Da Lat restaurants open at Tết: which day does anywhere reopen?

Tết in Da Lat: the most visitors, the fewest kitchens open

The paradox of Da Lat at Tết is that two curves run in opposite directions. Visitor numbers hit their yearly peak while the number of restaurants actually open hits its yearly low.

The reason is no mystery. Most kitchen and floor staff in Da Lat come from other provinces, and at Tết they go home. A restaurant can want to open and still not have enough people to run a kitchen. The places that do open tend to be family-run, or ones that kept a small crew in town.

For a visitor this flips the usual order of priorities. On a normal trip you compare food, price and view. Over Tết the first question is simply whether the door is open at all.

Google Maps hours are usually wrong during Tết

The most common mistake is opening Google Maps, seeing a green “Open now”, and driving over.

What Maps shows is the regular weekly schedule the owner entered once and left alone. For Maps to be right over Tết, the owner has to go in and add special hours for each holiday date, which plenty of places never do. So during Tết week that green “Open now” carries almost no information.

Three checks that are worth more, in the order worth trying:

1. Message the restaurant directly and ask about the exact day you plan to come. Say “the third day of Tết”, not “over Tết”. If someone replies, someone is working.
2. Look at the most recent post on their Facebook page. Places that open over Tết almost always post their schedule, because it is the question they get most that week. A page that has gone silent since before Tết is a bad sign.
3. Call. Slower than messaging but conclusive. Nobody picking up during hours when the place should be open is itself an answer.

A restaurant that takes the trouble to publish its Tết closure on its own website is more trustworthy than one that lets Google Maps answer on its behalf.

Five things to ask before you believe a place is open

This set of questions works for any restaurant in Da Lat, not just one. Get all five answered and you remove most of the risk of standing in front of a locked door:

If a place answers all five with specifics, they have probably thought it through. A vague “we’re open as normal over Tết” is worth pushing back on until you get a day and a time.

Xom Leo Grill & Chill’s Tết schedule

So you have one concrete reference point, here is our own schedule, answering the same questions. To be clear up front: the restaurant closes for three days and reopens on the second day of Tết. It does not stay open through the holiday.

One detail that catches people out: this Tết has no 30th day. The twelfth lunar month of the year Bính Ngọ runs only 29 days, so New Year’s Eve falls on the 29th and the first day of Tết follows immediately. Anyone counting “29th, 30th, then day one” will be a day off when booking.

Opening hours do not change: still 15:00–23:00, including the second day of Tết and the first days back. The restaurant does not shorten its hours after the holiday, so there is no need to call and check the times for a particular day.

Tết surcharge: 8%, from the second to the tenth day of Tết. That is Sunday 7 February to the end of Monday 15 February 2027 — exactly the stretch after the restaurant reopens. There is no weekend or public holiday surcharge the rest of the year, and prices return to normal from the eleventh day. It is stated here up front so you can budget for it rather than find out at the till. Dish prices are the ones printed on the menu and already include VAT.

Why the second day of Tết is the easiest day to eat out

Reopening on the second day sounds late, but it lines up with how people actually move over Tết.

The first day is mostly spent at home: offerings, lucky money, visiting close relatives. Longer trips tend to start from the second day onward, and the wave of visitors heading up to Da Lat follows that same rhythm rather than landing on day one.

This particular year adds a bonus: the second day of Tết falls on a Sunday. The first day back is already a weekend rather than a flat midweek evening.

The flip side is that it will be busy. If you want a specific table, lock it in early, especially for a group or if you want the open-air row looking down over the valley. Outdoor tables go faster than indoor ones, and since Da Lat is cold that week the indoor area fills early too.

What an evening at Xom Leo Grill & Chill looks like

The restaurant sits in Trai Mat, a few kilometres out from central Da Lat. What that drive buys you is a stretch of valley the town itself cannot offer: tables set along the hillside with an open 180-degree view over the greenhouse valley below.

An evening here usually runs through three scenes, one after the other:

• Sunset. The sun drops behind the hills in a deep red. Sunset shifts through the year, from around 17:20 in mid-November to around 18:15 in early July; over Tết in early February the sun sets around 17:50, and golden hour starts half an hour before that. For a table facing straight into the sunset, arrive before 16:30.
• The train. The restaurant backs onto the Da Lat – Trai Mat railway, so carriages pass right beside the tables, close enough to hear the whistle. Trains run to a schedule and only when there are enough passengers; the two evening services leave Da Lat Station at 18:15 and 20:20.
• The valley lighting up. After dark, thousands of vegetable greenhouses in the valley switch their lamps on at once, reading as a band of light below you. Clearest between 18:30 and 20:00.

