Michelin Guide Phu Quoc: Vietnam's fourth destination

The Michelin Guide is expanding to Phu Quoc, making the island Vietnam's fourth destination after Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. The announcement came on 1 October from Gwendal Poullennec, the guide's international director, with Sun Group chairman Dang Minh Truong signing on as destination partner.

Inspectors will start scouting the island's restaurants ahead of the Vietnam 2027 selection, due in mid-2027. Michelin has not released a restaurant count or a ceremony date.

Poullennec pointed to the island's seafood, its black pepper and its fish sauce as reasons the guide wanted in. Phu Quoc pepper and fish sauce both carry protected geographical indication status in Vietnam, and local producers supply restaurants across the country.

Phu Quoc has a distinctive culinary identity, built on its seafood, its pepper and its fish sauce.

Phu Quoc has leaned on tourism investment for a decade, with resort chains and Sun Group's own cable car and theme park drawing visitors who once bypassed the island for Phu Quoc's archipelago neighbours. Visa-free entry of up to 30 days for all nationalities, introduced in 2023, has fed that growth.

A fourth Vietnamese stop

Michelin reached Vietnam in 2023 with a joint Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City selection, then added Da Nang. Phu Quoc's inclusion signals the guide is now willing to back a resort island rather than a mainland city, a shift it has made elsewhere in the region with selections in Phuket and Bali.

Michelin Guide Phu Quoc is the clearest sign yet that the guide's expansion into Southeast Asia has moved faster than its early rollout in Europe. Each new Vietnamese market has arrived roughly a year apart, with destination partners such as Sun Group covering inspection costs in exchange for marketing rights, a model Michelin uses in most non-European markets. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City already draw diners for events like Vietnam Restaurant Week, which Phu Quoc has yet to join.

What inspectors will find

Phu Quoc's dining scene splits between beachfront resort restaurants and the night market stalls of Duong Dong town, where grilled squid and herring salad draw islanders as much as tourists. Fine dining has arrived more recently, largely inside the resort complexes that now ring the island's west coast.

Restaurateurs on the island have been informally briefed by Sun Group representatives, according to the announcement, though no venues have been named. A full list of inspected restaurants typically appears only once the selection itself is published.

Vietnam's other guided cities offer a guide to what might come: Hanoi's 2024 selection favoured small, specialist kitchens over hotel dining rooms. Phu Quoc, built around resorts, may test whether Michelin's criteria travel well to a market shaped by all-inclusive tourism.

The Vietnam 2027 guide, covering all four destinations together, is expected in the first half of next year.