TacoCat’s Travels #183 (Vietnam 2.0): Feeling Fancy before Flying Off! ☕🎥

October 2022 · 10 min read · Ho Chi Minh City

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last few posts, we're currently recounting our trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from back in July 2019! It was the last trip before Sean was scheduled to start his full-time job so we decided to go on a short getaway to Vietnam to visit a friend! We'd also be traveling with a mutual friend of ours and his family!

So last week, our local friend Teddy brought us cafe hopping around the city; showing us two traditional but very different cafes! Vietnam is widely known for their coffee (they even have their own world-famous homegrown brand Trung Nguyen coffee) and although we're not coffee drinkers we enjoyed the cafes a lot!

The first was a streetside traditional cafe called Cafe Vợt, that boasts the most authentic Vietnamese coffee that maintains its affordable price point since its inception.

And the second was an interesting cafe with a retro wartime theme, as it pays homage to the Việt Cộng during the Vietnam-American War. I initially thought it would be quite sensitive but the baristas were all dressed like military and there was even some war-themed memorabilia being sold so it's all good.

We had a lot of fun going to these cafes but we barely scratched the surface! There are so many different traditional, hipster cafes in Ho Chi Minh City I would want to visit some day. But anyway, we continue on our journey!

22 July 2019. Monday.

We got up earlier to enjoy the hotel breakfast and the dining room was considerably emptier now that it was past the weekend. I guess it's pretty common for people to just stay in Ho Chi Minh for a short getaway over the weekend.

I managed to take more pictures of the dining room like the omelette station.

Since we haven't been eating enough veggies the past two days, I opted for more vegetables this time and tried to eat light since it was somewhat oilier compared to my usual breakfasts.

We also tried a small bowl of their in-house pho which tasted just like some generic noodles with pork/beef.

We did get some delicious sunny side-ups this time, and with fewer guests to serve I think they turned out perfectly! The gooey yolk and the light crisp on the egg white made it so yummy!

Our friend Teddy arrived at the hotel fairly early so we could all hangout since this was our final day in Ho Chi Minh!

And of course we wound up playing games together in our room for a while since we were all pretty full from breakfast still. Another one of their local friends Loc came to meet with us and play too!

After about an hour or so, it was lunch time so we all decided to head to another cafe!

This one was a lot fancier than the ones we visited and is called L'Usine! From the exterior it looked very different compared to the traditional cafes we visited. And obviously the name gave it a more European vibe as well.

This cafe was actually located just down the street from where we were staying in Roseland Sweet Hotel. Initially I thought it was just a small single-storey coffee shop, but I was very surprised when we went inside.

The whole cafe is at least three stories tall and the interior looked really nice and classy but also minimalist in a way. There was even a lift in the cafe that went up several floors.

Source: tripadvisor.com.sg

Each floor had it's own unique space with different furniture, so you can freely choose what kind of seating you'd like, provided there were vacancies of course.

Source: oivietnam.com

It was actually pretty crowded when we went and a lot of the bigger tables were occupied already so we had to settle for this bar table which was fine I guess.

They have quite the menu; from all-day Western breakfasts to Asian dishes, Sandwiches, Salads, Mains, and plenty of drinks and desserts! I think they have expanded their menu since we went there in 2019.

We were still pretty full from our hotel breakfast, so Sean and I just ordered a drink and a snack to share. We decided to try some of the Chef's Recommendations, like this Royal Vietnamese Iced Coffee since it was still really warm outside.

The coffee was pretty good; it was more like coffee ice blended, but it wasn't too bitter since they added condensed milk (like the usual classic Vietnamese iced coffee), but it wasn't too sweet either. It was topped with fresh coffee grounds, which were bitter but they provided some contrast to the ice blended coffee. Overall, it was pretty nice!

For a snack we also ordered the Fried Banana with Coconut Ice Cream.

It tasted exactly like what we expected; pisang goreng - a very popular Southeast Asian snack made of banana or plantain, covered in batter and deep fried. The only difference between this cafe version and the ones we're used to is that the batter here wasn't as thick, and the caramel sauce made it way too sweet for my taste since the banana is also sweet. But the coconut ice cream was a nice match for it.

Overall it was still pretty nice, and was just enough to satisfy us since breakfast was quite savoury.

We chilled at the cafe for about an hour or so while the guys were busy chatting and still deciding about what we were going to do for the day.

