ZAO Vietnamese Rooted Eatery: An independent review

🗓 Last visited in December 2025 / Michelin-selected 2026 (Hanoi branch)

Hanoi is still best known, especially among tourists, as a street food city. That reputation is deserved, and it has only been reinforced by the growing number of visitors documenting their “street food adventures” around the Old Quarter.

What sometimes gets lost in that image is that Hanoi’s dining scene is also developing in a more upscale, more chef-driven direction. This is one of the changes I personally find most interesting to follow, and part of the reason this blog exists: to document how Vietnam’s food culture is evolving beyond the familiar clichés.

The arrival of the Michelin Guide in Vietnam in 2023 gave international visibility to a small circle of now well-established names. But beyond those few restaurants, a lot of interesting things are happening more quietly, often led by talented Vietnamese chefs who have studied abroad or trained alongside foreign chefs, and are now at a stage in their careers where they want to offer something more personal.

ZAO – Vietnamese Rooted Eatery belongs to that newer wave. The restaurant opened in Hanoi in early 2025, then expanded to Ho Chi Minh City in early 2026. We have only tried the Hanoi branch so far, on a visit in late 2025.

Here are a few thoughts from that meal.

Food and menu

ZAO’s chef and co-founder is Chef Le Tuan Cuong, who has spent time working in several high-end French restaurants in Vietnam. The French influence is easy to spot in many of his Vietnamese-ingredient fusion creations.

The menu changes somewhat with the seasons and is divided into four sections: snacks, starters, mains, and desserts. Alongside the a la carte menu, ZAO also offers a Chef’s Menu selected by the chef, priced at 950k++ per person.

We went a la carte. To start, from the snack section, we tried two dishes:

• Brioche with salted honey butter (88k++): soft, fresh brioche with good-quality butter.
• Shimeji mushroom “bop” with sour cream, Vietnamese mint, and rice crackers (158k++): inspired by hen xuc banh da, this was tasty, savory, easy to enjoy, and likely to please most people.

For our starter, we chose the banh bot loc (228k++). With smoked eel, foie gras, and green apple, this Vietnamese-French-Japanese fusion dish was the biggest surprise of the meal.

The chewy tapioca dumpling worked very nicely with the crisp vegetables and melting foie gras, while the richness of the foie and the umami depth from the smoked eel were balanced by the bright acidity of the green apple sauce. I personally found the combination of textures and flavors genuinely interesting.

For mains, we ordered the swordfish belly with cham cheo chimichurri and romesco sauce (358k++), as well as the Iberico pork cheek with Job’s tears, lemon basil, and apple puree (448k++).

The Iberico pork cheek was as good as expected. The swordfish belly, meanwhile, felt a little safe and did not leave quite as strong an impression.

Drinks

Like many restaurants in the casual fine dining segment, ZAO has a solid wine list with a good number of by-the-glass options, generally ranging from 190k++ to 270k++ per glass.

Price and practical notes

Our bill on this visit came to just under 2.2 million VND for two people, including two glasses of wine, VAT, and a 5% service charge.

As with many casual fine dining restaurants, where the emphasis is more on the overall experience, portions at ZAO are not large. It will suit lighter eaters better, while others may want to order a little extra.

Service, unfortunately, was the part of ZAO Hanoi that we were least satisfied with.

The restaurant was rather slow to reply to messages, and the person handling phone reservations did not feel especially well trained. Some policies also came across as quite rigid, for example not allowing guests to choose a table when booking in advance, even for a special occasion.

Hopefully this is something the restaurant will improve over time.

Space

ZAO Hanoi is located on the small Ngo Hue street near the city center, only a few steps from USEbar, one of our favorite cocktail bars in Hanoi. The first floor has an open kitchen and a relaxed wine-bar feel, while the second floor is a quieter dining area. The restaurant can get fairly busy on weekends, so booking ahead is recommended.

ZAO Saigon, meanwhile, is located in Thao Dien, an upscale area popular with both expatriates and young Vietnamese diners. From what we have seen, that branch appears to have a larger space and also features an open kitchen counter.

Final thoughts

ZAO’s move south is probably a fairly bold step, since the Ho Chi Minh City market, especially Thao Dien, is much more mature and competitive than Hanoi’s.

Will good food alone be enough? Time will tell. We hope ZAO can fine-tune the parts that still feel imperfect and build something sustainable across both branches.

*You can refer to the winter 2025 menu below. Many dishes are still available. Click on each image to enlarge.