Ho Chi Minh City Restaurant Tips by machomikemd

Restaurant Name: Vietnam House

Vietnam House Restaurant is a beautiful colonial house located in the center of Ho Chi Minh City. It is one of few restaurants which has honorably received the leaders, Prince, Princess… of some nations in the world (even George Bush Sr. and Former Philippine President Cory Aquino). With 150 seats, a cozy ambience and a warm service, it becomes a destination for tourists to access gastronomy and Vietnam culture.

Vietnam House is known to be one of the best restaurants specializing in both local Vietnamese and international cuisine. This restaurant is actually a restored French colonial house and renders a traditional ambience with its large French windows and traditionally attired waiters and somber genre of songs. Mostly the services are efficient and it’s a good place for a family to stay at night. You will get ample servings of dishes and mostly the air-conditioned environment is comfortable for guests and the interior decoration is nice and traditional with spaced out sitting arrangements.

Favorite Dish: The food is mostly westernized in nature though they also serve local dishes and the price of the food items mostly vary from US$ 10 to US$ 12 or less than that in some cases. Comparatively it’s more expensive than any average restaurant. The dishes served here mostly include margarita, rice wine, triple sec and lemon Tofu, vegetables, sautéed mushrooms in pepper sauce. While the other main courses include Pineapple fried rice, noodles, Pineapple Beef, Crab Spring rolls etc. Another specialty of Vietnam House is its variety of Vietnamese cuisine and its lunch buffets offering a variety of both local and international cuisine. In order to savor the delectable fare of Vietnam House, located near the Opera House, check out this famous eatery!

favorite foods are: Go Ha San ( sea food salad), Chao Tom (Prawn Meal in Sugarcane Stick), Muc Nuong Sate' (Grilled Calamari with Sate'), Cua Lot (deep fried Soft shell crabs) and Canh Do Bien (Sea Food Soup).

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Theme: Local
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$21-30  » Currency Converter
Phone: (848) 829 1623
Address: 95 dong khoi street, District 1 saigon
Directions: 93 - 95 Dong Khoi St. District 1 saigon
Website: www.bongsen.com.vn

Restaurant Name: Highlands Coffee (Similar to Seattle's Best)

Ho Chi Minh City yuppies flock to Highlands Cafe, a hip chain of cafes modelled after American-style cofee shops, complete with WIFI access, R'n'B soundtrack, vanilla latte shakes and club sandwiches.

Highlands Coffee was founded in 1998 by David Thai, a Viet Khieu (Overseas vietnamese) residing in seattle and since seattle is a coffee loving city, he got an idea to found a coffee house in his native country as coffee in vietnam is cheap (it it the second largest coffee exporter after brazil) and his idea hit off and Higlands Coffee Became Popular (some people say this is like starbucks but I would say that their design is Like Seattle's Best Coffee but is now moot since Seattle's best is now owned by Starbucks since 2005!). He founded Viet Thai International,the company behind Highlands coffee and the coffee house spread like mushrooms in vietnam!

Favorite Dish: traditional vietnamese blends: Gourmet Blend: This blend combines the finest Arabica and Robusta beans roasted to their individual peak flavors combine with selected flavors. The resulting taste is distinctive in body with aromatic sweetness. Traditional Blend: This blend of Arabica and Robusta beans perfectly captures the spirit of a traditional Vietnamese roast. By complementing the beans with selected flavors, the coffee delivers a bold taste and irresistible aroma, with hints of a rich buttery body. Heritage Blend: Processed similarly to the Traditional Blend, but using only Robusta beans, the Heritage Blend has a strong and intense flavor with a creamy body.

I like all these blends to make Cafe Phe Sua Da (Vietnamese Cold Coffee) and it costs 18,000 VND here!

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Theme: Coffeehouse
Comparison: about average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (848) 822-5017
Address: 135 Nguyen Hue Boulevard, District 1 Sai Gon
Directions: Thương xá TAX 2nd and 3rd floors at 135 Nguyen Hue Boulevard, District 1, Sai Gon, VN
Website: www.highlandscoffee.com.vn

Restaurant Name: Ngoc Suong Marina Sea Food Restaurant and Bar!

Ngoc Suong Marina is a very famous restaurant here in saigon, lot's of foreign tourist and celebrities dine here. The fish and shellfish are particularly fresh at this popular restaurant. The majority of the dishes are Vietnamese specialties. Shrimp may come raw, steamed with beer or in coconut juice (USD14 a kilogram). There is also a smattering of Western preparations—lobster Thermidor (USD50 a kilogram, nah this is too expensive so I did not ordered it) and Coquilles St. Jacques (French style baked scallops, USD4 which I like and finished about 10 pieces of it!). Beers and some wines are available. You can sit in a pleasant air-conditioned room, lined with banquettes (like what I Did) or in the covered garden outside that has live bands (which I did after dinner and gulped a few round of 333 Saigon Beer and Tiger Beer)

Favorite Dish: Ngoc Suong fish salad and the clams cooked in white wine, Deep fired prawn, cheese rolled in beef, BAKED SCALLOPS!, Seafood Hot Spicy Soup, I was stuffed and then tipsy because of the beers that I forgot to asked the vietnamese names of these fabulous dishes, Hey I'm Not A Backpacker so when I go to a country, I don't scrimp on it's culinary delights!