The food is charcoal grilling at your own table. The menu runs to 68 items across 13 groups, and printed prices include VAT. The most ordered dishes: the tiered Thai spicy pork rib tower at 259,000đ, Okachi beef grilled whole with cheese and salted egg at 229,000đ, seared as one slab over charcoal then cut at the table, and salt-roasted sturgeon at 199,000đ brought in from Don Duong.

Da Lat is cold over Tết, which makes hotpot the natural order: chicken with la e herb, seafood, or sturgeon, around 300,000–320,000đ for a pot the table shares. Hot tea is 37,000–39,000đ. On a properly cold or wet evening there is an indoor area, so nobody has to sit outside.

For a group, the long wooden bench tables keep everyone seated together rather than split across separate tables; groups of ten or more get a private area set up free of charge, and there is car parking on site.

How to lock in a table over Tết

Booking over Tết differs from a normal booking in one way: if a detail is wrong there is no time to fix it, because everywhere is busy and short-staffed at once.

Send all four things in one message rather than drip-feeding them:

1. The day, counted in days of Tết. Write “the third day of Tết” rather than “next Monday” — that week everyone is counting in Tết days.
2. Arrival time, and ask what time they open that day while you are at it.
3. Number of people, noting any small children or older relatives.
4. Which area you want: indoors, or outdoors looking down over the valley.

Then ask them to confirm back in writing. A written confirmation means no argument on the day.

Book through the booking form on the homepage. To see what to order in advance, open the menu. Coming as a group, read how to pick a place for 10–30 people, and the route up is on the directions page.

Frequently asked questions

Which day of Tết do restaurants in Da Lat reopen?

There is no single date for the whole city — each place decides for itself and they differ by several days. The only reliable approach is to ask each restaurant about a specific day of Tết, because Google Maps usually still shows regular weekly hours during the holiday. Xom Leo Grill & Chill reopens on the second day of Tết.

Which days is Xom Leo Grill & Chill closed for Tết?

The restaurant closes for three days: the 28th and 29th of the twelfth lunar month and the first day of Tết, reopening on the second day. For Tết Đinh Mùi those closed days are 4, 5 and 6 February 2027, reopening on Sunday 7 February 2027.

Is anywhere open to eat in Da Lat on the first day of Tết?

Some places, but few, and you will have to hunt. The first day of Tết is when most kitchens are shut because staff have gone home to their provinces. If you are in Da Lat that day, the fastest route is asking your hotel or homestay, since they know what is still open nearby. Xom Leo Grill & Chill is closed that day.

Do I need to book a table in advance over Tết in Da Lat?

Yes. Fewer restaurants open while more visitors are in town, so more people end up sharing far fewer tables than usual. When you book, state the day of Tết, your arrival time, the number of people and which area you want, then ask for a written confirmation.

Is there a surcharge for eating out over Tết in Da Lat?

It varies by restaurant, and it is worth asking before you sit down rather than waiting until the bill. At Xom Leo Grill & Chill there is one: an 8% Tết surcharge on the bill, applied from the second to the tenth day of Tết (7–15 February 2027), while for the rest of the year there is no weekend or public holiday surcharge. Dish prices are as printed on the menu and already include VAT.

How can I tell whether a restaurant is really open over Tết?

Do not rely on the “Open now” line in Google Maps, because that is usually the regular schedule the owner entered once and left alone. More reliable: message them about a specific day of Tết, check whether their Facebook page has posted a holiday schedule, and try calling during hours when they should be open.

Does Tết Đinh Mùi have a 30th day of the twelfth lunar month?

No. The twelfth lunar month of the year Bính Ngọ has only 29 days, so Lunar New Year’s Eve falls on the 29th, Friday 5 February 2027, and the first day of Tết follows immediately on Saturday 6 February 2027. Anyone used to counting “29th, 30th, then day one” will be a day off when booking.

What time does the restaurant open on the second day of Tết?

From 15:00 to 23:00, the same as any other day. Hours are not shortened during the first days back after Tết. An 8% Tết surcharge applies to the bill from the second to the tenth day.