Top 'must-try' dishes at the Saigontourist Group Food and Culture Festival 2025

On March 27, 2025 at Van Thanh Tourist Area, Ho Chi Minh City, right before the opening of the Saigontourist Group 2025 Food and Culture Festival , the organizing committee evaluated and voted on three lists of top "must-try" dishes at the festival.

46 delicious dishes representing from all over the country

The contest is a new feature of this year's festival. The voting results were conducted from 46 delicious dishes, representing a total of more than 600 delicious dishes from 46 units participating in the festival. The contest judges are experienced culinary experts, long-time culinary instructors and representatives of the festival organizing committee.

The journey of discovery and experience of 46 dishes representing the units can be seen as an interesting culinary tour for the judges through the creativity, styles, flavors, and ingredients used to prepare dishes bearing the identity of the three regions of the North, Central, and South, as well as local products.

The jury members took turns visiting each competition venue to enjoy the decorative art, then tasted the dishes and listened to the contestants present their elaborately prepared dishes, demonstrating their creativity in presentation as well as their passion and love for their homeland's dishes.

What delicious dishes are there at the Saigontourist Food Festival 2025?

After the process of evaluation, appraisal, criticism and consultation, the jury unanimously gave the voting results and officially announced them at the opening ceremony of the Saigontourist Group 2025 Food and Beverage Festival.

Top 10 must-try dishes :

Fried seafood with silkworm nest (Majestic Hotel - Mong Cai); wild pork wrapped in frog thigh leaves - sticky rice (Binh Quoi Tourist Village); lotus leaf sausage (Continental Saigon Hotel);

Spicy fish noodle soup with red phoenix flowers (Grand Saigon Hotel); black chicken stewed with yam (Rex Saigon Hotel); red ginseng stewed with lotus (Van Thanh Tourist Area); stir-fried catfish (Saigon - Con Dao Resort); Majestic beef rib pho (Majestic Saigon Hotel); seafood vermicelli soup (Dong Khanh Hotel) and grilled wild boar with Huong Thao (Kim Do Hotel).

Black chicken stewed with Chinese yam at Rex Hotel Saigon. Photo: SGT

Top 10 regional specialties you must try :

Cao Bang sour pho (Saigon - Ban Gioc Resort); Cu Ky vermicelli with squid rolls in Ha Long (Saigon - Ha Long Hotel); Phan Thiet dragon fruit and seafood salad (Saigon - Mui Ne Resort);

Grilled lamb ribs with stir-fried leaves from Ninh Thuan (Saigon - Ninh Chu Resort); Nghe An eel soup - wet rice cake (Saigon - Kim Lien Hotel); tuna eyes with ginseng from Bo Chinh Phu Yen (Saigon - Phu Yen Hotel);

Central Highlands bitter eggplant soup (Saigon - Ban Me Hotel); Dalat sturgeon soup (Saigon - Dalat Hotel); Bo Chinh ginseng chicken stew for the king - Quang Tri (Saigon - Dong Ha Hotel) and Saigon broken rice with pork chop, pork skin and sausage (De Nhat Hotel).

Nghe An eel soup - wet rice cake of Saigon - Kim Lien hotel. Photo: SGT

Top 10 must-try drinks:

Ngoc Linh - Kon Tum forest scent (Binh Quoi Tourist Village); salt coffee (Continental Saigon Hotel); sticky rice milk coffee (Grand Saigon Hotel); pho mojito (Rex Saigon Hotel); Dong Dinh pressed pineapple (Saigon - Phu Yen Hotel);

Brown rice tea with honey (Saigon - Dong Ha Hotel); molasses green tea (Saigon - Kim Lien Hotel); De Nhat mint mocktail (De Nhat Hotel); peach artichoke jasmine tea (Saigontourist School of Tourism and Hospitality) and tamarind kumquat tea (Majestic Saigon Hotel).

Mr. Chiem Thanh Long - culinary expert, head of the competition jury - commented: "This year's festival has a lot of dishes, up to more than 600 dishes, so the jury has expanded the voting list to 3 top lists, instead of just 1 top list like last year.

In addition to the food, there are also drinks to show the richness and diversity of Vietnamese cuisine. This will help festival attendees have more choices.

The dishes brought to the contest, each dish has its own appeal and uniqueness. Among them, we were most impressed with the fried seafood rolls with silkworm nests of Majestic Hotel - Mong Cai, attractive because of its delicious taste, beautiful decoration, eye-catching and very elaborate preparation.

The second is the stir-fried dolphin fish dish of Saigon - Con Dao resort. This dish is strange and interesting because the fish meat is chewy like poultry and is very nutritious."

Phan Thiet seafood dragon fruit salad - Photo: SGT

Mr. Chiem Thanh Long added: " Through this competition, we realize that Vietnamese cuisine is extremely rich and diverse, each region has a different way of preparing dishes. On that basis, those working in the tourism and culinary services industry should develop and improve; units should also have exchanges and learn from each other, for example, the South should add dishes from the North, Central and vice versa."

Units honored to win the Top "must-try" delicious dishes at the Culinary Culture Festival, Saigontourist Group Delicious Dishes 2025" were awarded a Certificate of Recognition by the organizing committee, which was hung in front of the unit's booth.

This is also an "identification mark" for festival diners to recognize, taste and experience the voted delicacies, alongside their favorite foods and drinks.

Grilled pork with rosemary from Kim Do hotel.

To participate in the festival, visitors buy entrance tickets with coupons attached to use the service, with a package price of 200,000 VND/adult, accompanying children are free. For more information, contact hotline: 0901 889 709 - 0855 556 879 or visit the website: www.saigontourist.com.vn

Saigontourist Group 2025 Food and Culture Festival, organized by Saigon Tourist Corporation (Saigontourist Group), is open to the public from 3pm to 10pm every day, continuously from March 27 to 30, 2025 at Van Thanh Tourist Area, Ho Chi Minh City.

Saigontourist Group's 2025 Food and Drink Culture Festival surpasses previous festivals in terms of the number of dishes and drinks, with over 600 delicious dishes selected and refined from all three regions of the country, and local products.

Besides cuisine, the festival also offers many unique cultural and artistic activities such as water puppetry, street magic circus, Thai xoe dance, quan ho, don ca tai tu, Khmer monkey dance, Ben Tre sac bua singing, bai choi singing, Hue singing, Central Highlands gong performances of the Xo Dang ethnic group, traditional stone musical instruments, and call-and-response singing.

Visitors to the festival also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a space filled with a festive atmosphere imbued with the cultural identity of the three regions, experience the highland market, and try on costumes of ethnic groups in the Northeast and Northwest highlands.

In addition, the festival also attracts visitors with traditional craft village activities, making folk cakes with more than 50 types of cakes, experiencing leaf wrapping, baking, steaming, frying cakes with artisans, learning to make vermicelli, weaving hats, making rice paper, baking rice paper, making rice wine, making Poria cocos and Katum cakes of the Khmer people in the South.

This year's craft village will include activities such as making wooden clogs, paper pinwheels, Hoi An lanterns, pottery making, Dong Ho paintings, and paper flower making with artisans from Thanh Tien paper flower craft village in the ancient capital of Hue.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/top-mon-ngon-nhat-dinh-phai-thu-tai-le-hoi-van-hoa-am-thuc-mon-ngon-saigontourist-group-2025-20250328131205569.htm