Places to eat in Sapa

Like most large Vietnamese towns, there's plenty of dining options for travellers in Sapa. International foods such as burgers and pizza are served in most places but you should also try a dizzying range of exotic Vietnamese dishes from the local region, although some of these meals will require you to be pretty adventurous!

What to order

One of the area’s most famous dishes is thang co, a Hmong version of a stew containing horsemeat (as well as other parts of a horse) and 12 spices, which takes several hours to make. The recipe and method have been unchanged for hundreds of years and as long as you can look past the ingredients is well worth trying as it tastes delicious! Try it at Thang Co A Quynh (15 Thach Son, open until 10pm).

Sapa is famous for its meat dishes. Khamg gai is a dried meat, usually beef, that makes a perfect snack. You'll spot it all over the town stored in jars and its delicious seasoning goes down very well alongside a cold, refreshing beer.

Cap nach pork is another local delicacy, a whole pig is roasted over charcoal until the skin almost falls off to reveal the tender meat underneath. It's prepared in a range of ways but make sure you try it lightly spiced as many say this is when it's at its best. You can taste this lovely dish at Anh Dung (69 Xuan Vien) and at Hoang Minh on the corner of Xuan Vien and Fansipan streets.

Street food

For a town of its size, Sapa has plenty of options for budget travellers looking for a cheap and tasty meal. There's several areas where street food stalls pop up in the evening and you can taste excellent barbecued meat or pho, for a fraction of the cost of the same meal in a restaurant. The best choices for street food are found at Pham Xuan Huan; the food area by the market and Ngu Chi Son alongside the lake.

Vietnamese Food

Little Sapa (18 Cau May) offers an excellent choice if you're not sure what you fancy for dinner. They provide some of the towns best Vietnamese food, with a menu including dishes from all over the country from VND60,000.

Drink

Of course, like every town in Vietnam, there is a small area where tourists join the locals enjoying bia hoi, the home-brewed beer. If you want to taste the cheapest beer in town make sure you head down to the corner of Cau May and Fansipan streets. If you're peckish, there's always a few snacks to try from the vendors wandering past, so you can stay here until the beer runs out!

If you fancy tasting a traditional local drink why not give tao meo wine a try? It's a Hmong speciality, a whiskey made from the fruits of the tao meo tree and is only available between August and October, when the fruits are harvested. Head to Hoang Minh on the corner of Xuan Vien and Fansipan streets to wash down a tasty meal with this unique drink.

Bars & Cafes

For snacks, brunch or a hard-earnt slice of cake head to Baguette and Chocolate (4 Thac Bac) to relax and boost your sugar levels before setting off again. It's open until 10pm and prices start from VND30,000.

Sapa’s nightlife is fairly sedate but there's a couple of good spots to try if you fancy celebrating completing a hard day trekking. Hmong Sisters Bar (31 Muong Hoa) is one of the most popular nightspots and is a good place to meet locals, expats and other travellers over a refreshing beer. It's open until 1am which is about as late as it gets here. Mountain Bar and Pub (2 Muong Hoa) is another option and is at its most attractive in the winter when you can really appreciate the log fire.