A bowl of thick, opaque white noodle soup, topped with sliced and fried fish cake — one sip of the broth and you'll know instantly it's nothing like the pork-bone broths common elsewhere in Vietnam. This is a flavor only a seaside city like Nha Trang could produce.
A broth built 100% from fish bones, a nearly 20-year-old shop
VnExpress Du Lịch's feature 'Quán Bánh Canh Gần 20 Năm Nổi Tiếng ở Nha Trang' documents Bà Thừa's nearly 20-year history on Yersin Street. The broth is simmered entirely from fish bones, no pork bones at all, and the noodles are thick — closer in texture to Phnom Penh-style rice noodles — with a satisfying chew once they've soaked up the broth. The fish cake comes two ways, raw-sliced and fried, mixed into the same bowl so you get both a soft texture and a crisp, savory one in the same meal.
Honest clarification: opinions on 'the best' are genuinely divided
Worth adding honestly here: Nha Trang has more than one shop making bánh canh chả cá — Bà Thừa, Cô Hà, and Phúc all have their own followings, and locals genuinely disagree over whose is best. This guide anchors on Bà Thừa because it has concrete VnExpress coverage and a verifiable track record, not to declare it 'the one true version.' It's meant as a starting point for your own exploration — if you spot other shops with this same dish on their sign around Phước Hòa Ward, they're worth trying too.
How to Eat It Right
- Try a sip of the plain broth first to taste the fish-bone sweetness before mixing everything together.
- The raw-sliced and fried fish cakes taste different — try both for the fuller picture.
- Chili sauce is usually on the table if you want more heat.
Don't Treat One Shop as the Only Standard
- Bà Thừa, Cô Hà, and Phúc all have loyal local followings, and opinions genuinely differ.
- This guide anchors on the shop with concrete VnExpress coverage and a verifiable track record — it's not meant as an exhaustive ranking.
- Other shops with the same dish on their sign around Phước Hòa Ward are worth trying with an open mind.
A bowl of noodles built on fish-bone broth is the logic only a seaside city like Nha Trang could produce. As for which shop is best — that's a vote everyone gets to cast with their own tongue.