The best Italian cooking in Saigon is at Opera in the Park Hyatt, which Gambero Rosso named among its best Italian restaurants outside Italy for 2026, and you will pay 510,000₫ for a carbonara there. The best value is Vittorio in Khánh Hội Ward, where a lasagna baked in the wood oven is 180,000₫. Most of what sits between those two numbers is pizza.
This guide was rebuilt in September 2026 and three restaurants came off it. One has closed, and two could not be confirmed as trading, which is not the same thing and is explained at the bottom. Every address below uses the ward names that replaced the districts in 2025, because seven of the eleven addresses on the old version of this page named an administrative unit that no longer exists.
| Restaurant | Area | Order this | Price | Member deal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CantYna | An Khánh | Tortellini panna e porcini | 320,000₫ | 10% off |
| Opera, Park Hyatt | Sài Gòn Ward | Tortelli all’astice | 620,000₫ | – |
| Pendolasco | An Khánh | Il Duomo pizza | Set lunch 270,000₫ | – |
| Basilico, JW Marriott | Sài Gòn Ward | Ravioli di aragosta | Around 550,000₫ | – |
| Pasta Fresca | An Khánh | Black ink spaghetti | 329,000₫ | – |
| Vittorio | Khánh Hội | Lasagna alla bolognese | 180,000₫ | – |
| Ciao Bella Il Primo | Sài Gòn Ward | Posh carbonara | Not published | – |
| Ciao Bella Thảo Điền | An Khánh | Tiramisu | Not published | – |
Cantyna Italian gives Scene Pass members 10% off, outside happy hours. Join by 30 Nov for 399,000₫ a year, kept for as long as you stay. Get Scene Pass
1. CantYna
206 Nguyễn Văn Hưởng, An Khánh Ward (formerly Thảo Điền). Dinner 17:30 to 23:00 on weekdays, 14:00 to 23:00 at weekends, with happy hour 14:00 to 19:00 every day.
An osteria and wine bar rather than a trattoria, run by Rome-born chef Alessandro Romoli and carrying Ospitalità Italiana certification. The wine list is the reason regulars come, and the room is built around it.
Carbonara is 380,000₫, the tagliatelle al ragù 300,000₫, and the cheapest pasta is an aglio, olio e peperoncino at 190,000₫. A bistecca fiorentina is 340,000₫ per 100g. Budget 450,000₫ to 700,000₫ a head before wine.
Order the tortellini panna e porcini at 320,000₫, beef and pork tortellini in parmigiano cream with sage and beef jus, which the kitchen itself puts top of its list.
One thing to know before you go: there is no pizza. It is not that kind of restaurant.
2. Opera, Park Hyatt Saigon
Lobby level, Park Hyatt Saigon, 2 Lam Sơn Square, Sài Gòn Ward (formerly Bến Nghé). Lunch Monday to Saturday 11:30 to 14:30, dinner daily 18:00 to 22:00, Sunday brunch 12:00 to 15:00.
Chef Luca Cappellato’s kitchen, and the only restaurant on this page with an international award to its name this year: Gambero Rosso listed it among its best Italian restaurants for 2026.
It is also the most expensive. Carbonara 510,000₫, lasagna alla bolognese 450,000₫, a margherita 270,000₫, and a 180g wagyu rib-eye with mushrooms at 1,150,000₫, all before service and VAT. The business lunch is better arithmetic at 610,000₫ for two courses or 950,000₫ for three. Sunday brunch runs 2,110,000₫ to 4,060,000₫ a head depending on what you drink, so treat that as a celebration rather than a family lunch.
Order the tortelli all’astice at 620,000₫, squid-ink pasta filled with Canadian lobster and mascarpone in a lobster bisque. At brunch, wait for the cheese-wheel risotto finished at the trolley.
3. Pendolasco
30 Tống Hữu Định, An Khánh Ward (formerly Thảo Điền). Open every day 11:00 to 22:00.
Trading since 1998, opened by Milan-born chef Carlo Anzon, in a French villa with a garden and a wood-fired oven. It is the best family option here by some way: there are colouring pencils for children at lunch, and it turns romantic after dark.