Opens Daily 10am-11pm

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Theme: Local
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: (848) 930 4209
Address: 19C Le Quy Don St., District 3, Sai Gon
Website: www.ngocsuongvn.com/
Other Contact: Fax: +848 930 5234

Restaurant Name: Paradise Coffe Shop

Paradise Coffee Lounge Faces the main roundabout of downtown Saigon at Nguyen Hue and Le Loi Streets. It was formerly known as the Abraham Lincoln Library of the American Cultural Center in Saigon during the Vietnam War.It is also well-known spot for intimate gatherings. Music shows and pop singers’ concerts also take place here.

Opening hours: 07.00 am - 11.30 pm

Favorite Dish: Vietnamese Iced Coffee what else! but it cost 258,000 VND here since this is a hotel but I had to try it for the Ambiance hehehe. the cheesecake was also good by was very expensive at 45,000 VND. This place specializes in the laid back department so you can hang around for hours!

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Theme: Coffeehouse
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: (848) 8292185
Address: 141 Nguyen Hue, District 1, Sai Gon
Website: www.rexhotelvietnam.com/

Restaurant Name: PHO 24 Restaurant!

One of the quintessential Vietnamese dishes, pho (noodle soup), contains all the kinds of ingredients a health-conscious person requires – fresh, natural, well-balanced and delicious. Even though the restaurant's style is consistent with traditional Vietnamese pho shops, everything at Pho 24 appears luxurious and delicate. The colourful ceramic patterns on the bowls match the complex dish they contain, and the smell instantly makes you hungry.

Pho 24 boasts 24 ingredients and choice beef, which has simmered for 24 hours to enhance its full and rich flavour. The 24 spices of Pho 24 include water, meat, marrowbone, salt, pepper, sugar, fish sauce, onions, shallots, spring onions, cinnamon, anise, ginger, cloves, coriander, radishes, lemons, chilli, saw tooth coriander, coriander, sweet basil, bean sprouts, chilli sauce and black soya sauce.

Pho 24 boasts 24 ingredients and choice beef, which has simmered for 24 hours to enhance its full and rich flavour. You can visit at anytime, because Pho 24 never closes.

Favorite Dish: The restaurant offers nine kinds of beef pho: regular beef noodle soup, and then the soup with muscle, with well-done brisket, with well-done flank, with fat brisket, with tripe, with soft tendon, with well-done flank and fat brisket, and with well-done flank and tripe. Two special versions are PHỞ B̉ TÁI. NẠM, GẦU, GÂN, SÁCH, CHÍNH (beef noodle soup with well-done flank, fat brisket, soft tendon and tri) at VND35,000 or PHỞ GÀ TRỨNG NON (chicken noodle soup with baby eggs) at VND34,000)., Pho Ga (Chicken) is at 26,000 VND and the extra large bowls start at 39,000 VND.

Drinks like softdrinks start at 10,000 VND, Cafe Sua Dua at 15,000 VND, Iced tea at 15,000 VND.

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Theme: Local
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (848) 8225616
Address: 75 Nguyen Hue St., Dist. 1, HCMC
Website: www.pho24.com.vn/
Other Contact: Fax: (848) 8217244

Restaurant Name: Buffet Ganh Bong Sen

The buffet offers over 50 dishes from the North, Central and South of Vietnam such as "Pho", "Bun Bo Hue noodle soup", assorted wonderful spring rolls, tasty fired Vietnamese pancake, deliciuos steamed rolled rice paper... Food are arranged in the bamboo baskets and served as its orginal style of Saigonese eating.

Located at lobby level of Bong Sen Hotel Saigon, the buffet opens for casual guest dinning at lunch and dinner time. Buffet breakfast is also served here for hotel guests from 6:00am to 10:00am.

