Kem Trang Tien 2026: The Ice Cream Hanoi Has Queued For Since 1958
On a warm evening on Trang Tien Street, a few hundred metres from Hoan Kiem Lake, you will find something that makes no sense until you see it: a hundred people standing on a pavement and in a covered courtyard, eating ice cream on sticks, saying very little, and leaving within four minutes.
Nobody sits down. There are no tables, no chairs and nowhere to linger. You queue at a hatch, hand over a few thousand dong, take a wrapped stick of ice cream, step aside, eat it, drop the stick in the bin and go. Then you do it again, because one is never enough.
Kem Trang Tien has been doing this since 1958, and in that time Hanoi has changed almost completely around it. The street has gone from state shops to luxury retail. The country has changed economic system. The ice cream is still about the price of a bus ticket and the queue is still there.
This guide covers what to order, how the ritual works, how to make sure you are at the real shop rather than one of the many imitations, and where else in the city is worth a stop.
The History of Kem Trang Tien
Kem Trang Tien opened in 1958 at 35 Trang Tien Street, in what was then the newly reorganised commercial centre of a newly independent North Vietnam.
It began as a state run enterprise, which in practice meant it was one of a small number of places in Hanoi where an ordinary family could buy something that was purely a treat. That matters for understanding why Vietnamese people feel the way they do about it.
Why an ice cream shop became an institution
Through the war years and the subsidy period that followed, consumer goods in northern Vietnam were scarce and rationed. Ice cream was not a daily item. A stick of kem on Trang Tien was an occasion, something a parent bought a child after a walk around the lake on a Sunday.
Two generations grew up with that association. The result is a brand that carries more nostalgic weight in Hanoi than almost any other food business in the country, and a shop where the customers today include people who first queued there in the 1960s.
What changed and what did not
The company was equitised in the 2000s and has changed ownership since, and the site has been renovated. The format, though, has stayed stubbornly the same: a hatch, a stick, no seating, very low prices and a queue.
That refusal to become a cafe is the whole character of the place. Several times over the years there has been speculation that the site would be redeveloped into something more profitable per square metre. It has not happened, and in Hanoi that is treated as good news.
What to Order at Kem Trang Tien
Kem Trang Tien offers two formats and a short list of flavours. Do not overthink it.
The two Kem Trang Tien formats
Kem que, the stick. The classic. A dense bar of ice cream on a wooden stick, in a paper wrapper. Cheapest, fastest, and what most of the queue is buying.
Kem oc que, the cone. A scoop in a crisp cone, slightly more expensive. Better if you want to taste more than one thing without holding four sticks.
The Kem Trang Tien flavours
Com, green rice. The one to order. Pale green, made with the young sticky rice harvested in autumn in Hanoi, faintly sweet and grassy with a texture unlike anything in a Western ice cream cabinet. This is the flavour that makes Kem Trang Tien specific rather than just old.
Dau xanh, mung bean. Nutty, mild and very Vietnamese. The second most ordered.
Sua dua, coconut milk. Rich and clean, and the easiest first choice for anyone unsure about the other two.
So co la, chocolate. Dense and dark rather than sweet. Reliably good.
Khoai mon, taro. Purple, mild, a little starchy.
Va ni, vanilla. Present for completeness.
What to actually do
Buy two sticks on the first visit: com and one other. They cost almost nothing and they melt fast in Hanoi heat, so buying several at once is a mistake.
If you only try one thing in this entire article, make it com. It connects directly to the autumn green rice season that the rest of Hanoi’s food calendar runs on.
How Kem Trang Tien Works
Buying Kem Trang Tien takes under five minutes and catches first time visitors out, so here it is in order.
- Join the queue at the hatch. There may be several windows. They move fast.
- Say the flavour and the number. “Hai kem com” is two green rice sticks. Pointing works.
- Pay in cash. Small notes. The amounts are tiny.
- Step aside immediately. The queue behind you is moving and there is nowhere to stand and deliberate.
- Eat it standing. In the courtyard, on the pavement, leaning on a motorbike. This is normal and everyone is doing it.
- Bin the stick and go.
There is genuinely nowhere to sit
This is the Kem Trang Tien detail that confuses visitors most. There are no chairs, no tables, no indoor seating area. The whole business model is volume through a hatch.
If you want to sit down with ice cream, the lakeside cafes a few minutes away will sell you a scoop in a bowl at five times the price. That is a different experience, and not the one people queue here for.
Eat your Kem Trang Tien fast
Kem Trang Tien sticks are small, dense bars in a hot climate. You have perhaps three minutes before the situation becomes a problem for your shirt.
Scooter service
You will see people buying their Kem Trang Tien without dismounting, eating in the saddle and riding off. This is a legitimate and much practised technique.
Where to Go, and the Kem Trang Tien Copycat Problem
The original Kem Trang Tien
35 Trang Tien Street, Hoan Kiem district. Roughly a five minute walk from Hoan Kiem Lake and two minutes from the Opera House end of the street.
You will know it by the crowd standing outside eating. There is no mistaking a hundred people on a pavement with ice cream sticks.
Why there are Kem Trang Tien imitations
The name Trang Tien is both a brand and a street name, which has made it easy for unrelated shops to trade on the association. Over the years a number of outlets have used similar names, similar signage and similar wrappers, in Hanoi and elsewhere in Vietnam, and the company has had repeated trademark disputes.
There have also been legitimate authorised outlets at various points, which makes the picture genuinely confusing rather than simply dishonest.
How to be sure it is Kem Trang Tien
Go to 35 Trang Tien. The original site is the one thing nobody can copy.
Be sceptical of branches elsewhere, particularly in tourist areas, airports and other cities. Some are authorised and many are not.
