Бун Ка Ко Ба Нячанг

Fish noodle soup is the dish you have to eat in Nha Trang, and Co Ba is the address locals and visitors mention most. What makes the bowl is the broth: simmered from fish bones, clear and cleanly sweet rather than rich. Nothing like the heavy stocks of southern noodle dishes.

The standard bowl comes with fried fish cake, chunks of fish and a few herbs. In jellyfish season they add sứa. That's the most distinctly Nha Trang version of it. The bowl of ground green chilli on the table is worth using, but taste as you go.

On timing: it opens in the morning and closes when the pot is empty, usually before early afternoon. Arrive after nine and you take what is left; arrive at lunch and it has probably gone. If you have one morning in Nha Trang, put this first in the day rather than after a swim.

A bowl is 40,000–60,000₫, on a plastic stool, and you leave when you finish. This is a breakfast shop, not somewhere to linger. For comparison, Hai Ca on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai runs 6:00–22:00 and also does bánh canh, which is easier on hours but a heavier, more central-coast broth. Co Ba is the one people praise for how clear and clean the stock is.

In the same family: Hai Cá's fish noodles, bánh canh chả cá and bún sứa, the jellyfish noodle soup you only find here.