After a while they decided to go to another part of the city to visit more of their friends; it was basically a mini college reunion for them. But since we didn't know those friends of theirs we decided to go off on our own and see what else we could do.

Ultimately we decided to go to the nearby mall since it was a little too hot to go walking around on the street still. The mall didn't really have too much to see though so we just decided to chill and catch a movie!

So we went to check out the ticket prices and found that the movie tickets here were ridiculously cheap even for Gold Class, so we thought we'd treat ourselves and relax.

We would've bought popcorn here since it was so cheap but we were still really full from brunch and the cafe snack so we decided against it.

They even had some special Line Friends combo which came with exclusive Line Friends merchandise (which is some of our favourite characters) but it was quite pricey even with the exchange rate so we decided against it.

We did also pass by this Banh Mi shop which was very tempting, since I loved Banh Mi the first time we visited Ho Chi Minh.

It did look promising although it wasn't super cheap, so we left it as an option for dinner or snack after the movie.

Soon enough it was time for us to enter the cinema! Spiderman: Far From Home had just released at the time and since we're MCU fans we thought it was perfect to enjoy it here in the comfort of Gold Class.

The whole Premium Cinema section looked pretty high-class and cosy with the brick-walls and mahogany-looking doors. I guess they were going for a retro cinema look.

There were other tourists in our cinema so it wasn't exclusive, but since the theater itself is limited to only about 20 people it wasn't bad. At least the chairs were really comfortable and could even recline so we truly enjoyed the premium gold class treatment.

And we really enjoyed the movie! The special effects looked so cool on the big screen with surround sound. It was really intense at times and entertaining; 10/10 worth the Gold Class ticket for sure.

It was early evening by the time we finished the movie, and after that we took our time to see the rest of the theater. Turns out there was a nice waiting room for Gold Class ticket holders with a drink/snack bar too!

The bathroom there was also really nicely furnished and clean; probably rivaling our hotel bathroom.

It definitely lived up to their title of Premium & Cozy for sure. I'm glad we upgraded ourselves and went for the Gold Class experience.

After that instead of the Banh Mi we decided on a little snack from a bakery in the mall so we could walk and eat while window shopping.

After a couple hours of walking around the mall it was time for dinner so we tried this Vietnamese restaurant called Saigon Street Cafe which I guess serves Vietnamese street food but in a cleaner setting in a mall. I thought we should try some more authentic Vietnamese food since the only Viet food we had so far was the home-cooked meal made by Teddy's mom!

We decided to try their pho which was pretty alright. Personally, I'm not a super huge fan of pho, it's nice and savoury but not my favourite noodle dish.

The broth is quite light and not as flavourful as laksa or ramen, but it is still satisfying nonetheless.

Since I was craving some chicken we also bought this fried chicken with rice which was pretty alright. It wasn't super crispy but it was more like roasted chicken that was fried. It was nicely seasoned and wasn't dry at least. The rice was a little bland though and I would've liked some different chili sauce since there was only sweet chili sauce that didn't really fit the rice.

For dessert we tried Vietnamese Glutinuous Rice Balls, or Chè Trôi Nước. Since we like a similar Chinese dessert we thought we'd try a Viet version.

Turns out it's filled with mung bean paste over a ginger soup with coconut cream. The rice ball was nice and chewy but kinda sweet and the ginger taste was a little strong for me but it was nice. I think I prefer the lighter Chinese version though.

After that we headed back to our hotel so we could pack up and rest for our flight the next day.

23 July 2019. Tuesday.

Our flight home was in the late afternoon so we could enjoy the hotel breakfast and miss rush hour at least.

After breakfast we just chilled in our hotel room playing games again before it was time to checkout and head to the airport! By the time we arrived and got through customs it was past 2pm and we were getting hungry for lunch!

Unfortunately Ho Chi Minh airport does not have many food options past security so our only option was Burger King. We didn't mind although it was pretty pricey since they charged in USD for some reason?! But we didn't have any choice so Sean and I just shared a burger set.

This was our last photo with our friend Dean and his family since they were flying back to Malaysia and us to Singapore of course.

We had an uneventful trip back and arrived home in time for dinner!

Overall, it was a very relaxing trip and was fun catching up with our international friends! It was just the kind of chill holiday we needed since Sean was about to start work and we had just finished our longer trip to Japan before this.

And that wraps up another Travel series! This was also our last trip pre-covid so everything since then was a real roller coaster but we engage in some local tourism activities here in Singapore that I would love to share too! Let me know what you think in the comments!

Thanks so much for reading!