There’s nothing like a rooftop bar with a clear view of the city, especially during a sunset happy hour with friends, drinks in hand, and chill beats from a DJ. Established in 2011 in Shanghai, Le Café des Stagiaires has since opened locations in Bangkok (2015) and Ho Chi Minh City (2020). The concept is straightforward: Create a neighborhood gastrobar with simple yet tasty food and drinks where European cafe culture is the center of social gatherings. Try one of the signature drinks, such as the Coriander Mule or sangria, or create your own gin and tonic.

If you’re looking for a light, delicious snack, head over to Xôi Lá Chuối for some sweet or savory sticky rice. Unlike competitors, this stall wraps sticky rice in banana leaves, sealing in the flavors. Go for the savory mixed sticky rice option with sweet soy-marinated shredded chicken, which also includes smoky Chinese sausage, Vietnamese sausage, and shredded pork topped with scallion oil and peanuts.

For great traditional family-style Vietnamese food in a beautiful setting, look no further than mainstay Cục Gạch Quán. Opened by architect Trần Bình in a French Colonial house with vintage tiles and crafted antique furniture, it was dubbed the “architect’s house” by the HCMC creative community who frequented it in its early days. In 2011, it gained notoriety when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt dined there, and it has since become a staple for locals and visitors. Throwback Saigonese music plays from a reel-to-reel as diners tuck into items like braised pork belly in coconut water, stir-fried garlic zucchini flower, fried egg and tofu with lemongrass and chile, pomelo salad, and tamarind sour soup.

Though it opened only in 2016, this neighborhood bar is one of the staples in the trendy Phạm Viết Chánh area. It’s also tiny, seating approximately 10 people inside, and good luck trying to find a chair on the street-side patio. In the early days, it was frequented by local creatives, but it has since grown in popularity, attracting all sorts of characters. You never know what kind of new friend you may make over a glass of whiskey.

Luu Bar is the perfect encapsulation of the trendy Phạm Viết Chánh neighborhood, and it’s the perfect place if you’re looking for a chilled-out, party vibe. It offers craft beers, fancy cocktails, and Champagne, and DJs are on hand to get your feet moving. Feeling a bit peckish late at night? Grab a slice of pizza from Oliver’s Restaurant nearby, which Luu Bar owners William Szabo and Du Minh-Duc Laurent recently took over.

Noir Dining in the Dark was founded in 2014 by Vũ Anh Tú and Germ Doornbos as a social enterprise to support the Vietnamese visually impaired community with stable employment. Guests dine in the dark, challenging their taste buds to identify ingredients without sight; this type of restaurant appears in a number of cities and can seem a bit gimmicky, but here the execution is on point. There are several carefully curated set menus to choose from, including a vegetarian option, and everything is prepared using the finest local and organic ingredients.

Là Việt Coffee is one of the key players in the modern coffee scene. Moving away from the robusta beans traditionally found around town, husband-and-wife founders Trần Nhật Quang and Nguyen Thi Nhu Ngoc opted to focus on arabica beans grown, harvested, and roasted at their farm in Da Lat. Their experimentation has resulted in some truly unique coffee drinks, such as the specialty margarita coffee mocktail made with lime, sugar syrup, and cold brew, complete with salt rim. The couple is always pushing the boundaries of Vietnamese coffee while respecting the established coffee culture; they even took 14 months to develop a new brewing tool that combines a drip attachment good for their arabica beans with the form of a familiar phin filter.

Okkio’s cafes, founded by Đạt Phan, are a respite from the zooming motorbikes and honking cars. The District Three location is tucked away in an alley off busy Pham Ngoc Thach Street, and the cafe doesn’t look like much as you approach the white French Colonial-era facade. Inside, though, is an Instagrammer’s dream, with winding steel staircases, small red-painted pathways, two floors of retro-chic furniture, and a small garden. Okkio has a wide assortment of drinks, including cold brew, Vietnamese cà phê sữa đá (iced coffee), and a brew bar where you can choose your beans and brewing method. Opt for one of the house beans for the full Okkio experience.

