Cho Dam Market & Seafood

Cho Dam is Nha Trang's central market, and the easiest place to understand what locals actually eat. The seafood section has prawns, squid, fish and shellfish laid out on ice and sold by the kilo. Many of the surrounding shops will grill or cook whatever you just bought for a small fee.

Beyond seafood there's a dried-goods section — fish sauce, semi-dried squid, dried shrimp, bird's nest — a more sensible place to buy things to take home than the specialty shops along the beachfront. The food lanes around the market stay open late.

This is the easiest place in the whole trip to lose money, so here is the guard: seafood is sold by the kilo, so ask the per-kilo price before you point at anything, and watch the scale as it weighs. Agree the cooking fee before handing anything over. If you would rather not do any of that, a restaurant with a menu is the better call.

On timing: the market runs roughly 6:00–18:00 and the seafood is freshest early. The eating area around it stays open late, so an evening meal is possible but the stock has had a day. The dry-goods aisles — fish sauce, once-dried squid, dried shrimp — are a cheaper place to buy gifts than the specialty shops on Tran Phu.