the 2026 guide, read straight
Ho Chi Minh City holds six of Vietnam's eleven MICHELIN stars — more than Hanoi, for the first time — awarded at the 2026 ceremony on 4 June 2026. No restaurant in Vietnam has ever held two stars or three.
Saigon out-stars Hanoi for the first time: 6 to 4, with Da Nang on 1. Across every category the city carries 81 of Vietnam's 193 listed establishments.
One star each — because Vietnam has never awarded a second
Modern Vietnamese
89 Tôn Thất Đạm, Sài Gòn ward (old District 1)
Star since 2023Chef Peter Cường Franklin's room sits directly above the Chợ Cũ wet market, and the location is half the argument — the kitchen buys downstairs. Starred continuously since the guide's Vietnam debut in 2023, which makes it the country's longest-held star and its most internationally recognised restaurant. Book by email, roughly two weeks ahead.
Contemporary Vietnamese
Address not published by MICHELIN.
New in 2026The booking-scarcity story of the year. Chef Trương Hiệp was 31 and the restaurant had been open about 18 months when the star landed. Central Vietnamese flavours rebuilt as a tasting menu, in a room with four tables. MICHELIN has not published an address or a price for it, and neither will we until there is one to publish — assume it books out well ahead.
Contemporary Vietnamese tasting menu
Address not published by MICHELIN.
Star since 2025Seven to nine courses. Starred in the 2025 edition and retained in 2026. Expect the upper end of Saigon fine-dining pricing; we have no figure from MICHELIN and are not going to guess one.
Cantonese
Address not published by MICHELIN.
Star since 2025The quietly significant one. Saigon's Chinese-Vietnamese cooking runs through Chợ Lớn and has been feeding the city for two centuries with no fine-dining recognition at all; this is that lineage finally holding a star.
Modern Australian-influenced fine dining
Address not published by MICHELIN.
Star since 2025Retained its star in 2026. MICHELIN has published no address or price band we can verify, so this entry is deliberately thin rather than padded.
Fine dining
Address not published by MICHELIN.
Star since 2025Retained its star in 2026. As with Akuna, we have no verified address, cuisine detail or price from MICHELIN and have left the gap visible.
Ten HCMC entries with a published address and price band
| Restaurant | What to order | Address | Price | USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phở Hoà Pasteur | Phở bò | 260C Pasteur (old District 3) | 70,000–90,000₫ | $2.69–3.46 |
| Cơm Tấm Ba Ghiền | Broken rice, the pork chop that hangs off the plate | 84 Đặng Văn Ngữ, Phú Nhuận | 55,000–85,000₫ | $2.12–3.27 |
| Bún Riêu Gánh Bến Thành | Crab and tomato noodle soup | 4 Phan Bội Châu, Bến Thành | 45,000–65,000₫ | $1.73–2.50 |
| Bún Bò Huế 14B | Spicy Huế beef noodle soup | 14B Street 46 (old District 4) | 45,000–60,000₫ | $1.73–2.31 |
| Ốc Đào | Grilled snails, clams, scallops | 212B Nguyễn Trãi (old District 1) | 60,000–120,000₫ | $2.31–4.62 |
| Bánh Xèo 46A | Sizzling turmeric crepes | 46A Đinh Công Tráng, Tân Định | 50,000–90,000₫ | $1.92–3.46 |
| Phở Miến Gà Kỳ Đồng | Chicken glass-noodle soup | 14/5 bis Kỳ Đồng (old District 3) | 40,000–60,000₫ | $1.54–2.31 |
| Xôi Gà Number One | Sticky rice with chicken | 82 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai (old District 1) | 50,000–70,000₫ | $1.92–2.69 |
| Chè Mâm Khánh Vy | A platter of chè, the dessert soups | 242B Trần Bình Trọng (old District 5) | 35,000–50,000₫ | $1.35–1.92 |
| Bún Thịt Nướng Hoàng Văn | Grilled pork over cold noodles | 137 Chấn Hưng, Tân Bình | 70,000₫ | $2.69 |
The answer is the point of this page
Exactly one. The Monkey Gallery Dining sits at award rank 51 on our list — 4.6 on Google from 602 reviewers, 4.7 on TripAdvisor from 195 — and its head chef Trần Phước Hậu won the 2026 MICHELIN Young Chef Award for the whole of Vietnam. The restaurant itself holds MICHELIN Selected recognition, not a star.
The other forty-nine hold no MICHELIN listing whatsoever. That is not an error in either list. TripAdvisor's Travelers' Choice awards measure what visitors reviewed, and visitors review the rooms they can find in English, near their hotel, with a booking page — which is why our fifty contains eight rooftop bars, five hotel restaurants and six Indian kitchens. MICHELIN's inspectors went to the plastic stools. Both lists are honest about different questions, and the overlap being one restaurant out of fifty is the most informative number on this page.
