As someone who has tried dozens of bún chả shops in Hanoi – from famous decades-old restaurants to “hot” places on social media – my tongue is quite sensitive to food. Just by tasting, I can tell if the broth has too much MSG, if the pork has something strange, or if the restaurant uses dry noodles or fresh noodles.
Today I will review for you a small, casual bún shop located on National Highway 3, Sóc Sơn district, a place I have been attached to for many years like an irreplaceable habit. Not just because of the special delicious taste of the bowl of bún chả mọc that the shop offers, but also because of the rare feeling of peace of mind amidst the era when stories of fake food and dirty food are everywhere.
Only 30,000 VND for a full bowl of bún chả
In the heart of the city, where prices keep rising, a bowl of bún chả costing only 30,000 VND is a very affordable price. While other nearby shops have increased their prices to 35 or even 40 thousand dong, the lady owner of this shop still keeps the old price for many years. Not because of low-quality ingredients, but because she says: “Earning a little less is fine, as long as the customers enjoy their meal and come back.”
A bowl of bún chả here looks simple at first glance but shows the love of the craft from the seller. The noodles are soft, separated, not sour. The meatballs are made from finely minced pork, mixed with lemongrass, then shaped into small pieces and grilled on a charcoal stove. The grilled meat is fragrant, fatty but not dry. The pork belly is sliced just right, with layers of fat and lean interwoven, grilled until the edges are slightly burnt and aromatic. Many other places fry or pan-fry the meat or grill it dry and boring, not every shop makes delicious grilled meat.
Every time I visit the shop, I like to order extra mọc noodles – because I’m so in love with the round, smooth mọc meatballs. The mọc here is made very carefully: finely ground pork, mixed with a bit of wood ear mushroom for crispiness, shaped into moderate balls, cooked to be sweet and nutty. Eating mọc here doesn’t give me that strange or bad smell – something many other shops often have.
What really impresses me about this shop is the broth. Not cloudy, not greasy, but clear, sweet, faintly fragrant with scallions and pepper. Scallions are finely chopped and sprinkled into the bowl before pouring the broth, not wilted or too pungent. Pour it into the bowl of noodles, eat with bean sprouts and a few slices of red chili is enough to make me full, just one bowl in the morning gives me energy for the whole day of work. Usually, I only eat breakfast and dinner, I skip lunch, my lunch is just milk or juice. Eating bún makes me so full that I can't eat anything else.🫣
Sometimes, when I don’t feel like eating grilled meat, I just order a bowl of mọc noodles with broth. The mọc balls are crispy in the mouth, combined with the sweet and light broth, making me not need any seasoning or vinegar garlic.🥴
I’m writing these lines while still feeling confused about the recent series of scandals related to dirty food, fake food. From sausages made from dead pigs due to disease, to rotten chicken feet imported from China, and even fake squid, skewers soaked in chemicals... 😟🤢🤮The latest is the CP clean pork chain – a brand I had trusted for 5 years – being accused of grinding sausages from sick pigs, dead pigs. Reading the news is shocking, trust is lost in an instant.😤😤
Even expensive dishes, seemingly reserved for the rich like se điếu intestine, have been revealed to be cheap Chinese goods at 2 dollars, soaked in chemicals and sold at 60 times the price. 🥲No one can be sure the delicious dish they eat today is made from what, where it comes from, whether it’s toxic or not...☹️
I used to be a fan of grilled dishes, sausages, meatballs… but now I almost don’t dare to touch dishes with ground meat, because I don’t know if it’s real meat, if it’s healthy pork or just dead pigs floating around the market.☹️
Because of those horrifying stories, this 30k bún chả mọc shop of the kind-hearted lady owner has become my last trust. A small shop, with no name, no fancy signboard. But the meat here is always fresh, grilled on the spot. The broth pot is cooked right in the corner of the kitchen, not hidden. Every time I eat, I can see the whole process, from her arranging each skewer of meat on the grill, to pouring the broth into the bowl.
Every time I eat, I feel at ease, as if I were eating at home – where every ingredient is carefully selected and cooked with love. That honest flavor cannot be replaced by any fancy restaurant.👏🏻😁
Writing a food review these days is not just about saying if the dish is good or not. For me, a place where “delicious food” is not enough, it must also be “real food, clean food.”😚
That 30,000 VND bowl of bún chả mọc is not just a full meal, it is also delicious and I hope the lady owner doesn’t disappoint me.☺️
If you’ve ever felt confused about dirty food, try once to return to small, casual eateries, where the seller doesn’t need advertising but still has regular customers. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻Just look at the number of customers coming to the bún shop to know the quality of each bowl. I always want to order an extra portion of grilled meat every time I eat, it’s so delicious and flavorful 😋 10 points.