Cho Dam Market & Seafood Nha Trang

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.

There are two buildings here, and that is the easiest thing to get wrong. The round market. A lotus-shaped drum 67 metres across, opened in 1973. Stopped trading in April 2021, and its stallholders were given help to move into the new market. As of the most recent public decision, the round building's fate is still open: the province is taking expert advice on whether to demolish it or list it as a building of architectural value. The three zones described below. Centre, left wing, right wing. Belong to the market that is trading, not to the round drum. Some guides call it "the left wing of the round market", and following that name takes you to a building where nobody is selling anything. The round building still stands and is still worth seeing from outside; you just cannot buy anything inside it.

The market has three zones, and knowing which is which saves a lap. The centre sells household goods for locals plus souvenir and handicraft stalls. The left wing is fresh seafood and dried goods. The right wing is the eating zone. Food cooked on the spot, to eat there or take away; the ward's own page names bún cá sứa and nem nướng as the two to try, and this site has a page for each.

The market is about 500 m from the central beach and 2 km from the 2 Thang 4 square. Roughly a 30-minute walk from the square, so most readers will ride. Which is the argument for folding it into something else nearby rather than making a separate trip of it.

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.

And one thing worth putting in the right order: Cho Dam is strong on dried goods, gifts and being easy to reach, while the catch straight off the boats is at Hon Ro market beside the fishing port on the south side of the city. That market starts around 4 in the morning and is busiest before 7. If you are buying a couple of hundred grams to eat, Cho Dam is enough; if you are buying by the box, or want prices close to wholesale, go to Hon Ro and go early.

On timing: the ward's own page gives 5:00–18:30, 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.

Two things people take home but rarely know where to buy: mực rim me, dried squid shredded and simmered with tamarind and chilli, ready to eat and good for a few weeks, and bánh tráng xoài, ripe mango pulped and dried into a thin chewy sheet, sweet from the fruit and nothing else. Both are dry goods, so they clear airport security. In Chợ Đầm, ask for the dried-goods aisle; Chợ Xóm Mới at 49 Ngô Gia Tự has a larger one, and right beside it 41–43 Ngô Gia Tự is a row of shops that do dried seafood more seriously than either market.

Choosing between the market and a shop is a choice between two ways of buying, not between real and fake. In the market the price is what you ask and haggle for. Cheaper, but you need to know how to haggle and how to judge the goods. A specialty shop posts its prices: Đặc Sản chouchou at 16 Ngô Đức Kế, for instance, sells mực rim, dried mango and nuts with labels on the shelf. Buying once for the family without bargaining, the shop is the easier route; buying a lot with a local alongside, the market is markedly cheaper.

Restaurants serving Vietnamese food by the tableful: Lang Ngon and Quán Đồng Xanh. The city's other market is Hòn Rớ, where the boats land.