Best Food Tours in Ho Chi Minh City
Search for the best food tour in Ho Chi Minh City and you get forums, booking sites and operators each ranking themselves first. This page does the sorting. We compare seven operators, ourselves included, on facts you can check: format, group size, duration and the price shown on their own pages in September 2026.
- Walking, small group: A Chef's Tour, $45, 8 guests maximum, 3.5 to 4 hours.
- Lesser-known dishes: XO Tours' XO Foodie, 4.5 hours, 16 guests maximum.
- Most reviews: Saigon Vibes reports 5.0 on Tripadvisor over 4,100+ reviews.
- No motorbike: Saigon Street Eats walks in the morning, with a taxi option at night.
- A local woman driving: our Street Food Tour, $57, 4 hours, hotel pickup.
- Prices as shown on each operator's site in September 2026.
The Short Answer: Which Tour for Which Traveller
There is no single best food tour in Saigon. The right one depends on how you want to move, how many people you want around you, and what you already know about Vietnamese food.
Start with the row that sounds like you. The details for each operator follow further down.
| If you are... | Look at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| On a first visit, wanting the classics with transport handled | Our Street Food Tour | 4 hours, 10+ tastings, hotel pickup in Districts 1, 2 and 3, $57 all-inclusive |
| Not keen on motorbikes | Saigon Street Eats or A Chef's Tour | Both walk. Saigon Street Eats adds a taxi option on evening tours |
| Back for a second trip, curious about unfamiliar dishes | XO Tours, XO Foodie | They leave out pho, banh xeo, banh mi and spring rolls on purpose |
| Choosing by number of reviews | Saigon Vibes | They report 5.0 on Tripadvisor over more than 4,100 reviews |
| Looking for a private bike at night | Street Food Man | Their "Private Motorbike Food Tour By Night" won GetYourGuide awards in 2018 and 2019 |
| Keen on coffee as much as food | A Chef's Tour | Their walk ends with a coffee workshop |
| Vegetarian, vegan, halal or with allergies | Ask each operator before booking | We keep vendor lists by diet. XO Tours seats non-vegetarians separately |
If you have not eaten your way through Saigon yet, our Saigon street food guide names the dishes you will meet on any of these tours.
I pick a food tour by the number of guests before the price. A table of eight lets the guide order for you; a bus of thirty eats where the bus can park.
How to Compare Food Tours in Saigon
Most operators describe themselves in similar words: local, authentic, small groups. Compare what can be checked instead. Seven criteria do the job.
- Format. Walking, motorbike, or a taxi option. Walking keeps you in one neighbourhood. A motorbike covers several in one evening.
- Group size. Look for a written maximum. A Chef's Tour states 8, XO Tours states 16.
- Duration. Most tours here run 3.5 to 4.5 hours. Some Saigon Vibes products run up to 11 hours.
- Price shown. Check what it covers: food, drinks, transfers, helmet.
- Hotel pickup. Useful after dark and with children. Ask if the page does not say.
- Diet options. Ask how the menu changes, not only whether it can.
- Language. A Chef's Tour states English. Our guides speak fluent English. Ask the others.
Walking or motorbike?
Worth it for
- Walking: you want a slow pace and one neighbourhood in depth
- Walking: someone in your group will not ride a motorbike
- Motorbike: you want several districts in one evening
- Motorbike: you prefer transfers handled from your hotel
Skip it if
- Walking: you want to cover the city's far sides in one go
- Motorbike: anyone in your group is uneasy in traffic
- Motorbike: your children are under 6, the age limit on our tours
- Either: you cannot say in advance what you do not eat
On diet, the numbers are real. 37% of our own guests ask for a change to the menu: vegetarian, vegan, halal or allergies. For a meat-free trip, book our Vegan Food Tour.
The Operators, One by One
Facts below come from each operator's public pages. Where we quote them, the words are theirs.
Miss Saigon Tours (that is us)
Every one of our six tours is led by a woman born in Saigon, who drives. You ride pillion behind her. Each guide holds a class A licence, speaks fluent English and has done 500+ tours.
The Street Food Tour lasts 4 hours and costs $57, all-inclusive: food, helmet and hotel transfers. It covers five districts, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, with three food stops, two sightseeing stops and 10+ tastings.
Since the July 2025 reform, Ho Chi Minh City has wards, not districts. Everyone still uses the old names, so we do too. Old District 5 is Cholon, covered in our Cholon Chinatown guide.
We also run a Michelin Food Tour. Separately, our Vegan Food Tour costs $57. Pickup covers Districts 1, 2 and 3. No deposit, free cancellation up to 24 hours before, payment on the day in USD, VND or by card.
