Top 10 outstanding Vietnamese coffee shop you must-visit when traveling to Vietnam

Each city in Vietnam is a small world of coffee featuring different colors and styles. Living Nomads would like to recommend some of the most outstanding coffee shops in destinations that you should visit along your odysseys. Let’s discover top 10 outstanding Vietnamese coffee shop you must-visit when traveling to Vietnam with Living Nomads below.

L’Usine – A memory of Indochina

Just go straight along Dong Khoi street, across fashion centers near the Opera House and you will see an old gate decorated as a gallery. Step through that gate and you will be amazed by a creative, artistic quarter.

Past the little door is nested a sophisticatedly designed world. The more you step inside, the more it dazzles you with harmonized spaces. Known as a popular destination of those who love design and creativity and comprised of a restaurant, café, art gallery and fashion shop, the French-stylized L’Usine café is located on the first floor of the apartment building at Dong Khoi street.

A gallery showcasing copies of paintings, souvenirs and fashion shops are set at the stairs. The entire space, which is designed in French architectural style, used to be ranked as one of the world’s most creative cafes. The café not only draws the attention of guests to its collection of antiquities such as Brazilian sandals or Lomo camera, but it can also satisfy the tastes of gourmets with home-made cheese cakes or a beautifully decorated dish of bread, salad and spaghetti.

L’Usine Space
Level 1, 151/5 Dong Khoi, Dist.1, Ho Chi Minh City
Tel: 028 6674 9565
Daily 7:30 am to 10:30 pm
Website: http://lusinespace.com/

RuNam Café – A peaceful moment in the crowded city

RuNam café is a peaceful stop in the hustle and bustle of a crowded city. Designed with its own concept, RuNam café surprises visitors with its design and décor. The café is the combination of classic European style and simple Vietnamese characteristics as show in stones, lamps, wooden and lacquered gift boxes and Dong Gia ceramics. The overall effect can bring you a private corner for intimate meetings.

Coffee beans in RuNam café are chosen from different regions in Vietnam. A highlight of the café is a bazan rock brought back from the Highlands, where is the home of coffee trees. Sip a cup of robust black coffee by the hand-embroidered lampshade at weekends and enjoy the peaceful moment of Saigon of 1960s.

Runam Cafe
96 Mac Thi Buoi, Dist.1, HCMC
202 Pasteur, Dist. 3, HCMC
65 Le Loi, Dist.1, HCMC
Website: www.caferunam.com

Khanhcasa Tea Garden – A romantic green garden

Conveniently situated in the city, Khanhcasa Tea Garden offers a cool green space in a natural garden with many relaxing chairs. As a house of classic tea breaks, Khanhcasa Tea Garden introduces an elegant way of enjoying tea that is expressed in small items such as cups made of bone china, a type of classy porcelain, hand-embroidered table cloths and hand-made glass tea filters.

A “library of tea” with over 365 kinds from Vietnam and other countries around the world, including England, France, Germany and America can satisfy all tea lovers. This is also a fanciful and spectacular world, where you can share stories of culture and lifestyle with your friends.

Khanhcasa Tea Garden
48 – 50 Dong Khoi, Dist.1, HCMC
L2 – 01 Saigon Centre, 65 Le Loi, Dist.1, HCMC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/khanhcasa.teahouse/

Giang Café – An old corner of Hanoi

In the sea of bland chains taking over Hanoi’s café scene, people still keep their old habit of dropping by traditional ones with historic values such as Giang Café. Its timeworn patina and original flavors of coffee remind people of an aged and elegant Hanoi during eras long since past.

Giang is a hugely popular café to discover the culinary culture of Hanoians shown by its special ca phe trung, or egg coffee. This is one of the oldest coffee shops in Hanoi. It was founded by Mr. Nguyen Van Giang, who was working as a bartender for the famous five-star Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel. The egg coffee had been adapted from his recipe of cappuccino during that time. From egg coffee, egg with cocoa and egg coffee with green beans, to egg with rum and coffee, egg with beer and egg matcha, eggs are used as a main ingredient throughout the menu and it is surely one you will find unforgettable.

