West Lake Shrimp Fritters
Bánh tôm Hồ Tây
Sweet-potato and shrimp fritters from the shore of Hanoi's West Lake — lacy, amber, fried to a crackle, then folded into lettuce and dragged through nước chấm.
By Vietnamese Cookbook Kitchen · May 4, 2026
Hà Nội & the Red River DeltaThe Subsidy Era era, 1975–1986
Phố- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Intermediate
Bánh tôm has been fried on the shore of Hồ Tây — West Lake — since at least the 1930s, when vendors along the Thanh Niên causeway sold fritters made with shrimp netted from the lake itself. After 1954 the trade was gathered into a state-run restaurant on the same causeway, and through the subsidy decades "Bánh Tôm Hồ Tây" became one of Hanoi's institutions in the fullest sense: a place with queues, ration-era service, and a dish good enough to justify both. Generations of Hanoians took first dates there. The service has improved; the nostalgia, remarkably, survived contact with it.
The fritter itself is an exercise in lightness from heavy ingredients — sweet potato and shrimp bound by the least batter that will hold them. Keep the batter thin enough to drip and the sweet potato in a loose tangle, so the oil can reach inside and fry the raft into lace instead of cake. Eaten fresh, wrapped in lettuce and mint and dragged through nước chấm, it is sweet, saline, and structurally perfect for about twenty minutes — which is why the lakeside tables never let it sit for five.
Fry a test fritter and eat it standing at the stove. The batter can't be fixed by faith — only by tasting one and adjusting flour or water before the real batch.
Lời đầu bếp · A word from the kitchen
Ingredientsnguyên liệu
Serves 4
Batter
- 120 grice flour — 1 cup — the crispness lives here
- 60 gall-purpose flour — 1/2 cup, for just enough cling
- 1/2 tspground turmeric — for the amber cast
- 1/2 tspbaking powder
- 1/2 tspfine salt
- 240 mlcold water — 1 cup, more as needed — the batter should drip from a spoon in a thin ribbon, not plop
The rest
- 300 gsmall shell-on shrimp — 10 oz — heads off, shells on, the crunchiest part of the fritter; see the FAQ if that idea alarms you
- 400 gsweet potato — 14 oz — peeled and cut into matchsticks the size of thick fries; held in cold water until frying time
- 1 Lneutral oil — about 4 cups, for deep frying
- 1 batchnước chấm — the foundations recipe, leaning a touch sweeter
- 1 headsoft lettuce, plus mint and perilla — the fritter is eaten wrapped, not plain
Methodcách làm
Step 1: Make a thin batter
Whisk the flours, turmeric, baking powder, and salt, then whisk in the cold water until smooth. Thin is the goal — a batter that just veils the sweet potato fries into lace; a thick one fries into a pancake with cargo.
Step 2: Fold in the sweet potato
Drain and dry the sweet potato sticks thoroughly and fold them through the batter. Every stick should look dressed rather than coated — if batter pools at the bottom of the bowl, you're holding the right texture.
Step 3: Form and fry
Heat the oil to 175°C (350°F). Scoop a tangle of battered sweet potato onto a wide spatula or small ladle, lay two or three shrimp on top, and slide the raft gently into the oil. Fry 4 to 5 minutes, turning once, until deep amber and audibly crisp.
Step 4: Hold them honest
Drain the fritters on a rack, never paper — steam trapped underneath undoes the fry in minutes. If working in batches, hold the finished ones in a 100°C (210°F) oven, and re-crisp the whole batch 30 seconds in hot oil before serving if you've dawdled.
Step 5: Wrap and dunk
Cut the fritters into rough halves with scissors, and serve with the lettuce, herbs, and nước chấm. The order of operations at the table: leaf, herb, shard of fritter, fold, dunk, entire thing at once.
Đồ nghề · The tools
Equipment
Portable gas burner
Bếp ga miniLẩu is not lẩu if someone has to keep walking to the stove. The tabletop butane burner turns a pot of broth into a two-hour dinner party.
Shop on Amazon →Frying thermometer
Nhiệt kế dầuThe difference between shattering chả giò and greasy chả giò is holding the oil at temperature — stop guessing.
Shop on Amazon →Bamboo steamer
Xửng hấpFor bánh bao, xôi, and fish steamed whole — bamboo breathes, so nothing drips condensation back onto your work. Line it with a cabbage leaf, not parchment, and steal the leaf after.
Shop on Amazon →Mandoline
Bàn bàoĐồ chua lives or dies on evenness — carrot and daikon cut to the same whisper-thin matchstick pickle at the same speed. Use the guard; every Vietnamese grandmother has the scar that says otherwise.
Shop on Amazon →
Equipment links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you. Disclosure.
Questions from the kitchen
Do I really eat the shrimp shells?
On small shrimp, yes — fried at this temperature the shells go brittle as a chip and carry most of the flavor, which is how the lakeside original is served. If you can only find large shrimp, peel them and halve them lengthwise; you lose some crunch and keep your nerve. One more honest note: this is a shellfish dish through and through, with no graceful substitution for allergic guests.
Can I use regular potato or another vegetable?
Regular potato works mechanically but misses the point — the sweet potato's sugars are what fry into those dark amber edges against the saline shrimp. Kabocha squash is the nearest honorable substitute.
Why are my fritters greasy instead of crisp?
Oil not hot enough, batter too thick, or both. Check the temperature between batches — each raft drops it — and keep the batter at a thin ribbon, loosening it with a spoonful of cold water as it sits. A greasy fritter almost always went swimming in oil that was merely warm.
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