Lien Hoa

The menu is big! And if you go here at night.. many things will be sold out. This place is so popular amongst the locals. I am not sure if what I got was vegan or not.. but it was good enough and you get some soy cheese with your dish which is a treat : ) I like the atmosphere and it is super close to the main area of hostels. Staff is nice and tried their best to help me order. I got the rice plate for 15,000 and some fried Jack Fruit. It is better to go with a group (I was alone) so you can order a few dishes and share or get the hot pot.

Easy to find location, about 10 minutes walk from main tourist restaurants. made it just before closing time and had mecan (like crispy fried chicken pieces). very tasty, rice not so fresh but was end of the night. Cheap and cheerful, would recommend as a must visit if in the area.

Attached to the Lien Hoa temple, this place is a real gem, and we're so grateful to Happy Cow reviewers for leading us here! Great breakfast soups with inexpensive coffee and chè for dessert; fantastic hotpots (if a little over-salty, but seems to be the Hue way) for a reasonable price. Our unseparated-12-jewels-something salad was especially unexceptional, but so far everything else has been pretty good.

Went here three times in 24 hours, due to the goodness and cheapness. Packed with locals and foreigners alike.

Air conditioned area is available, but the outdoors has more charm.

Very good soup broths.

The food at this restaurant was unlike anything I've experienced. They had unique dishes, some which I never saw again during my stay in Vietnam. My husband and I had the fried jackfruit, which is a must have, some type of clear noodle dumplings, spring rolls, steamed rice, and morning glory. The dishes also came with 3 different sauces. Everything was delicious and the staff were friendly and attentive. In addition, the total cost of the meal including drinks equated to $4 usd.

Busy restaurant, many locals but also tourists. Menu is translated, but sometimes unintentionally funny. We had a couple of dishes with rice. All tasted great. Prices are ok.

The waiter didn't pay much attention to us, and was very slow. Small portions but decent food.

Huge variety of food, tasty and cheap.

Very good restaurant. I went two times, to try all the best of the menu. Don't miss mecan and jackfruit. They are really tasty. Soya cheese is like faux meat, and the paste choices a little bit disappointing. However, a cheap yummy meal.

Ci siamo trovati benissimo, il posto è sempre pieno di gente locale, il cibo è davvero super! Complimenti davvero.

A lovely little restaurant right on a main road. There were lots of good food options. The "small" hotpot is enough food for two (or more). The jackfruit with sesame was also a good savory appetizer. The one dish not to miss is the "salad" called the unseparated twelve predetermined affinity is a must have. one small note is that while we were in the restaurant there were 3 rats running and playing in the courtyard of the restaurant.

The place seems to be really popular, for it was crowded when we arrived. The menu had so many items to choose from! Unfortunately, we were not impressed by the food... Something seemed to be missing. I guess they just don't put much effort into cooking.

However, the atmosphere was really nice there, so I do recommend this place at least for a drink and a small meal.

All the food is very good and inexpensive. It can be hard from the English menu to determine what's what, but you can't really go wrong. The staff are busy but very helpful in trying to explain the menu.

Delicious food in a great atmosphere with very amusing translations! The unseparated twelve predetermined affinity was the highlight!

was running late and got there 45 minutes b4 close. thats usually good enough time to get food b4 close. Nope! they were already basically closed....but open. and only one thing on the menu that was orderable sucked. really bad canned bamboo shoot/canned mushroom/canned something else over rice. tasted like the smell of canned bamboo shoots. the rest of the menu looked pretty damn lame anyway. i seriously could not tell what ethnicity the food was...they could have easily chopped a little cabbage and onion and steamed or fried it up a little.NOPE!
so i ask the guy at the front whats up with the no food thing at an open restaurant. he says only rice.. whatever dude. so i ask when do you actually have food. he tells me to come back at 6:30am... no! i will not ever go back even if they had run out of food 1 minute b4 i got there. this place fricking sucks!
im not the only one either. this is prolly a daily thing there. i read at least one more review almost exactly like mine. i think it was on tripadvisor.
by the reviews on this site and my experiences at these joints, i figure most reviewers come from parts of the world that dont have much in the way of fake meat. these eateries get top notch reviews and places that are actually healthy and tasty get crapped on.
way to go guys.