Egg coffee will be more amazing when you enjoy it in the cold winter of Hanoi. Egg coffee should be enjoyed hot to feel the bitter flavor of coffee and the fat and nutty taste of egg. If you have a sweet tooth, try an aromatic cup of egg with cocoa.

Giang Café
Address: 39 Nguyen Huu Huan, Ly Thai To, Hanoi
Hours: 7AM–10PM
Phone: 098 989 22 98
Website: http://www.giangcafehanoi.com/

Lam Café – Coffee and old paintings

Of the two Lam cafes, I prefer taking an outdoor seat in the ancient house, sipping a cup of coffee and viewing people going here and there. Contrary to its location in the most crowded street of the city, the café brings guests a totally serene feeling. Away from the noisy life, you can indulge in old paintings about Hanoian people and streets and self-portraits with autographs of many painters such as Bui Xuan Phai, Duong Bich Lien and Nguyen Sang, along with works depicting musicians, writers and poets such as Van Cao, To Hoai, Nguyen Hong and The Lu.

Founded in 1952 at Chi Linh park, Lam café was named after its first owner, Mr. Nguyen Van Lam. It was moved to Nguyen Huu Huan street, the current address, in 1960. The owner has choses the beans himself, dries them by a small flame and then grinds them to make the coffee extra special. Their traditional method has been carried on from generation to generation. It’s not a surprise that my English friend, Hugo, traveled thousands of kilometers to Vietnam just to try this famous coffee flavor.

Lam Café
60 Nguyen Huu Huan, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi
91 Nguyen Huu Huan, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi

Me Linh Café – Sipping weasel coffee in the mountain

Nested in the suburban area, about 20km from the city center, across Ta Nung mountain pass to the buckwheat garden of Van Duc pagoda and passing by magnificent paths filled with green pine trees to Me Linh Garden Coffee, a small farm in the countryside of Dalat. From here, you can enjoy a panoramic view of Dalat city with Cam Ly waterfall in front, conifer forest around the mountain slopes and a coffee farm below you.

Me Linh café is highlighted with its traditioanl coffee beans, especially weasel coffee. You can enjoy a cup of Robusta or Arabica coffee while witnessing the process of roasting and grinding coffee. In addition, you can walk around the farm to see sleepy weasels or learn how to dry weasel coffee beans. As most of coffee farms in Dalat often do, coffee beans are dried naturally to bring the best taste of the coffee. It will be a memorable experience to try a cup of milk coffee in the highlands.

Me Linh Coffee Garden
Block 20, Hamlet 4, Ta Nung Commune, Dalat, Lam Dong.

Cuc Bac (North Pole) Café – Coffee of Lo Lo people

As the only one coffee house in Lo Lo Chai village of Ha Giang, as its name, Cuc Bac (North Pole) café is located in the north pole of Vietnam, about 1.4km from Lung Cu flag pole and 1km from the border with Yunnan province, China.

Going along the dirt road to the highest point in the map of Vietnam and passing through the small wooden gate, you will arrive at Cuc Bac café, where you can sip a cup of coffee where the temperature dips to below 10 degree Celcius, even colder than the winter in other regions of Vietnam. Located by Dong Van rocky plateau, under the foot of Long Son mountain, Cuc Bac café is a popular stop of adventurers.

This has been the traditional house that was built from soil of the Lo Lo people with a kitchen hung with dried meat. Cuc Bac café serves a simple menu of coffee, green tea and corn wine. However, enjoying a cup of coffee at the north pole of the country or drinking corn wine fermented from the stream water is a memory of a life time.

Cuc Bac Café
Lo Lo Chai, Lung Cu, Dong Van, Ha Giang.

Hue Roastery Café – Impressive ancient coffee house in Hue

Situated at one of the busiest streets of the ancient citadel, opposite the river, Hue Rostery Café is hidden on the second floor of an ancient house in Hue. You can smell the aroma of aloe wood along the small path to the café as the ancient house appears.

Hue Rostery Café is decorated with old wooden tables and chairs or flower-patterned iron doors, which were considered an artistic standards of the ancient architecture. What makes this place so popular? It’s a special kind of coffee ground by hand to bring the most authentic taste of coffee that you can’t find in anywhere else in the world. It is complimented as “high-class traditional coffee” by coffee addicts.