The three-course set lunch, Monday to Friday 11:00 to 14:00, is 270,000₫, with a glass of wine another 90,000₫. That is the best-value proper Italian meal in the city. À la carte is a different proposition: ossobuco alla Milanese 550,000₫, cotoletta di vitello 460,000₫, pastas 170,000₫ to 310,000₫, and pizza alla pala from 350,000₫. Dinner lands around 300,000₫ to 600,000₫ a head.
Order the Il Duomo pizza, house-made mozzarella and stracciatella with salami Milano, pistachios and hot honey, which is where the in-house cheese-making shows. The pizza alla pala is by Manuel Reale, who won the World Pizza Championship in Parma in 2017.
You may have heard Pendolasco closed. It did not. A different Italian restaurant on Xuân Thủy in Thảo Điền announced a permanent closure in December 2025 and moved nearby, and the two have been muddled ever since.
4. Basilico, JW Marriott Hotel & Suites Saigon
Ground floor, JW Marriott Hotel & Suites Saigon, corner of Hai Bà Trưng and Lê Duẩn, Sài Gòn Ward. Open daily 06:30 to 22:00, with dinner service from 18:00.
Read that hotel name carefully, because our old version sent you to the InterContinental Residences, a brand that stopped existing on 9 September 2024 when the property was reflagged. Basilico came through the rebrand under its own name and is still there, now with chef Francesco Leone. The old page also placed it on the Lê Văn Hữu and Nguyễn Du corner, which is the back of the same block.
It opens at half six in the morning and runs all day, which makes it the most useful restaurant here for an unfussy dinner with children or a working lunch. There is a terrace.
Order the ravioli di aragosta, filled with Nha Trang lobster and ricotta in a light tomato cream. The cheaper signature is the penne alla Norcina with Italian sausage and porcini.
A caveat on price. The only priced menu we could find is a PDF created in May 2024, before the rebrand, which had carbonara at 255,000₫, a margherita at 210,000₫ and the lobster ravioli at 550,000₫. No Marriott-era menu is published. Treat those as indicative and expect to pay more.
5. Pasta Fresca
28 Thảo Điền street, An Khánh Ward. Monday to Friday 11:00 to 22:30, weekends from 10:00.
Founded in 2016 by two Italians, Federico and Valerio, and the most straightforwardly useful restaurant on this page. Pasta is build-your-own: a 99,000₫ base plus a sauce, so spaghetti with a classic ragù comes to 230,000₫ and a carbonara to 268,000₫. A classic margherita is 167,000₫ and the bolognese lasagna 298,000₫. Around 250,000₫ to 400,000₫ a head.
Order the black ink spaghetti with grilled prawns and clams at 329,000₫, the only item in their “special pasta” section and therefore the house dish. For something cheaper, the arancini with ‘nduja and mozzarella at 179,000₫.
Children can build their own plate, which is the whole argument for bringing them here. There are sister branches on Tạ Hiện and in Đà Lạt, so specify Thảo Điền when you book.
6. Vittorio
240 Khánh Hội, Khánh Hội Ward (formerly Ward 6, District 4). Roughly 11:00 to 21:00 Monday to Saturday and to 22:00 on Sunday, though sources disagree, so ring ahead on 028 6680 3134.
The cheapest Italian on this page and the one locals in District 4 actually eat at. A 25cm margherita is 125,000₫ and the 30cm is 155,000₫. Lasagna alla bolognese is 180,000₫, ravioli di magro 169,000₫, penne al forno 175,000₫. Swapping to homemade tagliatelle or gnocchi adds 20,000₫. Prices exclude VAT and a meal comes in around 250,000₫ to 350,000₫.
Order the lasagna, baked crisp in the wood oven. A reviewer in June 2026 put it plainly: “hôm nay mình ăn lasagne, thực sự rất bất ngờ vì quá ngon.” The homemade gnocchi has its own menu section and is the other thing to try.
