Quick answer
Pick a meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack), optionally tap food types such as noodle soups, rice, bánh, hotpot or vegetarian, and press Spin: the wheel stops on one dish with a short English description of what it is and what comes with it. The list has over 100 everyday Vietnamese dishes, from phở bò and bún chả to cơm tấm and bánh xèo. Remove dishes you don't fancy, add your own, and every dish on the wheel has the same chance.
Key points
- Over 100 common Vietnamese dishes by meal and seven food types: noodle soups, dry noodles and rolls, rice, bánh and sticky rice, hotpot and grill, desserts, vegetarian.
- Dish names stay in Vietnamese so you can order them, with a one-line English description.
- The meal is preselected from your device's clock; combine several food types at once.
- Remove dishes, add your own, and skip the dish you just got; choices are saved on your device.
- The dish is drawn first with crypto.getRandomValues, then the wheel spins to it, so every dish gets a fair chance.
What is the What to Eat Today wheel?
Living in Vietnam means being surrounded by great food and still having no idea what to order. This wheel holds over 100 everyday Vietnamese dishes, from a morning bowl of phở to a lunchtime plate of broken rice, an evening hotpot or an afternoon sweet soup, each with a short English description so you know what you're getting. No restaurant pays to be on it: the list is our own and only contains dish names.
How to use the food wheel
- 1
Choose a meal: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or Snack. On your first visit the meal follows your device's clock (11 am means lunch). Choose “Any” to spin the whole list.
- 2
Tap one or more food types to narrow it down. With several selected, the wheel includes dishes from any of them; the counter shows how many dishes are on the wheel.
- 3
Press Spin, click the wheel or press Space. The result shows the dish name in Vietnamese, a one-line English description and its food type.
- 4
Not in the mood? Press “Not feeling it, remove this dish”. Use “View and remove dishes” to drop several at once, or type a favourite into “Add your own dish”.
- 5
Turn on “Don't land on the same dish twice” to rotate through different dishes over several spins. The history lists what came up, and the present button shows the wheel full screen for a group.
Food types on the wheel
A dish can belong to more than one type; vegetarian crab noodle soup is both a noodle soup and vegetarian.
| Type | Examples | Usual meal |
|---|---|---|
| Noodle soups | Phở bò (beef noodle soup), bún bò Huế (spicy lemongrass beef noodles), hủ tiếu, cháo (rice porridge) | Breakfast, lunch, dinner |
| Dry, salads, rolls | Bún chả (grilled pork with noodles), gỏi cuốn (fresh spring rolls), bánh tráng trộn (rice-paper salad) | Lunch, snack |
| Rice | Cơm tấm (broken rice with pork chop), cá kho tộ (clay-pot fish), canh chua (sour soup) | Lunch, dinner |
| Bánh, sticky rice | Bánh mì, bánh cuốn (steamed rice rolls), xôi xéo (turmeric sticky rice), bánh xèo (crispy crêpe) | Breakfast, snack |
| Hotpot, grill | Lẩu Thái (hot-and-sour hotpot), lẩu mắm, bò nhúng giấm, đồ nướng (barbecue) | Dinner |
| Desserts | Chè ba màu (three-colour dessert), chè bưởi, sữa chua nếp cẩm, bánh flan | Snack |
| Vegetarian | Cơm chay, phở chay, bánh mì chay, lẩu nấm (mushroom hotpot) | Any |
Meals follow common habits only: plenty of people eat phở for dinner. Choose “Any” to ignore them.
Examples
Six colleagues who can't agree on lunch
At 11 am the wheel already shows lunch dishes. Tap Rice and Dry, salads, rolls, put it on the meeting-room screen and agree on one spin, no re-dos. It lands on bún chả.
A week without repeats
Turn on “Don't land on the same dish twice”. Monday gives cơm tấm, Tuesday bún bò Huế; both leave the wheel for the rest of the week until you press “Start over”.
No seafood, please
Open “View and remove dishes” and tap the seafood hotpot, grilled seafood and fermented-fish dishes. Your choice is saved on this device for next time.
Showing visitors around
Friends visiting Vietnam pick Snack and Desserts and spin a few times; the English descriptions tell them a trứng vịt lộn is a fertilised duck egg before they order it.
Common mix-ups
- Vegetarian plus Hotpot, grill still shows seafood hotpot.
- Food types combine with “or”: a dish from any selected type is included. For vegetarian only, select just Vegetarian.
- The wheel says no dish matches.
- The meal and the food types have nothing in common (Breakfast plus Hotpot, say), or too many dishes were removed. Choose “Any type”, meal “Any” or “Restore all”.
- Noodle soups keep coming up, so the wheel must favour them.
- Noodle soups are about a quarter of the list, so they come up often. Every dish has the same chance; select a single type if you want a different mix.
How the dish is chosen
Every dish on the wheel gets an equal slice. When you press Spin, a random number from crypto.getRandomValues, the browser's secure random generator, picks the dish first; only then does the wheel work out where to stop and slow down to that slice. With 40 dishes on the wheel each has exactly a 2.5% chance per spin. Filters only decide which dishes are on the wheel; they never change the odds between them. Everything happens in your browser, and our server never learns what you got.
About the dish list
The list covers around 117 dishes popular across the north, centre and south: noodle soups such as phở, bún bò Huế, mì Quảng and hủ tiếu; home-style rice dishes such as cá kho tộ and canh chua; street food like bánh mì, bánh tráng trộn and trứng vịt lộn; group meals such as lẩu mắm, bò nhúng giấm and barbecue; sweet chè and a separate vegetarian group.
Names stay in Vietnamese, the way you'll see them on a menu or a street-side sign, and each comes with a short English line on what it is and what it's eaten with. No restaurants or brands are mentioned. If your favourite is missing, add it yourself.
Glossary
- Bún / phở / mì / hủ tiếu
- Rice vermicelli, flat rice noodles, wheat or egg noodles, and chewy clear rice noodles.
- Bánh
- A broad word for cakes, breads, crêpes and dumplings, savoury or sweet.
- Chè
- Sweet soups and puddings of beans, jellies, fruit and coconut milk.
- Lẩu
- Hotpot: a simmering broth at the table for dipping meat, seafood and greens.
- Chay
- Vegetarian; many Vietnamese eat chay on the 1st and 15th of the lunar month.
Frequently asked questions
How many dishes are on the wheel?
About 117 built-in Vietnamese dishes by meal and seven food types, and you can add up to 50 of your own.
Is the pick really random?
Yes. The dish is drawn with crypto.getRandomValues before the wheel spins, and every dish on the wheel has the same chance.
How do I get vegetarian dishes only?
Select the Vegetarian type and set the meal to Any: the wheel then has vegetarian rice, phở chay, bún riêu chay, mushroom hotpot, braised young jackfruit and more.
Why did it start on lunch?
The first time you open it, the meal follows your device's clock: 5–10 breakfast, 10–14 lunch, 14–17 snack, 17–22 dinner. Change it any time.
Are the names translated?
Dish names stay in Vietnamese so you can order them; the description underneath is in English.
Are my removed and added dishes saved?
Yes, in your browser on this device only. “Restore all” brings removed dishes back.
Does it recommend restaurants?
No. It suggests dishes only, with no restaurants or brands.
Can I spin names or prizes instead?
Use Spin the Wheel for any list, with weights, remove-the-winner and presentation mode.
Ratings and comments
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