Updated January 3rd, 2022

Circa 2017, it took a lot of planning to score a table at Hanoi House. This was the kind of place you had to set alarms on your phone for, somewhere you’d have to walk in at 5pm and put your name down before wandering around Tompkins Square Park for an hour or two.

Now, you still probably can’t walk in at 8pm on a Friday with six people—but it’s easy to get a reservation at Hanoi House with a bit of planning. That’s important, because this restaurant serves some of the best Vietnamese food you’ll find in NYC.

We’re especially fond of the small plates like the pork summer rolls with layers of crunchy texture (fried onions in the middle, crisp cucumbers and lettuce, and crumbled peanuts in the hoison sauce for dipping). The papaya salad with pig ears comes with a substantial amount of the crackly centerpiece (overzealous crispy pork organ fans will rejoice), but the dish is super balanced and comes packed with so much watercress, parsley, and papaya that you’ll always get a taste of everything with each bite.

The phở at Hanoi House is rich and deep in flavor, but what sets this bowl apart from the rest of the NYC greats is the amount of parsley in the soup and the pickled garlic on the side. We’d like to add that combination of ingredients to everything we cook at home, and that’s one of the main reasons why we’ll keep coming back here. A cauldron of simmering beef bones, garlic, ginger, star anise, and cinnamon just won’t fit into any of our studio apartments.

photo credit: Noah Devereaux

Gather your friends and reserve a table at Hanoi House, either inside or outside on the sidewalk patio that always feels like a phở-powered St. Marks party. Save the wandering around Tompkins Square Park for another time.

Food Rundown

Goi Cuon / Summer Rolls

These are made with a delicious pork sausage and stuffed with fried bits of garlic. If you’ve had better summer rolls, we’d like to hear about them.

Goi Du Du / Papaya And Pig Ear Salad

This salad is home to some of the crispiest pig ears we’ve tried. And you get a lot of them in this dish. They’re the perfect pairing to the shredded green papaya and sweet soy dressing.

Phở Bac / Hanoi Style Beef Phở

Picture the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to you in the past year. This phở is similar to that, in that you won’t be able to stop thinking about it in rich, excruciating detail. The broth is incredibly flavorful, the filet mignon and brisket are perfect, and the hefty servings of parsley and pickled garlic bring this bowl of soup over the top.

Bun Cha Ha Noi / Grilled Pork Noodles

Here, you get a big platter of crispy spring rolls, pork meatballs, grilled pork, rice noodles, and lettuce wraps to pile everything into. This is a big dish that works well for sharing, but you can also easily just go all-in on it by yourself.