If you haven't already set up your card to prepay on the Grab app, you'll need cash.
- Grab - taxi app
Don't got to Hanoi in the winter - it is not Thailand, it is cold and you will need a jacket due to the high lattitude.
- Mình ơiii! - small venue, summer rolls prawn were sold out, udon noodle pork soup was small but great, and the spring rolls come very hot fresh and crispy, fair prices too
- Saltfee - the Guaberry iced tea is very nice, has wifi and a small balcony overlooking the street on the upper level
- Hidden Alley - hidden gem, great interior with low lighting, interesting menu and wifi
- Laika Cafe - interesting drinks menu, outdoor terrace seating and wifi. The plum / passionfruit ice cream teas with jelly pieces was surprisingly good!
- Puku Cafe & Bar - 24x7 with wifi and reasonable prices, the stir fried beef noodles are really good, and also the peach iced tea or orange lemongrass peach iced tea with peach slices in them
- Aroi Dessert Cafe -
open 24 hours with good upper level seating as well as street seating, not only until 10:30pm as Google says.
The
Aroi Dessert Cafewifi runs out of IP addresses, ask them for the password for theAroi Staffwifi instead - Le Monde Steak - steaks, pasta, good drinks, reasonable prices and wifi
- Hong Haoi - popular restaurant in Old Town, small and busy The recommended fried fish is good and the juice is fresh squeezed, although not big (uses those milkshake glasses that are narrow at the bottom).
- Don Duck - small popular affordable restaurant specializing in duck. Reasonable prices, but the spring rolls weren't crispy and the duck soup while very affordable could have had better cuts of duck and less duck skin. Still for this price one shouldn't complain
I much prefer this to Hanoi, it is ~1000km south with much better weather, better tourist areas, but more expensive to eat and drink there.
District 1 is where you want to stay here.
- Ben Thanh Market - indoor market with food, juices, clothes, souvenirs etc. Eat here, it's much cheaper than most restaurants in the area
- Đ. Bùi Viện - Walking Street of bars, clubs and restaurants. Buzzing, but expensive. Eat elsewhere, stop here for drinks and dancers
- Ben Nghe Street Food - international mix of street food vendors, twice the price of the cheap eats places in Ben Thanh Market, but more variety and better social benches seating
- The Hungry Pig - very good full english breakfast, paninis, burgers, big drink sizes, reasonable prices. The bacon is well done just the way I like it, in both the english breakfast and panini. The 'Fish & Chips' is more like fish goujons and chips, and smaller portion than a grand Fish & Chips of England. This is my favourite place for breakfast
- Little HaNoi Egg Coffee - eggs, salmon, avocado type breakfast, good drinks such as peach ice tea with peaches in it
- Quán ăn Bác Hiền - excellent cheap street food restaurant, ignore the mediocre Google rating, the locals eat and socialize here, you will eat and drink well for less than everywhere else
- Chez Mimosa Cafe - affordable 3 course breakfast with a drink included, good quality, has wifi
- Kyobashi Sushi Izakaya - very good quality, soup noodles, sushi, skewers moderately priced, in thhe area of bar girls where you will seconded everywhere
- Acai Bliss - acai bowls for around £5, good by international standards but expensive for here, was quite Sunday midday, and a bit of a walk from the main areas
- Pure Bowls - another acai bowl place near Ben Thanh
- Codonut - coconut ice cream falvours in coconut bowl, with toppings, open late until 1am for late night treats, with seat both inside and on the street to people watch
- Melbourne Cafe - good mixed juices, English breakfast, pancake stacks, wifi, moderate prices, vietnamese food at the back of menu is cheaper
- Me In Noodle - next to Ben Thanh Market, very interesting noodles menu, twice the price of the cheap places inside the Ben Thant market hall but full busy with foreigners, and the adjacent Mama's Kitchen restaurant has a different menu and also full
- Hello Saigon - good food, reasonable prices, the seafood crispy taro salad is good but cold, the mango and peach teas are too sweet despite asking them to reduce sugar and second time around no sugar, must be due to lots of syrup
- Chez Gilbert Saigon - has breakfast / lunch deal specials, but they're not as big and filling as the above places. Good if you need wifi though
- Xèo Restaurant - MeKong - good food, reasonable prices, seafood rice noodles were very tasty, portion could have been a bit bigger but then I’m probably just greedy
- Kyobashi Sushi Izakaya - high quality Japanese restaurant, very good good with reasonable prices, serving noodle soups and a great selection of sushi and grill skewers, slightly off the beaten track in the alleys with lots of bar girls
- Vincom Center - shopping center with a lot of good looking restaurants on the lowest floor. Will be pricier than Ben Thanh Market
- SIPFÉ coffee & sweets - fancy coffee place, nice drinks. Lots of girls dressing up and having their friends take pics of them due to the nice surroundings
- Antiko Kafe 24/7 - 24 hour student cafe, 3 floors. Tropical iced tea was good and full of fruit. There is lots of seating, wifi, plugs, lots of students there at midnight
- Phê La - Hồ Tùng Mậu - busy coffee shop with big teas, wifi and lots of seating upstairs, many people are on laptops there, and there are plugs to charge. Ignore the mediocre Google rating and look at how busy it is with mainly locals...
- Maan+ Coffee & Tea - popular late night tea / coffee place used mainly by locals with lots of street seating, open until 2am
- KOI Café - opposite the Saigon center mall. Bubble tea shop on ground floor, coffee shop on 1st floor, seating on 2nd floor for teas from ground floor. Wifi code required from receipt (10 digit integer) for 120 minutes (this seems stingy compared to other coffee shops) and the plugs do not hold the adapters. Not as good as Phe La down the road
- 7 Bridges Craft Beer Taproom & Restaurant / Lê Thánh Tôn - drinks downstairs, cosy restaurant on 3rd floor, good for a date
- Go2 Bar - listen to the live music from Lost in Saigon across the street at a more comfortable distance and volume, and the drinks are cheaper too. People watch the entrance to Walking Street
- Carmen Bar - expensive romantic bar with live music, use this only for dates, it is opposite and alongside expensive high end luxury hotels
- YOYO BEER GARDEN Hồ Con Rùa - banging and full at night, mostly locals
- Quan Pho Con Bo Vang - cheap local eats place