This coffee shop is as casual as it gets. The vendor takes your order, as you sit on the ground, enjoying the urban sounds of Saigon, such as the traffic, birds, and chatter. Sometimes, there will be improvised street shows by students who are also café regulars. For about VND15,000, you can get anything including coffee, water, soft drinks, and iced tea.

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This small coffee shop has been operating for over 50 years, with a trolley and a few plastic chairs and tables along the alley of Phan Dinh Phung Street. What’s special about it is the way coffee is made there. The old couple that owns the shop uses a racket, instead of a conventional coffee filter, to make coffee. This method apparently allows the taste of the coffee to last longer, and be more fragrant. Moreover, you can have their coffee at any time as they’re open 24/7.

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It takes about five minutes to drive from the hotel to get a cup of egg coffee, a unique style of coffee from Hanoi. It whips an egg yolk into condensed milk, and tops it off with freshly brewed hot black Vietnamese drip coffee. Luu Gia Café, a family business, is the one coffee shop in Saigon that serves this specialty drink.

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This apartment, built in the middle of the 20th century, which is an attraction in itself, is like a library of coffee shops. You can browse each floor, checking out the unique décor of each cafe, before deciding which one to settle on. Each café has little balconies overlooking Walking Street, downtown Saigon, and the Saigon River. Wander from floor to floor, up the spiral stone staircase and along the tiled corridors, ducking into any coffee shop that takes your fancy. Local, trendy, and abuzz with Vietnamese youth, this old Saigon edifice stands reborn.

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