Before Pasteur Street Brewing Company, the craft beer scene in Vietnam was pretty much nonexistent. You could get only the local mass-produced beers or imported brands at local bars, restaurants, and street food joints. Founders John Reid and Alex Violette decided to merge American craft brewing techniques with fresh, local Vietnamese ingredients. They brewed their first batch in November 2014, and by 2016, they burst onto the international craft beer stage when their Cyclo Imperial Chocolate Stout took home a gold medal at the World Beer Awards. Pasteur has remained the undisputed craft beer leader in Vietnam, expanding its catalog of beer flavors and taprooms while winning multiple awards and exporting overseas.

Saroi Ushimi and Stanley Boots launched 7 Bridges Brewing in Danang in April 2017, and have since opened taprooms in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The company has won a swath of awards, and the cofounders incorporate zero-waste initiatives and local charity projects into their business. In addition to the company’s own brews, try an organic cider from local award-winning cidery Saigon Cider, which has also collaborated with 7 Bridges on Vietnam’s first nonalcoholic craft beverages.

As you enter Hum, by walking over a small pond filled with lotus leaves and fish, you immediately feel relaxed and calm. The restaurant’s aim is to demonstrate that vegetarian food can be a wonderfully complex experience for the palate far beyond fried tofu. The mushroom coconut curry, served in a fresh coconut, is at once sweet, creamy, spicy, and meaty, while the square deep-fried spring roll of mushroom and veggies is crispy on the outside and rich on the inside. Wash down the meal with shots of Vietnamese apricot rice wine.

In 2007, Vietnamese artist Linh Dung opened the first Cộng Cà Phê in the heart of Hanoi’s downtown quarter. It was frequented by members of the local art community, who stopped by for the heavenly signature Cốt Dừa Cà Phê, iced coconut milk with dark, strong Vietnamese coffee. According to the website, “Cộng” refers to Vietnam’s official name, Cộng Hòa Xã hội Chủ Nghĩa Việt Nam (the Socialist Republic of Vietnam), though the cafe interior also includes lots of design references to the Viet Cong. The city’s young residents — who tend to think of the war differently than older generations and the international community — have embraced the vintage decor and military-esque furniture as period kitsch, and the cafe has become immensely popular in HCMC with many locations.

This restaurant, named for the traditional Northern dish of fish in turmeric sauce, has this signature dish down pat. Like the dish, the restaurant started in Hanoi before expanding to HCMC, where it became a go-to. Turmeric- and dill-marinated whitefish filets are stir-fried at the table with heaps of fresh dill and spring onion, then served with a bowl of vermicelli and topped with peanuts, rice crackers, and fermented shrimp paste or fish sauce.

Ho Chi Minh City has a huge Japanese expat community, including an area of alleyways in the city commonly referred to as Japan Town, where you’ll find small ramen and gyoza joints, whiskey bars, and yakitori chains. For omakase, you’re definitely in good hands at Maguro Studio, the restaurant from the Japanese premium seafood importer Yamanaka Vietnam, which brings in the freshest seafood from Japan, including bluefin tuna. The fatty tuna, salmon belly, and beef all melt in your mouth.

Ho Chi Minh City has a huge Chinese Vietnamese community that dates back to the 18th century, and there are plenty of spots for families and friends to gather on the weekends for dim sum. With four locations, Dim Tu Tac is the go-to for quality yet affordable dim sum with great service. During the weekend, expect a long queue at peak lunchtime, but the wait is worth it for the steaming Taiwanese soup dumplings, melt-in-your-mouth roasted fatty pork belly, spicy-sweet rice rolls in XO sauce, fiery Taiwanese wontons, and crackling Peking duck served two ways.

As you walk through the dark, tiny entrance and up the vintage stairwell to Summer Experiment, you know you’re in for a truly unique experience. This cocktail bar — ranked on Asia’s 100 Best Bars list in 2021 — is the brainchild of Australian expat and noted HCMC barman Jay Moir, who showcases his love for bringing the garden to the bar. The extensive drink menu is filled with colorful concoctions such as the Purple Potato Madness, an inventive take on the espresso martini with rum, sweet potato puree, and cold brew. Along with a strong farm-to-bar approach, limited use of plastic, and zero-waste cocktail creations, the team at Summer Experiment works closely with local sustainability programs that support suppliers and growers.