The restaurant has a nice atmosphere but the food was far from impressive. One dish was stir-fried 'vegetables' but consisted only of water spinach (?) with no spices at all. Very bland taste. The other dish was fried mock meat with citronella (which I could order only from the sixth time because all other five dishes I wanted were finished that evening). It was very fragnant but super spicy. I could hardly finish it. Both dishes came with no rice.

It is hard to judge a restaurant only from this only visit, but compared to some other places in Hue, it seems to lag behind.

The restaurant is vegan! No animal products. Monks eat here. We had some fried rolls and a rice dish and a vegetable soup. The choice was probably not the best. The hot pot with soy cheese would have been the better alternative. The locals have chosen that.

This place was so different compared to all other veg/vegan places we had been to. Their menu was huge and filled with all sorts of random items we had never seen. Our waiter suggested fried nem (which was incredible) and jackfruit with sesame seeds. We also tried for 10,000 vdn two dishes that were rice based wraps, one stuffed with some sort of paste and the other with vegetables. They were both very different from each other and really interestingly good. The waiter was really helpful and kept bringing us cold tea! The prices there are really reasonable and is a must try.

We loved this vegetarian restaurant - tasty food, super cheap, and great way to sample some local Hue specialties.

The menu is a little hard to understand due to some creative translations, but that added to the charm really, and the waiter was very patient with us. We had some great rice dumplings - both Banh Beo and Banh Uot, stir fried dishes, and the braised tofu and tomato that was delicious.

With about six or seven dishes, and drinks for two people, we only paid around 200,000 vnd. Great value!

We went after reading the reviews on Happy Cow, the restaurant was full of locals when we got there, and we also spoke to some locals including our taxi driver and staff at our hotel who recommended it as their favourite vegetarian restaurant in Hue.

The restaurant was almost full when we visited it in March 2014. Most customers were Vietnamese. There was a hot pot on most of the tables, but we did not order one.

The restaurant looks nice and traditional.

The menu has some weird language. For example tofu is named soya bean paste and seitan (wheat gluten) is named mecan. It also seemed that the soya cheese in the menu was fermented soft tofu, that tasted rotten. Interesting experience though.

The food portions were good looking, but eventually the tastes were not so special.

We had:
* mushroom fried in dough - tempura, good
* mecan with bread - mixture of seitansausage and vegetables and lots of french bread on the side. Not anything special.
* appetizer of five things - the name was something like that in the menu and no explanation. It was a nice plate of mock meats
* braised tofu in tomato sauce - great
* and also a portion of rice that came with some fried haricots and raw jackfruit.
* Also we got one small soup made of water spinach and mushroom. We did not order it and it was not charged so probably it was part of some portion.

All these and two sweet lemon sodas cost 199.000 dongs.

We went there on a saturday night, and the restaurant was almost full, but we didn't see another tourist. Only locals. The atmosphere in the restaurant was so nice and the staff was friendly, although some of them didn't speak much english. We ordered the fried nem, which was to die for, and mixed vegetables with rice, and payed 65000 vnd, which is obe of the cheapest meals we have had so far. Definetely going back there tonight to try something else from their huge menu!!

this restaurant was recommended by our hotel. The restaurant was crowded mainly with local people. Although what we got wasn't what we thought we ordered it was fantastic food which excited my taste buds with new flavours. The staff did not speak English but we managed well with help from local people and guesswork. Great value for money and wonderful food one of the best meals I have had in Viet Nam. My non veggie friend also enjoyed the food and thought it was really tasty. I would highly recommend this restaurant.

Large and busy place. Filled with locals since the prices are equivalent to street food. Fresh juices are $.60 and dishes range from $.50 to $2.00 each. Servers don't speak English but the menu is in English and has photos. The hardest (and most humorous) part is deciphering the names of dishes (e.g. Unseperated twelve predestined affinity) Large portions and free cold green tea. We ordered two drinks (plus tea) and four dishes for $8. We could only finish a third of our meal.

