Shellfish, Fish, Peanut Allergy in Vietnamese Food

In Vietnamese cooking, shellfish, fish and peanut tend to sit where you cannot see them: in fish sauce, in a dipping sauce, in a fermented paste, in the sprinkle on top. Our table lists 8 dishes with crustaceans, 16 with fish and 9 with peanut, out of 31. The kitchen is shared, so we cannot promise there are no traces; the table tells you what a dish is cooked with, nothing more.

Fish sauce is fish

Nước mắm (fish sauce), fermented fish and mắm nêm (a fermented anchovy dip pounded with pineapple and chilli) all count as fish. That is why 16 dishes carry the fish label, and many of them do not mention fish in their name. The crispy spring rolls, the pork belly braised in coconut water, the stuffed bitter melon soup and the beef in betel leaf are all listed under fish. Rau muống xào tỏi (morning glory with garlic) is seasoned with fish sauce, so it is too; the vegan version uses soy sauce and lists soy instead.

Mắm tôm and dried shrimp are crustaceans

Our crustacean group means prawn, crab, mắm tôm (shrimp paste) and dried shrimp. Eight dishes carry it: fresh rolls with prawn and pork, crispy spring rolls, bánh khọt with prawn, lotus stem salad, grilled tiger prawns, kho quẹt with boiled vegetables (it has dried shrimp), bánh xèo with prawn and pork, and the lẩu mắm (fermented-fish hotpot). Squid, snail and oyster sauce are a different group, molluscs, and we list them separately.

Peanut hides in dips and toppings

Nine dishes list peanut. Three come with a peanut dipping sauce: the two fresh rolls (prawn and pork, and mushroom and vegetable) and the grilled pork skewers you roll in rice paper. The lotus stem salad and the grilled banana carry roasted peanuts, and so do the grilled aubergine and the coconut ice cream. The grilled squid with satế lists peanut too. One dish does not mention peanut in its description but still lists it: the green mango salad with dried gourami. So do not read the name of the dish; read the allergen column.

The Vinmec article (updated 12 March 2025) says peanut allergy affects about 0.5 to 1% of children. We quote it only as background. A restaurant cannot judge how severe anyone’s allergy is.

Satế and oyster sauce

Our satế (a lemongrass and chilli sauce) is made in house, and the table lists molluscs and peanut for it, not crustaceans. Satế elsewhere can be made differently, and may contain dried shrimp, so ask each place. Oyster sauce is a mollusc: the beef with tonkin jasmine flowers lists that group.

The table by three groups

The lotus stem salad carries three groups at once (crustaceans, fish, peanut). Filter out crustaceans, fish and peanut together and eight dishes remain: chilli-salt chicken, honey-grilled pork chop, grilled straw mushrooms, sour soup with mushroom and tofu, beef with jasmine flowers, silken tofu in tomato, rice and sweet corn pudding. But the table has only nine groups, and people are rarely allergic to just three things. Filter for your own groups on the allergen menu page. Four dishes list none of the nine groups: the chilli-salt chicken, the grilled straw mushrooms, the rice and the sweet corn pudding. That means the recipe uses none of the nine, not that traces cannot happen.

How to tell the kitchen when you book

1. In step three of the reservation form, pick the groups you need to avoid from the nine, and write in the note who is allergic and how.
2. Name the substance. If you say “someone is allergic”, we will ask what it is; we do not guess.
3. We confirm by Zalo or phone and repeat each substance you listed. The confirmation page repeats it as well.
4. For a serious allergy, call 0963 929 241 before booking so we can read you what is in each dish and the kitchen knows ahead.
5. When you arrive, tell whoever lays your table.

What we cannot promise

• The kitchen is shared. We cook vegetarian dishes in a separate pan and on a separate rack where we can, but we do not promise there are no traces.
• The table tracks nine groups only: crustaceans, fish, molluscs, peanut, soy, egg, wheat, sesame, milk. Tree nuts, celery and anything else are not tracked. The Vinmec article lists tree nuts among the main groups; we do not track that group, so if you are allergic to tree nuts, call and ask first.
• A restaurant is not a doctor. For a serious allergy, ask your doctor first, then call us to find out what is in each dish.

How we do it at Bếp Rơm

The nine-group table for all 31 dishes is kept by Mai Thanh Vân, who updates it whenever a recipe changes. If you are vegetarian with a peanut allergy, read vegetarian days: booking ahead and ordering. The full guide to reading our menu is reading a menu when vegetarian, avoiding heat or allergic.

Updated 5 October 2026.

Sources

• Vinmec, some foods that can cause allergy, updated 12 March 2025, read 5 October 2026.