Hotpot, grills and gỏi lá in Pleiku: 4 places

Meeting a group tonight and not sure where to sit? Eating and drinking in Pleiku usually goes one of two ways: gỏi lá, small leaf-wrapped bundles you build yourself, or beef hotpot and grilled meat to share over a few beers. Here are four places, each for a different kind of group, with a note on which to reach early and which not to rush.

Start with gỏi lá

Gỏi lá comes from Kon Tum, and the name has a story: elsewhere a dish like this would be called a fish salad because fish is the main part, but in Kon Tum the leaves are the main part, so it became “leaf salad”. A typical version comes with boiled pork belly, boiled fresh prawns and pork skin tossed in rice powder. You pick spicy, fragrant, sour and astringent leaves, mix them to your taste, and roll.

In Pleiku the place to go is Quán Nhà Tôi at 439 Ngô Quyền, The owner’s family runs it out in Trà Đa. The bundles use striped catfish or a river catfish, pork belly and lightly blanched prawns. The dipping sauce is cooked from fish innards, skin, bones, heads and Biển Hồ shrimp, and each bundle comes with one bird’s-eye chilli. Most of the leaves are grown in the grounds, and tour groups stop here just to order it.

Quán Nhà Tôi

• Order: gỏi lá. The owner shows you how to combine the leaves, so first-timers manage fine.
• Price: affordable.
• Where: 439 Ngô Quyền, Pleiku, fairly far from the centre. A spacious, airy room. Book on +84 905 358 255.
• Map: Open in Maps.

Bring a guest who wants to try a local speciality, and do not come in a hurry: the food can come slowly, more than an hour one day and a “rather long” wait another time. It opens at 8 am, so a late lunch works too.

Tip: never eaten gỏi lá? Ask the staff to show you how to mix the leaves with the second line of the card below; they are happy to. With a big group, book ahead and arrive early, since it closes at 9 pm.

Beef hotpot and grilled beef: sit early, order just enough

For a filling meal, Anh Chín at 334 Hùng Vương is the one. It opens only from the afternoon. It is a long-standing grilled-beef place with local regulars, and tourists whose guides pointed them here turn up too.

Lẩu bò nấm Anh Chín

• Order: grilled beef, grilled beef fat cap, grilled tongue and beef hotpot; the broth is sweet from ginseng and mushrooms and the tongue is crisp. For steamed brain, go early.
• Price: reasonable, and many find it cheap.
• Where: 334 Hùng Vương, Pleiku. Comfortable outdoor seating. Call +84 984 502 954 to ask about a table.
• Map: Open in Maps.

The place is clean, service is quick even when busy, and the owner suggests ordering just enough rather than pushing more. It fills with locals and gets busier as the evening goes on, so come early if you dislike crowds.

Tiệm nướng La La Land: a table facing the rice fields

For a date or a small group that wants a view, La La Land at 141 Bùi Đình Túy is our pick. You sit looking out over rice fields and the airport, feet on sand, and watch planes take off while you eat; in the rainy season there is a canopy.

Tiệm nướng La La Land

• Order: the grill set. The combo with fried spring rolls, salad, kimchi and pickles is praised. Chicken feet ordered separately are good and not smelly. The beef-rib kimchi hotpot is on the bland side, so ask for a small bowl of fish sauce to dip.
• Price: about 900,000 VND for two (12 August 2026).
• Where: 141 Bùi Đình Túy, Pleiku. Book on +84 968 213 252.
• Map: Open in Maps.

Staff are friendly and attentive, and it is best outside. The access road is narrow, so a car is a squeeze. Leave the grilled sturgeon: two diners both found the fish crumbly and not fresh.

Lẩu Cô Duyên: for a big group

For a big group, or when you want both hotpot and grill, Cô Duyên at 91 Phan Đình Phùng is our pick. It opens in the morning and is listed as a Vietnamese restaurant that is also a beer place.

Lẩu Cô Duyên

• Order: Thai hotpot and fried chicken cartilage in fish sauce. A group of six can order a grill set with chicken hotpot.
• Where: 91 Phan Đình Phùng, Pleiku. A big group may be sent upstairs because the ground floor is too small. Book on +84 975 678 331.
• Map: Open in Maps.

The place is clean and the staff friendly, but arrive before 8 pm: a group of 15 who came after 8 pm could place only one order because the kitchen was winding down. Freshness is hit and miss: one chicken hotpot arrived cold from frozen chicken, eel was freezer-burnt, and one broth took half an hour.

Our pick for afterwards. If your group wants to keep going after hotpot or gỏi lá, head up to Pleiku Balcony, a balcony bar for sunsets with craft beer and cocktails; its hours and how to hold a table are on its own page.

Show this to the staff

Which place for your group

If a guest wants a local speciality, go to Nhà Tôi, as long as you are not rushed. If your group wants a big meal of beef, Anh Chín, early enough for the steamed brain. Couples or small groups who like a view go to La La Land, and a group of ten or more goes to Cô Duyên, booked before 8 pm. After 9 pm only three of the four are still open until 10 pm, since Nhà Tôi has closed.

Side by side

Pleiku has more dishes that go well with a drink, such as grilled beef with honey and wild-mint fish hotpot, bamboo-tube rice with grilled chicken, smoked chicken and sun-dried beef. For more late-night options see late-night eating in Pleiku; if someone in your group is vegetarian, there is vegetarian food in Pleiku. For a light breakfast the next morning, open phở khô in Pleiku or coffee in Pleiku, and the whole section is under Eating.