Ignore the signage argument. A shop with a nearly identical sign two doors down is not a coincidence and is not worth your custom at twice the price.
To be fair about it, the imitations are not dangerous and some of them sell perfectly decent ice cream. But if you have walked here for the institution, go to the institution.
Kem Trang Tien’s Rivals and the Wider Ice Cream Scene
Kem Thuy Ta
The other half of the Hanoi ice cream story and of the Kem Trang Tien story, and roughly the same age. Thuy Ta sits right on the edge of Hoan Kiem Lake, in a pavilion built out over the water, and it offers what Trang Tien refuses to: somewhere to sit.
The ice cream is good and the setting is better. For a slower stop with a view of the lake, this is the alternative.
Hanoians have opinions about which is superior. There is no correct answer and asking the question is a good way to start a conversation.
Kem xoi, ice cream with sticky rice
A Hanoi street dessert rather than a shop, in the same family as banh ran and banh com: a scoop of coconut ice cream on warm yellow sticky rice, with shredded coconut and sometimes crushed peanuts. The hot and cold contrast is the point. Sold from small stalls, particularly around the Old Quarter in the evening.
Kem bo, avocado ice cream
Avocado blended with coconut milk and condensed milk, served as a thick dessert rather than a scoop. Originally from Da Lat and now widespread. Better than it sounds to anyone who has only met avocado in a savoury context.
Kem trang tien’s neighbours on the street
Trang Tien Street Hanoi now holds Trang Tien Plaza and a run of modern cafes, gelaterias and bubble tea shops. The contrast between a 15,000 dong stick eaten standing and a 90,000 dong gelato eaten sitting down, a hundred metres apart, is a reasonable summary of what has happened to Hanoi in twenty years.
Che
Not ice cream and not Kem Trang Tien, but the other cold sweet thing people eat here. Sweet bean and jelly soups served over crushed ice, sold from small shops across the Old Quarter. Worth a separate visit.
Kem Trang Tien: Practical Tips
A few things worth knowing before you join the queue. For wider trip planning, Vietnam’s national tourism site is the official reference.
Price. A stick costs in the region of 10,000 to 20,000 VND, roughly 40 to 80 US cents. A cone is slightly more. This is one of the cheapest things you will buy in Hanoi.
Cash only, small notes. Do not arrive with a 500,000 note for a 15,000 purchase.
Hours. Open through the day and into the evening. Confirm current hours before a special trip, since they have shifted over the years.
When the queue is worst. Summer evenings and weekend nights, particularly when the lakeside walking street is open from Friday to Sunday. The queue moves fast even at its longest, so do not be put off by the sight of it.
Winter. Hanoians eat ice cream in January, and the shop stays busy. If the idea of ice cream at 15C seems strange, that is a cultural difference rather than a mistake on their part.
Combine it with a walk. The souvenir shops and Temple of Literature are both within reach of the same loop. The natural route is a loop of Hoan Kiem Lake, then east along Trang Tien past the Opera House, ice cream at number 35, and back. Twenty minutes, and it takes in a good share of the French Quarter’s best architecture.
With children. This is one of the easiest wins in Hanoi for families: cheap, fast, outdoors and immediately understood.
Napkins. Bring one. There are none at the hatch and you will want it.
Kem Trang Tien: Frequently Asked Questions
What is Kem Trang Tien? Hanoi’s most famous ice cream shop, open since 1958 at 35 Trang Tien Street near Hoan Kiem Lake. It sells ice cream on sticks and in cones through a hatch, with no seating, for a few thousand dong.
Where is Kem Trang Tien? 35 Trang Tien Street in Hoan Kiem district, about five minutes on foot from Hoan Kiem Lake and two minutes from the Opera House.
How much does Kem Trang Tien cost? Around 10,000 to 20,000 VND for a stick, roughly 40 to 80 US cents. Cones cost a little more. Cash only.
What flavour should I order at Kem Trang Tien? Com, the green rice flavour, is the one that makes the trip worthwhile. Mung bean and coconut milk are the next most popular.
Why is there nowhere to sit at Kem Trang Tien? It has never been a cafe. The format has been a service hatch and a standing crowd since 1958, and that has not changed through several renovations and a change of ownership.
What is the best ice cream in Hanoi? Kem Trang Tien for the institution and the green rice flavour, Kem Thuy Ta for a seat with a view over Hoan Kiem Lake, and kem xoi from a street stall for the hot sticky rice and cold coconut combination.
Is Kem Trang Tien worth visiting? Yes, if you understand what it is. It is a four minute cultural experience that costs less than a dollar, not a dessert destination with a seat and a spoon.
Are there fake Kem Trang Tien shops? There have been many shops trading on the name, some authorised and some not. The original site at 35 Trang Tien is the one to go to.
Where to Stay for Kem Trang Tien and the Lakeside Walk
Kem Trang Tien works best as part of a walk rather than a destination. Lake loop, Trang Tien, the Opera House, ice cream, back through the Old Quarter. The whole thing takes half an hour and falls apart if you have to arrange transport for it.
Hanoi La Siesta Classic Hang Thung, ranked among the Top 4 Best of the Best Hotels in Vietnam by Tripadvisor, sits in the heart of the Old Quarter, close to Hoan Kiem Lake and within easy reach of Trang Tien, the Opera House and the French Quarter streets around them. Recognised as one of the best hotels in Hanoi Old Quarter, it puts that entire loop at the end of the street.
For travellers comparing the best hotels in Hanoi, the hotel offers a boutique setting with Vietnamese inspired interiors, attentive service and a swimming pool, which suits a trip spent mostly on foot in a hot city. Among the best boutique hotels in Hanoi, it is worth considering for anyone whose idea of an evening is a slow walk, a cheap ice cream eaten standing up, and no particular schedule.
