Local vegetarian food in Saigon, Vietnam. Cheap and Tasty! (Ho Chi Minh City)

Local vegetarian food in Saigon, Vietnam. Cheap and Tasty!

All vegetarian food here

I've always heard that Vietnamese food had a lot of vegetarian options. In the US, whenever you go to a Vietnamese restaurant, the food is almost always vegetarian. I'm a little surprised to see how popular meat (especially beef) is in Vietnam! We had vegetarian dishes a few times in Vietnam, but I am still excited whenever I find a vegetarian restaurant, especially when I just stumble across it by accident. (I'm not vegetarian, but I do like to eat vegetarian dishes from time to time, and I really love tofu!)

I discovered this tiny little vegetarian restaurant on the side of a busy road as I was walking to Saigon Center shopping mall. The sky was growing dark and threatening to rain (it rains very heavily in Saigon), and I wanted to go somewhere to wait out the coming storm. I saw a little old lady sitting in the front of her shop with a friendly face. I was hungry, so I headed inside to sit down and see what sorts of food she sold.

The little old woman who runs the shop can speak English, and even had an English menu with every dish numbered. To order, she just handed us a scrap of paper and a pen, to write the menu number down on the paper.

The menu had around 30 different dishes - all vegetarian. I made up my mind and wrote down the number of the dish that I wanted. Not so long after I give her the paper, the food arrived, fresh and hot. The dishes I ordered - stirred-fried tofu and mushrooms with pepper, spring rolls, and stirred-fried wheat and mushrooms with pepper - are now served! The savory and peppery smell wafting up from the fresh dishes made me so hungry as I paused to take these pictures for the blog!

Stirred fried tofu and mushroom with pepper 

The two dishes that I ordered taste the same (I ordered both with pepper and mushroom), but the difference is in the texture. One dish was served with soft cubes of stir-fried tofu. The other was made from what the menu called "wheat", which is a sort of meat substitute made from protein-rich wheat flour. The wheat was a bit chewy, almost like real meat. The dish was savory, sweet, and a little bit salty, with a strong taste of black pepper. I love it! The spring rolls had a pretty standard taste, and  were stuffed full of delicious fresh vegetables and herbs.

I also ordered a cup of iced tea, which cost only 2.000 VND ($0.10).

I enjoyed her food so much that we agreed to come back many times during our month in the city.

The shop is a typical old-style restaurant. It's very clean with no trash on the floor. There is always someone dropping in for a bite, both locals and foreigners. I like the food and I like the friendly owner who chatted with us for a few minutes and made us feel very welcome. I highly recommend her shop if you are in Saigon!

Price: around 35.000 VND per dish

Location: Quán Cơm Chay Tín Nghĩa (Across McDonald's Ben Thanh)

Dietary notes

🥑 vegetarian