We went at lunchtime on the 14th day of the lunar month, so the place was absolutely packed. We tried items we'd never had before - 8 types of pastes (turned out these were tasty pates/fake meats), fig salad, banana flower salad. The food was good (my favorite meal in Hue), and total bill was unbelievably cheap.

The place is huge, with lots of semi-communal tables. We ended up sitting at a small table on a little raised platform near the cash register, cross-legged, though all the other tables had regular chairs. It was pretty hot, though there are fans.

There was a miscommunication when we thought we'd ordered another dish and were waiting around for it, only to find out that the waiter had crossed it off on our tab (I guess they'd run out of it?) and not told us it was unavailable. No big deal, though.

The staff here are friendly, the restaurant has a nice charm and the food, with plenty of vegan options, is plentyful. Some of the staff speak english, so you can enquire what is what.
But there are some real delights listed on the menu which we never tried. For example, maybe you fancy trying 'unseperated twelve predestined affinty' or 'unbroken covers, broken leaves'. If these don't rock your boat, then there are lots of others that might. They have a range of veggies such as aubergine, spinach and cabbage and a few tofu specialities. There are some pictures at the back of the menu to help you along.
We ate like a king and queen for only 120,000 dong or so, and that was only because we ordered too much by mistake. A good price by any standards. Mains are in the region of 15-to 35,000 dong.
If you are coming to Hue, this is a definite!!!

Went on Tuesday evening, quite busy. They had run out or were unable to make a number of dishes but what we got was very tasty and filling. My favourites were the tofu in tomato sauce which was cold and quite spicy and also the mycan salad which was like lemon chicken and very morish. Reasonably priced at 133,000 dong for two people including drinks, and we probably ordered a dish too many because we couldnt finish it all.
I think it closes on Mondays.

We were really impressed with Lien Hoa. I (a vegan) took a carnivore there and we both felt it was one of the best meals we've had in Viet Nam. Our warm, cheerful servers didn't speak a word of English, and the English on the menu is pretty broken and sometimes impossible to parse, but we did some pointing at pictures and wound up with a well balanced multi-course meal including fresh veggies and some guilty pleasures (fried comfort food), all of which was exceptionally tasty. And the bill for this feast for two? About US$8 including drinks.

Worth a try: the nem rau (fried spring rolls) here are Hue style, a change from what you'll find elsewhere in the country.

And also recommended, to make sure you get some good fresh veggies to balance the fried stuff: there's a tasty melange with a poetic moniker like "Missing and Affection" or something to that effect.

The atmosphere was great: lively and good for local people-watching without being unpleasantly loud even when busy.

My only reservation is for vegans: unless you're lucky enough to find a server who can tell you which items to avoid, you may wind up accidentally ordering dairy, honey, etc. (I'm not sure if eggs are used here.)

Enjoy!

We had delicious food here (hot pot, rice cakes, and bamboo shoots with sesame) and received lots of help from the waiters, and other patrons with using our hot pot correctly. At some points we had a couple of people standing over our table showing us how to cook the leaves in the pot correctly - quite an experience. The place was completely packed when we ate there - all locals except for us. I would highly recommend this restaurant.

This restaurant is a short walk from the main centre. Although it was quite busy on the day we visited, the vibe was of a lot of people enjoying some seriously good food. We had the bittermelon soup, a cold noodle salad, and some of those small pancake-ish things made from rice paper. Everything was delicious and healthy tasting, and the lovely decor and surrounding garden features made for a very relaxing meal.

Great veggie restaurant just away from main centre of Hue. We got addicted to this place and went 3 times in a week! Good menu, with lots of amazing salads and veggie versions of traditional Vietnamese food. Ran by Buddhists, frequented by Monks, it's a very relaxing restaurant with a good atmosphere.

Review with photos and map here:

http://www.eggbutnobacon.co.uk/2009/03/busy-doing-nothing/