Originally Posted by
Panache
What was a real bummer was that in addition to the mediocre and overpriced resort restaurants, all island restaurants we tried were no better than your average vietnamese/asian takeout at any US strip mall, and perhaps worse (lots of rice/noodles and little veggies/meat).
Well my experiences were quite different than yours - both at the big night market and the local restaurants where I had really tasty food (including seafood) at incredibly low prices (and I live in an area with lots of excellent VN restaurants). I even had a roasted quail from a street stand for 2k dong that was incredible. Of course the local places are LOCAL places, which means small chairs, no tablecloths, etc.