McDonald's Opens Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Saturday Feb 08,2014

Four decades after the Vietnam war ended, US fast-food giant McDonald's opened its first restaurant in the communist country Saturday Feb 08,2014, aiming to lure a rising middle class away from rice and noodles.

The arrival of one of the most potent symbols of US capitalism in southern Ho Chi Minh City - known as Saigon when American troops dramatically withdrew in 1975 - is the result of a partnership with the son-in-law of Vietnam's powerful Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

McDonald's is following US rivals Burger King, KFC and coffee giant Starbucks into Vietnam - a country many Americans associate more with an unpopular war than a newly wealthy middle class.

But with its 90 million-strong population and average per capita income of more than $1,500, "Vietnam is on the radar now" for US franchises, said Sean Ngo, managing director of consulting firm Vietnam Franchises Ltd

A Big Mac costs about $2.85 at the new outlet, while a bowl of traditional pho noodle soup can be bought on most street corners for around $1.50