Free parking, a family room and no pretension. The menu scans on their own website carry no date, so treat the prices as a guide.
7. Ciao Bella Il Primo, District 1
11 Đông Du, Sài Gòn Ward. Roughly 11:00 to 22:00 daily, though one listing says 22:30 and asks you to confirm.
The original, open since the early 2000s, in a two-storey shophouse three minutes from the Sheraton, the Park Hyatt and the Caravelle. The upstairs room is quieter. There is a two or three course set lunch aimed at office workers between 11:30 and 13:30.
Order the posh carbonara, mixed and finished at the table, which is the dish the restaurant leads on itself. The margherita DOP goes into a brick oven for 90 seconds, and the tiramisu is made with Marsala rather than rum.
We could not establish prices. Three sources give three contradictory ranges and none is credible, so rather than pick one we are telling you to ring 028 3822 3329. Do not use the website address you will find listed elsewhere; that domain no longer resolves.
8. Ciao Bella, Thảo Điền
39 Võ Trường Toản, An Khánh Ward. Open 11:00 to 22:00 every day.
This is a separate restaurant from the one above, not a second address for it. Different phone, different menu, different size of room. Our old page merged the two under one heading, which is why this entry now exists.
Small, residential and unhurried, red and white checked tablecloths, the neighbourhood option rather than the occasion one. Order the tiramisu, which one diner called the best they had eaten on the Asian continent, or the baked sea bass.
Prices are not published anywhere we could reach. It is described as moderately priced for Thảo Điền. Ring +84 838 783 456, which is not the District 1 number.
For a pizza night rather than an Italian dinner
Three of the restaurants above make good pizza, but if pizza is the point of the evening then a different list applies.
Oliver’s Pizza in Thạnh Mỹ Tây Ward does Roman al taglio, sold by the slice at 70,000₫, or 170,000₫ for two slices with a salad and a soft drink. Order one coppa and one spicy salami. Saigon Scene members get 10% off at Oliver’s Pizza with the app. Ring +84 933 502 638 before travelling, because published hours for it disagree.
Beyond that, our guide to the best pizza in Saigon covers 14 pizzerias including the Detroit and New York style places, which are very good and are not Italian restaurants.
What Italian food costs in Saigon
All checked September 2026.
- Under 200,000₫ a dish: Vittorio. Lasagna 180,000₫, pizza from 125,000₫.
- 200,000₫ to 350,000₫: Pasta Fresca and Pendolasco’s pastas, and CantYna’s cheaper plates. This is the normal band for a decent plate of pasta in this city.
- 350,000₫ to 550,000₫: CantYna’s signatures, Pendolasco’s meat courses, Basilico.
- Over 500,000₫: Opera. A carbonara is 510,000₫ and the lobster tortelli 620,000₫.
Two set lunches are worth knowing about because they cut the cost of the two most expensive kitchens here: Pendolasco does three courses for 270,000₫ on weekdays, and Opera does two for 610,000₫. Hotel restaurants add service charge and VAT on top of the menu price, so add roughly 15 per cent at Opera and Basilico.
Where to go for what
- The best cooking: Opera, and the business lunch is how to afford it.
- Cheap and genuinely good: Vittorio in Khánh Hội.
- With children: Pendolasco for the garden, or Pasta Fresca for build-your-own.
- Date night: CantYna for the wine list, Pendolasco after dark.
- Best value set menu: Pendolasco, 270,000₫ for three courses.
- Breakfast or an all-day table: Basilico, open from 06:30.
- Serious wine: CantYna.
- Pizza by the slice: Oliver’s.
- Somewhere near the Opera House: Ciao Bella Il Primo on Đông Du.
Checked and left out
Three restaurants from the previous version of this guide are not above.
Pizza Reale has closed. The Vietnamese tax registry lists the operating company as not trading at its registered address, a record synced on 21 September 2026. It has no working website, no review newer than 2022, and the address our page gave for it, on Võ Nguyên Giáp, appears in no source anywhere. Every record that ever existed put it on Nguyễn Đăng Giai.
