5 places to get a caffeine fix in Ho Chi Minh city
Vietnam's largest city has a real buzz. Spend any amount of time in the metropolis and before long you'll begin to suspect that the frenetic pace is driven by caffeine. You can't walk down a street in Ho Chi Minh without tripping over a coffee shop. It was the French who introduced the beans to Vietnam in the late 19th century and it wasn't long before the country began growing its own coffee in the highlands and exporting it. Some cafes offer Western-style cappuccinos and lattes, but they all do the national classic known as literally "coffee, milk, ice" — a rich dark roast made in a special version of a press pot, and served with lashings of sweet condensed milk and ice. It has a real kick to it so don't drink it before bedtime. Here are five of the best places to get your coffee fix.
This is Vietnam's most successful coffee company — its very own Starbucks, but better, of course. Opened in the late 1990s, there are now more than 1,000 outlets across the country. The coffee menu is extensive (it's a book) and the prices are on the high side, but you can't beat it for quality. If you feel like splashing out on a classic Vietnamese-style brew, try the "Number 8: Break Through" for 94,000 dong (HK$34). Made with arabica, robusta and excelsa coffee beans it smells divine, tastes strong and will give you a buzz that lasts all day. This is a chain, so the interiors are similar — simple pale wood furniture, splashes of red — and if you enjoyed your brew you can buy a bag of beans to take home with you. Regulars say they come back because it's consistently good.
This small, laid-back joint in the heart of Ho Chi Minh's backpacker land, Pham Ngu Lao, employs disadvantaged youth, teaching them work skills and English. All the profits from the cafe go back to training the staff and giving them a start in life and all that positivity makes for a great atmosphere and friendly serving staff. Vietnamese and Western-style coffee are available, from 25,000 dong for a black local brew to 60,000 dong for a cappuccino. If you've got a sweet tooth, this is the place to indulge. The house-made cookies are great and there are muffins, brownies and apple tart cheesecake on the menu. This is not a place to count the calories. Sozo also hosts an English-speaking club twice a week, where foreigners speak to Vietnamese students, so if you're in town on a Tuesday or Friday evening (7pm to 9pm) and fancy chatting to some locals, here's the place.
This renovated old warehouse is the place when you want to beat a retreat from the chaos of the city. It's like hanging out in the apartment of a very cool friend: the walls are rough brick and concrete, the furniture is a mix of deep sofas and velvet bar stools and a zany mirror collection dominates one wall. In the afternoon, you can sit with a coffee for hours and no one will try and hurry you along. The resident Cuban pianist — yes, he's the real deal — tinkles away and the switch from coffee to cocktails is seamless as evening approaches. After dark, this place morphs into a lounge bar-cum-nightclub with a live band, but before then there's food to be had. La Fenetre Soleil used to be known as the best place in Ho Chi Minh for Vietnamese-Japanese fusion food, but the Indonesian manager recently decided to switch the menu to what she knows best and the menu now boasts classic home-style Indonesian fare (180,000 dong for the set menu).