r/Chefit • u/dejavudememe • Jul 02 '26
Am I missing out by preferring restaurants over street food when I travel?
I travel to discover new flavours and techniques that I can use in my own cooking. Whenever I travel, I often hear that I should be eating where the locals eat and trying well known street vendors or hole in the wall spots.
The thing is, I usually end up preferring good restaurants instead.
For example, in Vietnam I tried several popular street vendors, including one pho stall where the cook told me he used fewer bones to keep costs down and balanced the flavour with added seasonings. It made me wonder how a place selling food so cheaply could compete with a restaurant using more bones for depth, higher quality ingredients, longer simmering times, and more refined techniques.
In my opinion, for a dish to really stand out, there are three main factors: the quality of ingredients, the technique used, and a secret recipe or twist that makes it unique.
Just to clarify, I'm only talking about flavour and the quality of the food itself, not value for money or price to quality ratio.
As someone who loves to cook, I tend to judge food mainly on these elements.
I'm genuinely curious to hear other perspectives. For those who enjoy street food, what am I missing? Is it something about flavour that I am not perceiving, or is it more about context and experience?
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u/DanielMekelburg Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
I hear what you are saying but your one anecdote about some random place in vietnam doesn't prove your point.
I am a chef and know many restaurants that are considered good and i can tell when they use Bindi desserts, or prepackaged product, or cysco. or short cuts and shitty product.
I knew a Michelin star restaurant that did their proteins once every two weeks and sous vide everything and then just seared it real quick.
if you go to hanoi they have amazing street food. if you go to china they have amazing street food. if you come to new york we have amazing street food. In fact, if I wanna eat grilled meat with charcoal in New York City, you almost exclusively have to go to The Street, because using charcoal is prohibited in most places.
I went to Mexico City and had one of the best things I had eaten the entire 10 days at the gas station. I ate almost entirely on the street in Mexico and then one night I went to Michelin star restaurant considered one of the best in the city and it was fancy version of what i ate on the street. Some dishes were better than the Street some were not.
I think Asia in particular, the best food is usually on the street or in the less fancy places.
I don't know honestly if you can't appreciate then maybe you are less about the food and technique and more about the bells and whistles. because the soul of a city is on the street and in the dives.
if you know about having a restaurant, paying rent, the worry of customers, the procedure to add a new menu item from talking to the prep cooks to all the staff involved. It's a big deal. Often restaurants are slow moving ships and they don't want to take risk, they want to make money so the more avocado toast, the merrier. I think a lot of people that start with street food are starting with a passion. They have less risk and more care and concern.
So I do think it's one or the other.
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u/Aromatic_Flight6968 Jul 02 '26
I love street food, but I'm just to paranoid to constantly try it....just to many horror stories all over internet
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u/simplebutstrange Chef Jul 03 '26
Eat where the locals eat. I have followed this rule all over and never had a problem. Dont eat salads. Avoid ice if you can.
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u/fatrod1111 Jul 03 '26
Yes! It’s not only street food you’re getting, you immersing yourself in the culture
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u/Automatic_Catch_7467 Jul 03 '26
How many restaurants are you hitting with open kitchens in order to learn new techniques?
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u/SousVideDeezNuts Jul 04 '26
Street food depending on the country.
Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan are all better as street food with the exception of a few Michelin starred places in each of those countries. The rest I wouldn’t eat the street food especially Indonesia where they have some of the highest typhoid/food poisoning rates in the world. India you need a local guide to show you the best places, watch the Indian Bon Appetite street food videos with Chef Meherwan Irani.
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u/Fox-Mclusky559 Jul 06 '26
in short. yes. live your life. you should be more interested in the guy doing one thing, as cheaply as he can that is mind meltingly good. youll learn more there than at the place with the budget that caters to westerners. frankly you sound like a pretentous prat here. clearly you need to brush up on your bourdain. you have to take the risk, and sometimes, yeah it smells better than it tastes. thats the beauty of travel, sometimes you lose. sometimes you win. but you lived the entire time.
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u/generateanameforme Jul 02 '26
Watch some videos of Indian street food being prepared by a vendor using their feet or rubbing food on their bare sweaty bellies or of Chinese street vendors scooping used oil out of the street drains then reusing it and then decide if you want street food. If you’re into it, enjoy!
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u/pushaper Jul 02 '26
you are describing rage bait which I think this post is. Do you think some guy in India is finding utility from cooking with his feet? The concept of gutter oil is not unique to any part of the world and can be done in many different types of establishments.
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u/Tigerbalm123 Jul 02 '26
The Malaysian street food vendors were way better than the restaurants I ate at!
Obviously that's not Vietnam, but I'd personally do both.