The Best Restaurants in Prague's Sapa
I started going to Prague's Sapa around the time Czechia was joining the European Union. The Union has managed to both grow and shrink since then, while my relationship with the market has only deepened: for over twenty years I've been coming here for Vietnamese food and groceries, and a handful of places are so tried and tested that I could find them blindfolded.
This is my own ranking of the best restaurants and bistros in the Sapa market, put together from my own visits. What Sapa actually is, when to come and why to bring cash - that's all in a separate guide; here it's only about the food.
Bún Chả at Hải Hà
If the ranking had room for one place only, this would be it. The charcoal grill stands right outside the door, and the bún chả here - grilled pork belly with rice noodles, herbs and a warm sweet-and-sour sauce - has a reputation as the best in Prague. A stop at the grill is part of almost every visit I make to Sapa; there's often a queue outside the bistro, but it moves fast. And if you already know your bún chả, the short menu also has bún bò Nam Bộ with marinated beef.
Rice Rolls Upstairs: Bánh cuốn Phương Phượng
The very first bistro I ever ate at in Sapa - the women from the Viet Food Friends project took me there, and they knew exactly what they were doing. The place sits on the upper floor, tucked away so well that you'd walk straight past it without a tip-off, and it does one thing and nothing else: bánh cuốn rice rolls filled with meat and mushrooms. One portion easily feeds two, so I treat the rolls as a starter for the walk through the market. If you're in a hurry, they'll pack them up with the sauce to go.
Carp Soup at Bún Cá Hải Phòng
I make phở at home, but carp bún cá is in a different league: fish broth with dill, fried pieces of carp and a bowl of cabbage and herbs to add as you go. At home I have neither the equipment nor the patience for it, so I leave it to a bistro that has been making carp soup for over twenty years.
Grilled Duck at Dũng Liên
The only place on the list I don't have a separate article about yet. By Sapa standards Dũng Liên is a big restaurant, and even so every table is usually taken - you wait a while, but you always get a seat. The shop sign above the door promises "special Vietnamese duck meat" in Czech as well, and that is exactly what they deliver inside: grilled duck with broth, rice noodles and fresh herbs, to my mind the best duck in Sapa. The meat stays juicy, the skin comes off the grill with dark salty edges, and the broth and noodles make it a full lunch. It's good enough that I sometimes skip my tried-and-tested stops for it - and I've never regretted it.
Dũng Liên Restaurant
Where to Go Next: Desserts, Coffee and the Big Shop
Four places barely scratch the surface of Sapa. For crab soup bún riêu cua I go to the Sành Quán bistro by the small Buddhist shrine, for caramelized pork belly with sticky rice to the Lán Dê - Xôi Chè stall right at the back, and next door, Chè Sài Gòn sells chè desserts in every color. For coffee I head upstairs: Hippo Café roasts its own beans and I save their egg coffee for the very end. And every visit ends, as always, with a big shop for Asian groceries at Tamda Foods - what I carry home is covered in the three-part series What to Buy in Sapa.
If you're heading to Sapa for the first time, start at the Hải Hà grill, carry on wherever your appetite takes you, and before you set off read the guide to the market - when to come, how not to get lost and why to keep cash in your pocket. My ranking has barely changed over the years.
