Nang Tam: A Great Vegetarian Restaurant in Hanoi
It has a Cinderella like story, but it is based in Vietnam. In this story, the king marries Cinderella, but some witch sends her out to the woods. She escapes and works in a remote village where her vegetarian dishes are a hit with the locals. The king, hearing about this famous eating joint, comes in disguise, finds his wife and takes her back to his kingdom. The girl’s name is Nang Tam and thus this restaurant, which believes in this fairy tale, has named it Nang Tam after the girl in the fairy tale.
The restaurant also believes that vegetarian cooking should be in such a way that it resembles meat so that meat eaters feel like they are they are getting their daily meat intake. Thus, the menu would have a lot of chicken, beef, pork, fish, squid and other meat names, but in reality they are all vegetarian and are made either from tofu or mushrooms. They are prepared in such a way that they exactly look and texture wise feel like meat.
If you are won Hanoi and need a local Vietnamese vegetarian option, I would recommend Nang Tam. They are located on Trang Hung Dao road in Hoan Kiem District and near the Hanoi train station. Like traditional Vietnam style, they have both set menu and alacarte. The typical set menu would include rice, lots of veggies and definitely lots of tofu and mushroom and a veggie soup that has a lot of lemon grass in it. You don’t get Vietnamese Green Tea (Tra Vietnam) with it, but I would definitely recommend you order that with your food.
I hope your vegetarian craves are met here while you are in Hanoi.