Aperitivo has closed. Its tax registration still showed as active in September 2026, which is why an earlier version of this guide held back, but the Thao Dien venue is no longer trading.
Carpaccio could not be confirmed either. Its own website is still up but the copyright reads 2023, its menu PDFs were created in March 2024, its operator’s domain has gone dead, and its booking platform shows it on a short break and not taking reservations. That pattern fits either a long relaunch or a quiet closure, and we could not tell which. A call to the restaurant would settle it.
How we picked these
Saigon Scene is based in Ho Chi Minh City. Every restaurant above was confirmed as trading in September 2026, most through the venue’s own live menu, booking system or ordering back end, and several against the Vietnamese company registry. Prices come from each restaurant’s own published menu except at the two Ciao Bella branches, where nothing is published and we say so instead of guessing, and at Basilico, where the only priced menu predates the hotel’s rebrand and is labelled accordingly.
Addresses use the ward names that replaced the district tier on 1 July 2025. Thảo Điền is no longer a ward and is now part of An Khánh, so every “Thảo Điền, District 2” line on the old page was wrong twice over. Several of these restaurants still print the old form on their own websites.
One entry became two. “Ciao Bella Il Primo” on the old page merged the District 1 original with the separate Thảo Điền restaurant, which have different phone numbers, menus and rooms.
CantYna is a Saigon Scene partner and leads the list, and Oliver’s Pizza is a partner too. Both are marked as such. Nothing else here has any relationship with us and nobody paid to appear.
Italian restaurants in Saigon: your questions answered
What does a plate of pasta cost in Saigon?
Between about 180,000₫ and 510,000₫ depending where you eat. Vittorio in Khánh Hội does lasagna at 180,000₫. Pasta Fresca builds pasta from a 99,000₫ base, so a ragù comes to 230,000₫. CantYna charges 380,000₫ for carbonara and Opera at the Park Hyatt 510,000₫ for the same dish. Hotel restaurants add service and VAT on top. Checked September 2026.
Which is the best Italian restaurant in Saigon?
Opera at the Park Hyatt, on the evidence rather than on our opinion: Gambero Rosso named it among its best Italian restaurants outside Italy for 2026. It is also the most expensive, so the weekday business lunch at 610,000₫ for two courses is the sensible way in. For a better balance of cooking and cost, Pendolasco’s three-course weekday set lunch at 270,000₫ is the best value serious Italian meal in the city.
Where can I get good pizza in Saigon?
Pendolasco for pizza alla pala, made by a pizzaiolo who won the World Pizza Championship in Parma in 2017, and Pasta Fresca for a wood-fired margherita at 167,000₫. Oliver’s Pizza does Roman al taglio by the slice at 70,000₫ and gives Saigon Scene members 10% off. CantYna serves no pizza at all. For the wider pizza scene, including the Detroit and New York style places, we keep a separate guide.
Are there Italian restaurants in Thao Dien?
Yes, four of the eight here, though Thảo Điền is now part of An Khánh Ward. CantYna on Nguyễn Văn Hưởng is the wine bar and osteria, Pendolasco on Tống Hữu Định is the villa with the garden, Pasta Fresca on Thảo Điền street is the casual family option, and Ciao Bella on Võ Trường Toản is the small neighbourhood room.
Which Italian restaurants in Saigon are good for families?
Pendolasco has a garden and hands out colouring pencils at lunch. Pasta Fresca lets children build their own pasta from a base and a sauce, and opens at 10:00 or 11:00. Basilico at the JW Marriott serves all day from 06:30 in a trattoria format rather than a fine dining one. Vittorio has a family room and free parking, and is the cheapest of the four.
What happened to Pizza Reale in Thao Dien?
It has closed. The Vietnamese company registry records the operator as no longer trading at its registered address, synced on 21 September 2026, and there has been no working website or review newer than 2022. It was on Nguyễn Đăng Giai in Thảo Điền, not the Võ Nguyên Giáp address that circulated in some guides including an earlier version of this one.
