Hai Phong Dessert Tour: 5 Stops from Che to Mooncakes

Hai Phong doesn't get nearly enough credit as a food city. Most visitors pass through on the way to Cat Ba or Ha Long Bay and grab a bowl of "banh mi" or "bun cua" before moving on. That's a mistake — especially if you skip dessert. The port city has its own distinct sweet tradition, shaped by French-era bakeries, Chinese-influenced confectionery, and a street-food culture that runs well past dark. Here's a five-stop route you can walk in an afternoon, or spread across an evening.

Stop 1 — Che on Dinh Tien Hoang Street

Start at the cluster of "che" vendors along Dinh Tien Hoang, a five-minute walk from the central Tam Bac Lake. "Che" is Vietnam (베트남 / 越南 / ベトナム)'s catch-all category for sweet soups and puddings — and in Hai Phong, the local style leans toward "che ba mau" (three-colour sweet soup layered with mung bean paste, pandan jelly, and coconut milk over crushed ice) and "che khoai mon" (taro in a thick coconut broth). A bowl runs 15,000–25,000 VND. Go in the afternoon when the ice is freshest and the coconut milk hasn't been sitting too long. The stalls here are simple plastic-chair setups; don't overthink it, just point at what looks good.

Stop 2 — Banh Gai at Tran Phu Market

A five-minute ride toward the old market district brings you to one of Hai Phong's most underappreciated sweets: "banh gai", a dense sticky rice cake made with ramie leaf extract that gives it a deep, almost black colour. The filling is typically sweet mung bean paste mixed with shredded coconut and sometimes sesame. The cakes are wrapped in dried banana leaves, which add a faint smoky note. You'll find vendors selling them near the Tran Phu market entrance — look for the neatly stacked pyramids of dark parcels. They cost around 8,000–12,000 VND each and travel well if you want to bring some back to your accommodation. The texture is chewy and sticky in a way that rewards slow eating.

Photo by Jimmy Liao on Pexels

Stop 3 — Kem (Ice Cream) at Nguyen Duc Canh

Hai Phong has a quiet obsession with old-school Vietnamese "kem" — the kind served in metal cups or on wooden sticks, not in waffle cones. The stretch of small kem shops along Nguyen Duc Canh near the city centre does a trade in coconut, durian, and pandan flavours, all made in-house. A cup costs 10,000–20,000 VND. This is not artisan gelato. The coconut is dense and slightly icy, the durian is aggressively funky, and the pandan is the colour of a traffic light. It's exactly what you want on a humid northern afternoon when you've been walking for two hours. A few spots here also serve "kem xoi" — sticky rice topped with a scoop of ice cream — which sounds odd and tastes better than it has any right to.

Stop 4 — Mooncake Bakeries Near Hoang Van Thu Street

Hai Phong has a cluster of family-run bakeries along Hoang Van Thu that have been making "banh trung thu" — mooncakes — for decades. These are most relevant during the lead-up to Tet Trung Thu (the Mid-Autumn Festival), when the shop windows fill with elaborate gift boxes and the sidewalks smell of baking lotus paste. But several of these bakeries sell mooncakes year-round, particularly the baked variety with mixed-nut and salted egg yolk filling. A single mooncake runs 35,000–80,000 VND depending on size and filling. Even outside festival season, the bakeries here also produce "banh dau xanh" (pressed mung bean cakes) and other traditional confectionery worth picking up. The craftsmanship is noticeably more careful than what you find in supermarket versions.

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels

Stop 5 — Modern Dessert Cafe Near Do Son Road

Hai Phong has absorbed the wave of dessert cafes that swept through Vietnamese cities over the last decade, and a few spots near the Do Son road corridor do it with more care than average. Look for places serving "trang mieng" platters — usually a combination of pandan cake, fresh mango pudding, and some form of grass jelly — alongside decent Vietnamese coffee. Prices here run higher than the street stalls: 45,000–75,000 VND for a dessert plate, 30,000–45,000 VND for a "ca phe sua da (연유커피 / 越南冰咖啡 / ベトナムアイスコーヒー)". The setting is air-conditioned and the portions are photographable, which is the point. It makes for a good final stop before heading back toward the waterfront, and the coffee helps reset after four rounds of sugar.

Practical Notes

The full route covers roughly 4–5 km and works best as an afternoon-into-evening circuit, starting around 3 PM when the che stalls are busy and finishing after dark when the bakeries are still open. Hai Phong's streets are navigable by xe om or Grab between stops. Budget around 150,000–200,000 VND total for the full five-stop tour, which is generous.