. By day it’s a flower market, and from the evening the stalls sell grilled seafood, scallops, snacks and Vietnamese desserts at low prices, to a mostly young local crowd. It’s loud, crowded and cheap, and it’s the one to choose if food is the reason you came. Guides give different closing times; it runs well into the night.
Local markets away from the centre
For a market that isn’t built around tourists, go out of the centre by taxi. Minh Phung in District 6 is known for inexpensive clothes and homewares and is far from the tourist crowd. Binh Tay, the Cho Lon (Chinatown) night market, sells fabrics, household goods and noodles and snacks. Hanh Thong Tay in Go Vap has street food and cheap fashion, popular with students. Ky Hoa, in the old District 10, was known for its student crowd and cheap bowls of noodles and rice with grilled pork; it has moved around, so check where it’s currently set up.
At these markets the prices are low and fixed, so you don’t need to bargain, and many people shop wholesale. Eat where the crowd is.
Tips for a night out at the markets
- Go from about 6 pm. The best hour is just after dark, when the stalls are all set up and it isn’t yet packed.
- Carry cash in small notes. Many stalls don’t take cards, and bank-transfer QR codes are common.
- Ask the price first, especially for seafood sold by weight.
- Keep your phone and wallet in a front pocket or a zipped bag.
- A taxi or ride from your hotel is easy; a driver who knows the market can drop you at the right corner. Getting home late is simplest with a car booked ahead, since street taxis around busy markets can be scarce.
What to eat
Look for the stalls with the longest local queues. Common orders are grilled pork with broken rice, sugar-cane juice, banh xeo, snail dishes, grilled seafood and sweet che desserts. Prices at local markets are often a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of dong a dish.
For more of Saigon, see our guide to Saigon, the museums, or how Saigon’s traffic works before you cross the road to the next stall. Heading up to the highlands? Da Lat’s night market is the cold-weather version, with hot soy milk and grilled rice paper.