Lunch at 90,000 VND ($ 5.50), Dinner at 150,000 VND ($ 9.30)

Favorite Dish: The restaurant’s chefs prepare the colourful dish by mixing threads of noodle with green vegetables, fried tofu, fleshy shrimp and pieces of lean meat. The dish is served with banh trang nuong (grilled girdle cake) and the final product is delicious: the fatty taste of meat compliments well the acridity of chilli.

bun bo Hue (beef noodle in Hue style), my Quang (Quang noodle), banh cuon (rice pancakes with shredded pork, mushroom and fried shallots), banh goi/banh nam (rice cake with sauteed shrimp and pork wrapped in banana leaf), banh canh cua (rice flour and crab noodle soup). cha gio Viet Nam (deep fried spring-rolls), goi cuon (fresh spring-rolls with shrimp and pork) or chao tom (shrimp sugarcane, ). Cha gio and goi cuon are very popular, but more adventurous diners should sample chao tom (consists of shrimp mixed with garlic, salt, peppers and coconut water wrapping around sugarcane. It is served with dips, sheets of rice paper, green vegetables and good fish sauce with peanuts, garlic and chilli. The bold flavour is underscored by its panoply of colours: green herbs, red chillies, white banana bud, yellow peanut). ca bong kho to (clay pot fish), canh hen nau chua (sour soup with mussels), ca phao (pickled eggplant)

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Theme: Local
Comparison: about average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (848) 823-8014
Address: 117-123 Dong khoi, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City
Website: www.bongsen.com.vn
Other Contact: fax: (848) 829-8076

Restaurant Name: Eat & Drink like the locals

Produced by: SAIGON BEER-ALCOHOL-BEVERAGE CORPORATION (SABECO), It's called "ba ba ba" locally but be careful not to say it too fast, because if you do it means something entirely different (something thats insulting to elderly women).It is a bitter tasting rice flavored beer made by the Saigon beer Co who also make Saigon Lager and Saigon Export. 333 dates back to 1893 where it was developed in France, it was originally named 33 and changed to 333 in 1975.

The brew has managed to endure over a century of regional conflict and turmoil having first been produced in 1893 and becoming popularly known as Beer 33 at the turn of the century. After the Communist takeover/liberation/oppression of Vietnam in the seventies the beer was renamed Beer 333 - the name change was allegedly an attempt to shake off the beer’s colonial past but truth be told nobody knows if this is the real reason or not. It is Brewed with Australian ingredients and German technology

It is available everyhere and it cost 10,000 VND a can in Citimart and Tax Supermarkets., alcohol content is 5.5%.

Favorite Dish: Saigon Lager: Also made by the Saigon beer Co this 4.7% alcohol beer has the distinctive Asian rice flavor it pours a clear gold color with a thin soapy white head and is not as strong as 333 beer, also sold at 10,000 VND at Supermarkets.

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Theme: Local
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (848) 855-9595
Address: Available everywhere!
Directions: Company Headquarters: 187 Nguyen Chi Thanh St. Dist. 5 Ho Chi Minh City
Website: biasaigon@sabeco.com.vn
Other Contact: fax: (848) 857-7095

Restaurant Name: Eat & Drink like the locals

A Vietnamese filter is a small coffee pot. It looks like a hat and sits upon the top of a coffee cup. Inside is a chamber for coffee and room for hot water. It is very basic and simple, and works! Condensed milk typically contains sugar and is heat processed with steam. Steamed milk has different physics from non-steamed milk and tastes better when used in co

Favorite Dish: to make Vietnamese Coffee:
1) Put about 1/3 of an inch of condensed milk in the bottom of a coffee cup
2) Open the device and unscrew to remove the filter’s top screen.
3) Place three rounded teaspoons of coffee with chicory OR three and a half rounded teaspoons of
coffee into the device. Replace the screen and turn it until it starts to get snug.
4) Place the filter on top of the coffee cup. Pour hot water into the device until it is about 1/4 full.
Wait 20 seconds (yes, look at the clock). If all the water flows through in the time, you need to
tighten the filter more.
5) Unscrew the filter two complete turns. If it is too tight, you can typically use a quarter as a screw
driver. Only loosen it two turns
6) Fill the filter with hot water. Place the cover on and wait. Typically about 5 minutes. The water
should not “stream” through, it should drip
7) When the dripping stops (i.e., all the water has passed through the filter), carefully remove
the device, set aside, and start to enjoy

prices start at 10,00o VND at street stalls, 15,000 VND at fastfoods at 20,000 VND at restaurants.

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Theme: Local
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: Available everywhere!

Restaurant Name: Eat & Drink like the locals

off course the maprao pao or roasted coconuts of thailand is still the best coconut juice!

Favorite Dish: This Coconut Juice cost 12,000 to 15,000 VND at markets and roadside stalls.

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Theme: Local
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: Available everywhere!

Restaurant Name: Eat & Drink like the locals

Spring Rolls are Generic in Asia, Vietnam has it, hong kong It, Singapore has it, philippines has it, thailand has it, etc but what makes vietnamese style different is that you wrapped the fried spring rolls with cabbage leaves plus lotus leaves and have a sweet kind of chilly dipping sauce with it.

cost about 20,000 t0 25,000 VND at markets and roadside stalls and 30,000 to 40,000 VND at restaurants.


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Theme: Local
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: Available everywhere!