The practical read: use our fifty to pick a table you can book tonight in the centre of town, and use the Bib list above to eat the way the city actually eats. They are not competing recommendations.
| Award | Recipient | Restaurant | City |
|---|---|---|---|
| Young Chef Award | Trần Phước Hậu | The Monkey Gallery Dining | Ho Chi Minh City |
| Service Award | Nguyễn Thanh Vân | Tales by Chapter | Ho Chi Minh City |
| Opening of the Year | Chris Fong | NÔM | Ho Chi Minh City |
| Sommelier Award | Mai Bích Ngọc | ONVIT | Hanoi |
No. Not one, and it never has. Every starred restaurant in the country holds a single star, including all six in Ho Chi Minh City. Guides that imply otherwise are describing a country that does not exist. The 2026 edition was the first time Vietnam's star count reached double figures at all.
More than the stars, for most people. A Bib marks good cooking at a moderate price, and in Saigon that means MICHELIN inspectors have credentialed plastic-stool eateries selling a bowl for 35,000–120,000₫ — roughly $1.35 to $4.60. There is nowhere else on earth where a MICHELIN credential costs less. If you have three days in this city, six Bibs will teach you more about how Saigon eats than any one tasting menu.
Yes, measurably, and nobody selling you a food tour will mention it. Bánh Mì Huỳnh Hoa is the clearest case: roughly 30,000₫ a sandwich around 2013, 55,000–65,000₫ by 2025, and about 73,000₫ on its current listing — a 2.4× rise in a decade on one sandwich. Queues lengthen too. The food is still excellent; the bargain is smaller than the blog posts written before the guide arrived.
Because the map changed underneath them. On 1 July 2025 Vietnam abolished the district tier nationwide and Ho Chi Minh City absorbed Bình Dương and Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu, taking the city past 14 million people. "District 1" no longer exists on paper; its core is now Sài Gòn, Bến Thành, Tân Định and Cầu Ông Lãnh wards. MICHELIN and most restaurants still print the old district, Google Maps and Grab increasingly use the new ward, and both will get you there. We print both, which is why the Bib addresses above read "old District 3".
Every figure on this page, in one block
Updated · Re-ranked on the 1st of every month · next run 1 September 2026.
Six — Ănăn Saigon, Upstairs, CieL, Long Triều, Akuna and Coco Dining. That is more than Hanoi's four and Da Nang's one, and it is the first edition in which Saigon has out-starred the capital. Upstairs is the only new HCMC star in the 2026 edition, announced on 4 June 2026.
Upstairs, by a distance. Chef Trương Hiệp was 31 and the restaurant had been open roughly 18 months when it took the star, and the dining room seats four tables. Ănăn Saigon is the other one that needs planning — it takes bookings by email and about two weeks of notice is normal.
Yes. The ten HCMC Bib entries with a published price band run from 35,000₫ for a chè platter at Chè Mâm Khánh Vy to 120,000₫ at the top of Ốc Đào's grilled shellfish range — about $1.35 to $4.60 at 26,000₫ to the dollar. A bowl of phở at Phở Hoà Pasteur is 70,000–90,000₫.
One. The Monkey Gallery Dining, which sits at award rank 51 on our list, holds MICHELIN Selected recognition and its head chef Trần Phước Hậu won the 2026 Young Chef Award for the whole of Vietnam. The other forty-nine hold no MICHELIN listing at all. That gap is the most useful thing on this page and we explain it rather than hide it.
No. A Hum vegetarian restaurant holds a Bib, but it is a different branch at a different address. Both Hum entries on our list are at 34 Võ Văn Tần in Xuân Hòa. Branch names in Saigon repeat constantly and the awards do not travel between them, so we do not merge them.
Three of the four. The Young Chef Award went to Trần Phước Hậu of The Monkey Gallery Dining, the Service Award to Nguyễn Thanh Vân of Tales by Chapter, and the new Opening of the Year Award to chef Chris Fong of NÔM. Only the Sommelier Award went north, to Mai Bích Ngọc of ONVIT in Hanoi.
It marks sustainable practice rather than cooking quality. Tales by Chapter took Ho Chi Minh City's first Green Star in the 2026 edition for a zero-waste, plant-based programme, and entered MICHELIN Selected in the same year — so it is the only restaurant in the city holding a Green Star, a Selected listing and a special award simultaneously.
Eat Bibs, unless you specifically want Ănăn's story or Upstairs' scarcity. The star list skews to hotel dining rooms, tasting menus and Cantonese fine dining; it is genuinely good and it is not where this city's cooking actually lives. Saigon's case for being Vietnam's best eating city rests on the cheap end.
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Eat it with a local
Saigon food tours & tastings — guided street-food crawls and cooking classes with vetted operators, most with free cancellation.