TNH

The two household names at the snake village are Quoc Trieu and Nguyen Van Duc. Quoc Trieu is more popular and is a much larger restaurant but I prefer Nguyen Van Duc because the food is just as good and you get better service.

When I talk about food here I mean snake. There are two types of snakes on offer: cobras and a kind of Vietnamese water snake (ran rao). The tourists will no doubt choose cobras because the price is about the same (600,000 per kilo compared to 500,000 per kilo for water snake) and it’s cool to brag to your friends that you’ve taken a shot of vodka with a cobra’s heart still beating in it. In terms of taste though cobras are not very good compared to the water snake - the meat is tougher and less tasty.

There are about 7 dishes that they bring you, but my favorites are the fried snake spring rolls, the snake cake (similar to crab cake) and snake meat balls (which look like very small falafel). I’ve been here about 4 or 5 times and the last time I took my friends here they were beating the cobra’s head against the cement, which would definitely be a culture shock for most foreigners.

I enjoy going to a snake restaurant once in a while but I understand that it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. Nguyen Van Duc is my snake restaurant of choice and I’d recommend it to anyone who has not tried snake before. It’s best to go out to the snake village on a taxi. Any taxi driver will know where Nguyen Van Duc or Quoc Trieu is. A standard meal here should cost you about 200,000 per person. If you order cobra expect to pay about 50,000 extra.