Casual dining is where personality often speaks loudest. From neighbourhood bistros and modern izakayas to pizza counters, wine bars and kitchens rooted in home-style cooking, the Best Casual Dining Restaurant nominees reveal how relaxed hospitality, distinctive flavours and a strong sense of place continue to shape Vietnam’s everyday dining culture.
.png)
Some restaurants are made for celebration. Others become part of the week. They are the places we return to without needing an occasion: for a bowl we suddenly crave, a pizza shared across the table, a glass of wine after work, or a long lunch that quietly turns into dinner. Casual dining lives in this space between spontaneity and familiarity, where good food matters deeply but never needs to announce itself too loudly.
Soko Cake Bake Brunch
As Gourmet Vietnam Awards returns for Season 2, the Best Casual Dining Restaurant category captures one of the most dynamic sides of Vietnam’s dining scene. Here, the pleasure is often immediate. Menus move easily between cultures and formats, from Italian comfort and Mediterranean warmth to Thai spice, Vietnamese flavours, Japanese-inspired plates, barbecue, seafood, brunch and contemporary bistro cooking.
What connects them is not a single cuisine or style, but a certain generosity. The best casual restaurants make people feel welcome quickly. They create rooms with energy, menus with character and reasons to come back.
Laang Saigon
The Best Casual Dining Restaurant of the Year 2026 nominees are:
The Blacksheep · Westwood · Livannah Sips & Bites · Kabin · Sear Steakhouse · Margherí - Neapolitan Pizza & Eatery · La Lola Saigon · Maison Lucien · Nam Mê Kitchen & Bar · Don Cipriani's Italian Restaurant · Thai Siam Kitchen · Tre Pizza & Pasta · Apero Bistro & Bar · La Vegarie · Antico Fornaio · BARBAK · OKRA FOODBAR · Lumiere Byblos Villa · Lumiere Byblos Skygarden · Lumiere Texas BBQ & Craft Beer · The Gate Restaurant · Together&Co. · Om Momo · Blu Lobster · La Cala · Coastal Saigon · Sol Kitchen & Bar · Andochin Thai Restaurant · Pickles Eatery · Cees Eatery · Dalcheeni · Dì Mai · Mix Greek restaurant · RuNam · RuNam d'Or · Leonardo Pizza · Ola Hale · WKND · Soko Cake Bake Brunch · Mắm Restaurant · Bocāo Basque Izakaya · Casa Grande Thao Dien · Cucina Luca · Gụ Wine Bistro · Lupin Bistrot et Vins · Tomatito Saigon - Sexy Tapas Bar · Celestia Winebar · Olio & Terra - Pasta Lab · Nori Modern Izakaya · Laang Saigon · stiickyThai · The Palm Restaurant & Bar · Làng Ta
RuNam d'Or
For us, casual dining is often where a city shows its appetite most clearly. Not through ceremony, but through the places people genuinely choose to meet, eat, linger and return to. Because sometimes the restaurants that stay with us longest are simply the ones that make eating well feel easy.
GOURMET VIETNAM AWARDS 2026 SEASON 2
The story continues.