Every guest asks some version of the same question before arriving: what is the food like, and will there be enough of it. Viet Hai has no restaurants in the way a town does. What it has is kitchens — ours included — cooking what came out of the garden that morning and off the boats that afternoon. Here is exactly how eating here works.
Dinner is a family dinner
This is the part that surprises people. There is no menu ordering in the evening and no separate tables. Everyone staying that night eats together at one long table, and the dishes come out to share in the middle, Vietnamese style. You take a bowl of rice and reach for whatever you want.
We did not design this as an experience. It is simply how a Vietnamese household eats, and running two dozen separate orders out of a village kitchen was never realistic. But it has become the thing guests write about afterwards: people who arrived alone leave having spent an evening with a family from Denmark and a couple from Argentina.
What actually comes out of the kitchen
A typical family dinner has five or six dishes plus rice and soup:
- Garden greens stir-fried with garlic — morning glory, sweet potato leaves, or whatever is ready that week
- Fried or steamed fish from the bay, usually whole
- Pork braised with young coconut water, or grilled with lemongrass
- Tofu with tomato — the dish vegetarians end up asking for the recipe of
- Fresh spring rolls with herbs cut from the garden
- Canh, a light clear soup, which in Vietnam does the job that a drink does elsewhere
- Rice, always, and always more if you want it
Nothing here is chilli-hot by default. Vietnamese home food is salty, sour and fresh rather than fiery, and the chilli sits on the table for you to add.
If you don’t want to eat at 7pm with everyone
Not everyone wants a set dinner time, particularly after a long boat day. Our quick-food menu is available all day — just order 20 minutes ahead. It is the simple, reliable end of Vietnamese cooking:
- Fried rice or fried noodles, with vegetables, egg, chicken or seafood
- Pho and noodle soups
- Banh mi
- Omelettes and fried eggs with bread
- Fresh fruit and juices
Twenty minutes is not a formality. There is no chef standing idle behind a pass in a village — someone lights the stove when you order.
Seafood hotpot and seafood BBQ: order a day ahead
The two dishes worth planning for both need one day’s notice, and the reason is simple: we buy the seafood fresh from the boats that morning. There is no freezer full of prawns waiting for a decision.
Seafood hotpot (lau hai san)
A pot of sour, aromatic broth on the table, and platters of prawns, squid, fish, clams and vegetables to cook in it yourself over an hour or two. It is the most social meal in Vietnam and the right choice for a group or a celebration.
Seafood BBQ
Charcoal, and whatever came in that day: prawns in their shells, squid, scallops, fish wrapped in banana leaf. Eaten outside, slowly, usually while it gets dark.
Tell us the day before — a message on WhatsApp is enough — and say how many people and whether anyone avoids shellfish.
Vegetarians, vegans and allergies
Vegetarian food is straightforward: this is a farming valley, and half the table is vegetables anyway. Tell us when you book and we cook without fish sauce, which is the one ingredient that quietly appears in almost everything otherwise. Vegan is workable with notice. Serious allergies — particularly shellfish — please tell us before you arrive, not at the table.
Breakfast
Eggs and bread, pho, or fried rice, plus coffee and fruit. Vietnamese coffee is strong and served with condensed milk unless you say otherwise; ask for ca phe den if you want it black.
Two things to know about eating on Cat Ba generally
- Seafood in town is priced by live weight. Ask the price per kilo before it goes in the pot. This is where visitors’ budgets break.
- The village has no shops. If you want snacks, beer or anything specific, buy it in Cat Ba town before you get on the boat.
Staying with us in Viet Hai
Lan Homestay is a family-run guesthouse in Viet Hai village, inside Cat Ba National Park. We have thatched-roof garden bungalows and mountain-view rooms, all with private bathrooms, at a fair village rate — message us for the current one.
Bicycle hire is 30,000 VND per bike for the whole day (a little over one US dollar). No road links our valley to the rest of the island, so there is no through traffic — most guests only understand what that means once they are riding it.
Evenings here are a family dinner: one long table, everyone staying that night eating together — garden vegetables, island seafood, our own herbs. If you would rather eat on your own schedule, our quick-food menu is available all day with 20 minutes’ notice. For something special — seafood hotpot or a seafood BBQ — tell us one day in advance so we can buy fresh from the boats that morning.
We also arrange what is awkward to organise from abroad: boat transfers from Cat Ba town or Ben Beo pier, full-day Lan Ha Bay boat tours, kayaking, night kayaking to see bioluminescent plankton in the warm months, and guided treks in the national park.
Book or ask us anything:
Website: lanhomestay.com
WhatsApp: +84 363 934 325
Email: info@lanhomestay.com
Find us: Thon 2, Viet Hai Village, Cat Ba Island, Hai Phong, Vietnam
Keep reading
- Best Time to Visit Cat Ba Island: A Month-by-Month Guide
- Viet Hai Village: Vietnam’s Last Car-Free Village
