Ho Chi Minh City - (Spring 2025) - Day 5
View from the top floor of the hotel
We started every day with an excellent buffet at the restaurant on the top floor of the hotel
Cafe Apartments
This converted apartment building has become popular and occupies some prime real estate right in the middle of the promenade. There is an elevator (which can sometimes get busy with a line) that you can take for some nominal fee. I forgot the amount but it is way less than a dollar but you can ride to the top which is nice when it’s hot. Walking down is much better. There is a narrow staircase that takes you to the different floors with coffee shops, small restaurants, and small artisan shops.
Good Day Tea and Coffee (Cafe Apartments)
Why not have coffee on the top floor? This place has decent views of the promenade. We sat inside away from the heat. This was the first taste of the Vietnamese egg coffee.
Evening photo with the cafes lit up
Strolling Around After Coffee
Pâté Chaud
I thought that this tasty meat pastry would be more prevalent around town but I did not see it being sold in too many places. We happened upon this street vendor who had it so it was an opportune time to grab a taste.
Taka Plaza
This was another shopping area where you can find cheap wares and some knock-off products like Ben Thanh but unlike Ben Thanh, this place has air conditioning which make the shopping a much more pleasant experience.
Soho Town Food Court (Taka Plaza)
The food court in the plaza was pretty good. This was also when we finally got around to having some cơm tấm. The name refers to the “broken” rice which is a shorter grain rice and is served with the grilled pork, pork skin, and egg meatloaf.
P-Garden / Bach Cigar Lounge
Connected to the Taka Plaza is this open air bar/restaurant that seems to go by several names. The sign called it the P-Garden but it also comes up as DaybyDay and the Bach Cigar Lounge seems to be one part of it. They didn’t have cigars for sale but that was ok since I had my own but then they had ashtrays and lighters for you to use which was nice.
The place is outdoors but it is shaded and they run water fan misters directly at your table when you sit down. It was a nice place to take a mid-day break.
Saigon Central Park
The Mechanic Bar
Not far from the Taka Plaza was this cool little upstairs bar. It had a steampunk and motorcycle theme with great decor. The cocktails were pretty awesome as well.
The festivities of the practice celebration in the promenade
The crowds were getting pretty intense and this was not even the real celebration
Phở Hải Triều
Went out in the evening for some beef pho. This place was close to the promenade and the scene was just mayhem on this Saturday night. Not only was the restaurant busy, but there was a constant parade of scooters whizzing behind me looking for a parking spot while I was eating. The soup was tasty though. We were fairly lucky to find a table to eat there since it was so busy in that area.
Lemon Tree
Since the traffic was such a mess, we looked for bars that we could walk to. This classy establishment was not too far away. The bar was upstairs and once inside it seemed a world away from the ensuing chaos that was happening outside. The bar is aptly dominated by a fake lemon tree in the middle of it.
BOO SG
Another upstairs bar that was also not too far away, the owner here gave us good bar recommendations in addition to serving us good drinks. We first had to figure out how to get upstairs which was through a sketchy looking doorway on the ground floor.
Scooter-geddon
I’m sure that traffic can be bad on any given Saturday night in this city but the road closures on many streets due to the practice parades caused utter traffic chaos. People were being re-directed as they drove/rode and the result was just masses of scooters piling up on each other all over town.
There were going to be fireworks on the river this evening but we felt the best strategy was to avoid the suffocating crowd on this night and stay away from the fireworks show.
Not the Bar We Were Looking For
While trying to find the Hybrid bar (which was recommended to us by the owner of BOO SG), we stumbled around the street trying to figure out how to get to the bar. We finally found a small half door in the back of a coffee shop that led us up some stairs and eventually a door to…. a different bar. I guess this cocktail bar is called Tuý Long but it wasn’t the one we were looking for. It looked cool, maybe next time.
Tipsy Department
Still not the bar we were looking for! But getting closer. Hybrid is hidden in a staircase behind this bar but since we were here we might as well enjoy the moment and have a drink. The bartender was great to hang out with. He gave use recommendations to Da Nang which was our next destination and also poured all of us shots of Lava Flow (or Miami Vice depending on where you are from) drinks to have before we headed out.
Hybrid
Doorway to Hybrid
The bartender at Tipsy Department escorted us up to our original destination - Hybrid. This is a very popular (and small) bar so we were again lucky enough to get some seats at the end of the bar. You access the bar up an unmarked staircase at the back of the Tipsy Department bar.
The drinks were very creative. Mine had a Sichuan pepper which gave it some numbing heat. We also did a shot of some liquid of unknown provenance with the bartender before we left.