Just sit at the balcony of Hue Rostery Café in an afternoon and view the local people traveling around, and you will feel as if you were living in a familiar and close feeling of a peaceful Hue.

Hue Roastery Café
Level 2 – 131 Huynh Thuc Khang, Hue
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/huecaferoastery

Café 79 – A simple corner of Danang

Although Danang city is changing everyday, Café 79 has still retained its simple characteristics 30 years after its opening. Away from the noisy life of the second most crowded street of Danang, it is spectacularly serene.

Café 79 impresses guests with its lush confetti trees blooming with flowers and an old simple sign plate. The small house is designed in the French style with a dark yellow wall and half-closed doors.

You can choose a seat outdoors or indoors with small tables and chairs to chat with your friends or look at the local street. In the sound of life’s melody, one can hear the sound of the bartender, who is stiring sugar with coffee, people chatting happily and vehicles moving in the street.

Feel the fresh air of this beautiful city while enjoying a cup of hot milk coffee in the morning, you can wipe away all the daily worries.

Café 79
107 Hoang Dieu, Danang city

Reaching Out Tea House – The beauty of silence

Nested in an ancient house, Reaching Out Tea House is a tranquil oasis in the center of bustling Hoi An. With its spirit of the “beauty of silence”, you will feel a very peaceful ambiance when setting your feet here.

The grace and charm of the speech and hearing impaired staff of Reaching Out will warm your heart as you savor the silence of this experience. A small wooden tray with pieces of paper, seven small woods written with key words and two pencils are place on every table. Visitors will write their orders on the paper. If you would like to have more water or ask for your bill, just put the available wood on the table and the staff will satisfy your demands.

Reaching Out Tea House owns an outdoor space with simple tables and chairs and two big windows, where you can view the beautiful ancient town and confetti flowers. You can also choose a table in the picturesque back yard filled with green trees and sunshine. It will be a fantastic experience to enjoy a cup of herbal tea and immerse in nature.

Reaching Out Tea House
Address: 131 Tran Phu, Hoi An
Hours: 10AM–8:30PM
Phone: 090 521 65 53
Website: https://reachingoutvietnam.com/

U Café – Vietnamese – Japanese ecological house

Located away from the ancient town and founded by Mrs. Usuda Reiko (former general secretary of the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Association in Kawasaki, Japan), U Café is known as a “green house”. The house is made from the main ingredients of bricks, woods and bamboos. The entire indoor space is designed in modern and environment-friendly Japanese style. The café serves fusion foods and the staff perform Japanese bowing etiquette to greet guests.

In particular, it features an environment-friendly water filter. Following the principles of “social and environmental balances”, U Café is equipped with an ecological draining system combined with periodical tests of water quality that can ensure the food safety.

U Café was recognized as one of the best places to view sunset in Hoi An due to the tranquil beauty of the Hoai river in front of it. This place reveals its unique gorgeousness at anytime. You can relax on a rattan chair by the cool lotus pond, read a book and feel Hoi An in your own way.

U Cafe
Address: 120 Huyen Tran Cong Chua, Thanh Nam, Hoi An
Hours: Open today · 8AM–9PM
Phone: 0235 3501 118
Website: https://ucafehoian.wordpress.com/

Chuon Chuon Coffee – Coffee from the hilltop

Chuon Chuon café is regarded as the “roof of Indochina” due to its location, where you can view the entire town. It dazzles visitors with a spacious and green space and a breathtaking view.

The café serves a diverse menu during the daytime and nighttime at a price of about VND35,000- VND40,000. From the café, you can view the sea, sky, river and mountains in Phu Quoc. Since it’s quite complicated to find the way here, you are advised to go from the town center, turn to the red soil road at Sao Mai hotel and then go straight to the café.

Chuon Chuon Coffee
Sao Mai Hill, 69 Tran Hung Dao, Duong Dong, Phu Quoc
Tel: 0297. 3608 883.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/chuonchuonhilltop

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