Gỏi cuốn are served fresh, unlike the fried Vietnamese roll chả giò.
Gỏi cuốn are soft Vietnamese rice-paper rolls, often filled with pork, prawns, fresh herbs, vegetables, and bún, or rice vermicelli. The wrappers are moistened and folded around the ingredients, but the finished rolls are not deep-fried; they are served cool or at room temperature with a dipping sauce.
Chả giò follows the opposite preparation: its filled wrapper is fried until crisp and golden. Chả giò is also known as nem rán in northern Vietnam, while gỏi cuốn may be called a salad roll, summer roll, fresh spring roll, or rice-paper roll in English-speaking countries.
The two dishes are frequently confused because restaurants sometimes translate both as “spring rolls.” Their textures and cooking methods are the clearest distinction: gỏi cuốn is fresh, translucent, and flexible, while chả giò is crunchy and browned. Common accompaniments include nước chấm or hoisin-peanut sauce for gỏi cuốn, and fish-sauce-based dipping sauces for chả giò.