It’s challenging to be precise about what the best Vietnamese chicken rice in Ho Chi Minh City tastes like. From Chợ Lơn’s popular Vietnamese Chinese-style chicken rice to Hội An’s unique chicken rice and provincial recipes from places like Nha Trang and Phú Yên, there are just so many types to sample.
Even individual districts in Saigon tell their very own chicken rice story and define Saigon cuisine quite differently. And sometimes chicken on rice is just hit-and-miss. Yet Saucefish has come up with a list of some of the most memorable chicken rice places in Saigon despite our disinclination for street food listicles.
From deep-fried cơm gà xối mỡ (crispy fried chicken rice) to poached chicken on Cơm gà Hải Nam (Hainanese chicken rice), this is Saigon’s chicken rice scene in a nutshell with 5 “must-try” spots.
Cơm gà Xối Mỡ Lý Tự Trọng is a 25-year-old fried chicken establishment in Saigon’s CBD to start with
Located in an unassuming alley off Lý Tự Trọng street, a stretch adjacent to Japantown known mainly for hidden bars, Heart of Darkness Brewery, and a couple of street vendors purveying cơm bình dân (low-cost Vietnamese rice meals) to blue collar workers in the vicinity, it’s hard to imagine that one will find one of oldest fried chicken rice joints in Ho Chi Minh City’s CBD.
Belated preface… cơm gà translates to chicken rice if you haven’t noticed.
Though what exactly is xối mỡ?
Most tour guides will conveniently bestow the English translation of “waterfall fried chicken” thanks to an oil “drizzle” fryer popularized by social media at Su Su’s, but it doesn’t always need to be that high-tech.
Cơm gà xối mỡ is simply Saigon’s most ubiquitous form of crispy fried chicken rice.
At Cơm Gà Xối Mỡ Lý Tự Trong, hot oil is scattered continuously by hand over chicken while simmering in a shallow wok, and this technique itself is key to crispy chicken skin that’s not compromised by a typically grease-laden interior found in many varieties of fried chicken.
Beyond fragrant karaage-like chicken thigh served with lightly flavored fried rice, this joint’s other specialty is somewhat unrelated. Some regulars opt to add a serving of chả cá thác lác (deep-fried fish cake made with bronze featherback, a traditional Vietnamese food originating from Central Vietnam) on the side for a rather sinful early-evening indulgence.
Come early as they sell out by eight o’clock on most days. Locals call this the “4-hour Vietnamese chicken rice” spot.
If fried chicken isn’t your cup of tea, Northern Vietnamese-style poached chicken rice at Gà Ta Vân Hương might be
District 5, now mostly part of a recently established Chợ Lớn administrative ward, may be known to most as Ho Chi Minh City’s de-facto Chinese enclave, but this humble establishment has been serving up plates of Northern Vietnamese-style poached chicken rice to locals who like their gà ta (free-range chicken) very al dente for almost 30 years.
Yes, this is a wildly different experience compared to the crispy fried chicken rice we just featured earlier!
Al dente is almost an euphemism in this case at Cháo gà Vân Hương since most foreign visitors will inevitably complain about how chewy Vietnamese poultry can be.
But rest assured the light-yellow hued birds here are not as tough as it sounds. The unadulterated flavors of poached chicken are a perfect fit with Gà Ta Vân Hương’s sweetened fish sauce & vinegar-dressed salad, pepper-and-salt mix, and turmeric-colored Vietnamese chicken rice.
But what we loved the most here turned out to be chicken soup congee with lotus seed that almost melts in your mouth.
All in all, a place that offers several ways to enjoy chicken for its innate sweetness, and Quán Ăn Bảo Anh, the poached chicken competitor next door, is also an exceptional option.
Chợ Lơn’s Đông Nguyên Chicken Rice has kept to the tradition of Vietnamese Chinese-style chicken rice for three generations
Chợ Lơn’s Đông Nguyên Chicken Rice (Cơm Gà Đông Nguyên) is where the boundaries of Hainanese chicken rice and Chợ Lơn’s style of Vietnamese chicken rice are blurred as mentioned in a previous story on Saucefish.