Passengers are insured, helmets are cleaned after every tour and come in all sizes, and rain ponchos travel with us. By our own count, we have had zero incidents since 2019. We take no commission from the vendors we visit.
XO Tours: XO Foodie
The XO Foodie tour lasts 4.5 hours, with a maximum group of 16, their own figure. Prices on their page in September 2026 were $30, $50, $58, $75 and $82, depending on the option.
Their angle is clear. They skip common dishes such as pho, banh xeo, banh mi and spring rolls in favour of lesser-known plates. They also say they stay away from Ho Thi Ky and the Nguyen Thien Thuat apartments, which they find too visited by other operators.
They cite Forbes (a top 9 list of food tours), USA Today (top 10 city tours), Food & Wine (best food tour in Vietnam) and the New York Times. Vegetarians and vegans are welcome, seated apart from non-vegetarian guests.
Saigon Vibes
In a post dated 23 June 2026, Saigon Vibes described itself as the number one food tour in Ho Chi Minh City on Tripadvisor: first of 1,632 Food and Drink experiences, rated 5.0 over more than 4,100 reviews.
They sell two separate products, a Food Walking Tour (5.0, 1,543 reviews) and a Motorbike Food Tour (5.0, 2,600 reviews), according to their own page. Prices shown in September 2026 were $29, $31, $35 and $65. Durations range from 3.5 to 11 hours depending on the product. They keep groups small by choice.
A Chef's Tour
A walking tour at a gentle pace: $45, 3.5 to 4 hours, 8 guests maximum. They announce 15+ tastings in District 3, with a coffee workshop at the end. The tour is in English, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
Secret Food Tours
Their Ho Chi Minh City tour costs $44.99 for "8+ authentic local tastings". They present themselves as the number one food tour in the city, with more than 100,000 five-star reviews and activity since 2013. The rating widget on their own page showed 5 out of 101 reviews.
Saigon Street Eats
Run by an Australian and Vietnamese couple, Barbara and Vu, who call it an "anti-tour": no uniforms, small groups. They do not use motorbikes.
The Pho Trail is a morning walk. Evening tours offer a taxi option for guests who prefer not to ride. An optional upgrade adds Pasteur Street craft beer in the evening.
Street Food Man
Prices are not published on their home page, so we cannot quote one. Their "Private Motorbike Food Tour By Night in Ho Chi Minh City" won GetYourGuide awards for culinary experiences in 2018 and 2019. They also cite a Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence from 2019.
Side-by-Side Comparison
One line per operator, on the criteria that matter most. "Check with them" means the fact was not on the pages we read, not that the answer is no.
| Operator | Format | Group | Duration | Price shown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miss Saigon Tours, Street Food Tour | Motorbike, local woman drives | Ask us | 4 h | $57 all-inclusive |
| XO Tours, XO Foodie | Check with them | 16 max | 4.5 h | $30 to $82 |
| Saigon Vibes | Walking or motorbike | Small groups | 3.5 to 11 h | $29 to $65 |
| A Chef's Tour | Walking | 8 max | 3.5 to 4 h | $45 |
| Secret Food Tours | Check with them | Check with them | Check with them | $44.99 |
| Saigon Street Eats | Walking, taxi option at night | Small groups | Check with them | Check with them |
| Street Food Man | Private motorbike, at night | Private | Check with them | Not on home page |
On diet, only two operators give written detail in our notes. XO Tours seats vegetarian and vegan guests apart from the others. We keep separate vendor lists for vegetarian, vegan, halal and allergy needs. Everyone else: ask before you pay.
Questions we get on the bike
It depends on you. Walkers suit A Chef's Tour or Saigon Street Eats, returning visitors suit XO Tours, and first-timers who want transport handled suit a motorbike tour such as ours.
On the operators' own sites in September 2026, from $29 at Saigon Vibes to $82 for XO Tours' top option. Our Street Food Tour is $57, all-inclusive.
Walking goes deeper into one neighbourhood at a slower pace. A motorbike covers several districts in one evening, with hotel transfers on our tours.
Usually, but ask how. XO Tours seats them apart from other guests. We keep vendor lists by diet and run a Vegan Food Tour at $57.
Ours do, in Districts 1, 2 and 3. For other operators, check the booking page.
On our tours, from age 6, riding with a parent, with child-size helmets. Other operators set their own rules.
Clara grew up just outside Saigon and moved to the city five years ago to study. She has been riding its streets ever since. Most evenings you’ll find her leading our night rides, usually with a bowl of snails waiting at the end. Everything in this guide is what she tells her own guests before the first stop.
Eat Saigon from the back seat
Start with the Street Food Tour, 4 hours and 10+ tastings for $57, or see the Michelin Food Tour. Free cancellation up to 24 hours, no deposit, pay on the day.