In 2018, Phạm The Can, the founder behind the startup Vina Chuối, appeared on Shark Tank Vietnam, winning investment to expand his business from one shop to eight stalls throughout the city, all selling fried bananas. The dish is common among street food vendors, but Vina Chuối fries the fruit right on the spot, and the batter includes secret seasonings. The bananas are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and less greasy than at competing places too. The chain also sells other items, such as grilled bananas and banana ice cream.

Tucked behind busy stalls in the heart of one of the city’s oldest surviving wet markets stands a traditional, narrow Vietnamese house that holds three floors of creative, innovative food and drink concepts from award-winning chef Peter Cuong Franklin. Anan (Eat Eat), the oldest of the three concepts, rose to international fame with $100 renditions of pho and banh mi, the latter including truffle mayonnaise, foie gras, and caviar. Even if you can’t afford those, come for crispy Dalat Pizza made with roasted duck or the truffle pho made with wagyu and truffle consomme. Be sure to stop by Nhau Nhau (Drink Drink), the second-floor cocktail bar, where you can try Song Cai, Vietnam’s first craft gin distillery founded in Hanoi in 2018, which sources native grains and botanicals from families of the Red Dao, Hmong, H’Re, and X’Tiêng peoples.

The rumor is when Anthony Bourdain first came to Vietnam, he and his crew would frequently hit up this street cart. One taste and you’ll know why. Instead of the typical fillings of pate and cold cuts, sandwiches here are stuffed with mini pork patties marinated in sweet soy and garlic, and grilled over charcoal. It’s hidden in a tiny alley off Nguyen Trai Street and opens in the late afternoon. Get there early and pray that the line of tourists and locals doesn’t snake down the street — though it would be well worth the wait even if it did.

Phở Phú Vương has been open for more than 25 years and features a unique blend of Northern and Southern styles of pho. Owner Phạm Văn Cử’s parents are from Nam Dinh Province, about 50 miles outside of Hanoi, and when they relocated to HCMC in 1954, they brought their family pho recipe. To cater to Southern taste buds, they made the broth slightly sweeter and leaned into flavors of ginger, anise, and cinnamon. Make sure to order the creamy poached egg yolk, which explodes as you slurp.

The sister restaurant of the Bangkok restaurant of the same name, Quince is a star in Ho Chi Minh City’s international dining scene. Chefs Julien Perraudina and Charlie Jones lead the kitchen, which turns out a produce-driven Mediterranean menu from two wood-fired ovens. The plating is exquisite, and the food is bursting with deep, rich flavors, especially the baked Isigny Camembert with black truffle honey or the wood-roasted cauliflower with 24-month-old AOP comte cream — and that’s before you get to the mains. Look out for Israeli spiced lamb rump, aged Barbary duck magret, and wagyu tomahawk bulgogi, to name just a few.

The gourmet doughnut craze hit Ho Chi Minh City when Kevin Bùi and Emma Nguyễn opened Dosh Doughnuts in 2017. The flagship store is as Instagram worthy as the doughnuts it dispenses, a creamsicle-colored multistory building overlooking the Saigon River. The doughnuts are made from fresh local ingredients, and the menu is continually updated with new creations. Options range from simple glazed renditions to elaborately decorated ones, like those filled with rambutan and stabbed with pipettes of caramel, or another variety stacked with strawberry waffles like Jenga blocks.

After a long day exploring Cholon (Chinatown), make sure to wander toward this local establishment that’s been operating for more than 20 years: The smoky, sweet aroma of garlic pork chops being grilled over an open coal fire will draw you right in. In the signature dish, tender, thin chops are served over a plate of steaming broken rice alongside shredded pork and pork skin, baked pork egg loaf, and a sunny side up egg. Besides the pork chop, the restaurant offers a variety of traditional Vietnamese dishes that change daily.