Luong Son

At this open-air barbecue-and-beer garden, patrons grill strips of tangy marinated beef—bo tung xeo—on tabletop braziers and share pitchers of foamy local beer. The kitchen also dishes up specialties like deep-fried scorpion, bonded chicken feet, and fried pig's stomach. If it's available, order the “fresh shrimp”: your waiter will bring a plastic bag full of live shrimp, which you'll have to immobilize before grilling by slicing their spinal nerve with a handy toothpick. Not for the squeamish, but the taste is phenomenal.