The Best Coffee Houses in Vietnam

Egg, salt and coconut

Vietnamese cafés have their own menu. Egg coffee, which began in Hanoi, is strong coffee under a thick foam of whipped egg yolk and condensed milk. Salt coffee comes from Hue and has a layer of salted cream, and coconut coffee adds coconut milk, usually over ice. Po Cafe in Ho Chi Minh City gives its egg coffee a caramelised crème brûlée top, and Hoi An Coffee Hub torches the foam. Loading T in Hanoi adds a strong note of cinnamon.

Phin and pour-over

The phin is a small metal filter that sits on top of the cup and drips slowly. Most of the country's crop is robusta, which is stronger and more bitter than arabica. C.O.C Legacy in Hanoi brews Vietnamese Robusta and Liberica by phin. Two bars put the phin beside the methods of specialty coffee: Dam Khe Specialty Coffee in Tam Coc makes its rotating single origins as espresso, pour-over or phin, and CatBa Specialty Coffee on Cat Ba Island brews V60, Chemex and phin at the bar.

Stairs and alleys

Several of these cafés are hard to find. C.O.C Legacy is on the second floor of an Old Quarter building, through a narrow alley and up steep stairs. Po Cafe is on the 7th and 8th floors of The Cafe Apartment at 42 Nguyen Hue, where the lift costs 3,000 VND and the stairs are free. Nón Coffee & More in Nha Trang is the yellow building at the end of an alley, with guinea pigs in the courtyard.

Tea and payment

Free tea comes with the coffee at Loading T and at Tonkin Specialty Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City, and jasmine tea at Hoi An Coffee Hub and Nón. Po Cafe takes cash only, and at CatBa card and QR payments may carry fees.