Beyond 180-day-old hens (Gà mái dầu in Vietnamese) full of luscious, yellow fat, and Malaysian-style honey-glazed char siew (some of the best in town), a visit to Đông Nguyên takes you from a typical southeast Asian chicken rice experience into the world of the local Cholon culinary innovations. If you’re looking for maximum flavor, be sure to opt for chicken thigh.
Apart from its popular poached Vietnamese chicken rice and Cantonese soy sauce chicken rice, Đông Nguyên has garnered a cult following for its minced meat mapo tofu, Cantonese boiled soups, and Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce vegetable stir-fries that might just remind you of a trip down downtown Kowloon.
If you wonder why there’s so much variety that goes with Vietnamese chicken rice at Đông Nguyên, it might be fascinating to know that the founders of this 80-year-old establishment were motivated by waves of avian flu and poultry shortage in the 90s and 2000s to create today’s range of non-chicken menu items.
Adversity breeds strength, especially when you’ve been around long enough!
Ultimately, we love Đông Nguyên for their ability to bring out the best from top-notch local poultry without heavy seasoning. Oh, and did we forget the coconut milk chicken curry?
Calmette Street’s Cơm Gà Hải Nam (Kiểu Singapore) is Singaporean-style Hainanese chicken rice by namesake but quite Vietnamese in culinary excellence
This establishment near to MAROU Chocolate in Saigon Ward is self-proclaimed kiểu Singapore (Singapore-style), but we found some tasty Vietnamese modifications unique to Saigon cuisine that could be debatable to purist, but still delicious nonetheless.
Trương Quốc Vinh, owner of Cơm Gà Hải Nam (Kiểu Singapore), spent his formative years working as a chef for a Singaporean-owned restaurant in early 90s Saigon. After an eye-opening three-year stint in Singapore, he opened a chicken rice shop on Calmette Street with support from his Singaporean mentor.
The chicken itself is not atypical of Hainanese-style poached chicken with the Singaporean palate in mind, but the yellow rice is distinct from both Singaporean-style and the style offered at Vân Hương — basically a hybrid Vietnamese dish.
Though that’s not the main draw in our opinion.
If you’re a fan of pork, Cơm Gà Hải Nam (Kiểu Singapore)’s signature Tam Bảo (three treasures) chicken rice platter adds Chinese-style roast pork and char siew. The char siew is alright, but the Cantonese-style roast pork here is gloriously crispy and made even better with a “proprietary” sauce that our photographer thinks is concocted from char siew drippings and offal braising liquid.
And, if you happen to be a spice lover, Cơm Gà Hải Nam (Kiểu Singapore)’s sambal-like chilli sauce is quite the flavor bomb. We had to stop ourselves from using too much of it.
Evidently, Cơm Gà Hải Nam (Kiểu Singapore) is a good example of how a combination of chicken rice classics with other Saigon-inspired favorites makes every Vietnamese chicken rice experience in Ho Chi Minh City rather unique!
Nha Trang-style chicken rice includes an odd dash of mayo but is irrefutably Vietnamese at heart
A little bit of a hidden gem, Bình Thạnh District’s Cơm Gà Nha Trang at 313 Bùi Đình Túy Street may be a two-kilometer trek from the edge of District 1’s Tân Đinh ward, but we assure you it’s worth the ride.
Nha Trang’s style of chicken rice is well-regarded yet difficult to find in Ho Chi Minh City.
The joint located in a crowded local foodie section of the city isn’t a looker, but the highlight of Nha Trang chicken rice is considered by local foodies as the unexpected addition of yellow-colored mayo made simply from egg yolks and vegetable oil — as odd and unhealthy as it may sound, the combination of sweetened fish sauce, shredded chicken, and mayo on a spoonful of Vietnamese chicken rice is lifechanging.
Like several other central Vietnamese variants of cơm gà, Nha Trang-style adds a handful of rau răm (Laksa leaf) for a touch of herbal aroma.
If you still prefer crispy fried chicken rice, that option is available at the same, affordable price of VND35,000 (August 2025). The mainstream “topping” of Nha Trang-style chicken rice is poached and shredded chicken, but we’re mega grateful unhealthier options are available.
Get real. You’re probably not health conscious if you’re already opting for chicken rice with mayo!
