Tasting Rooms, Plant-Based Menus, And Otoro: Where To Eat And Drink Right Now In Ho Chi Minh City

So we got a little distracted. While we were chasing down Dave Pynt in Singapore and checking off World’s 50 Best restaurants in Colombia and Ecuador, Saigon’s been quietly cooking (and shaking) up its own storm. From Japanese-style cocktail precision to Portuguese egg tarts, from plant-based tasting menus to Hong Kong-style hotpot joints, the city’s newest additions are serving up some serious flavors. Time to dig in – because Ho Chi Minh City’s culinary scene is escalating (literally with two stairs-themed venues in our list).

Look. We’ve been busy, okay? As, at The Dot Magazine, we’ve been going international – among other adventures, we talked to Singapore’s Dave Pynt about his new cookbook, and we went and tried the tasting menus at El Chato in Bogota, Colombia and Nuema in Quito, Ecuador – two far-flung restaurants on the World’s 50 Best list, we might have let our local focus slip for a second here (although we’ve still been delivering lots of local guides in short-form video format across on our Instagram channel, and Martini hunts, market tours and more over on our YouTube channel). So, this list is full of the new and the new-ish as we look back on the past few months and the best bar and restaurant openings in Ho Chi Minh City. 

The irrepressible bar and restaurant industry had something of a flat 2024, even though lots of places mocked the market and opened anyway. But there’s genuine optimism around right now, and a truly eclectic list of places here to sink your teeth into (often literally). Cue the music: “It’s a new dawn, a new day, and I’m feeling good…”

Upstairs Tasting Room

Like Clarke Kent whipping off the glasses and putting on the cape, probably on the staircase up to Upstairs Tasting Room (36 Nguyen Ha Buan, Thao Dien), Hiep inconspicuously helped compadre Duy towards his MICHELIN Young Chef of the Year award, working together in the kitchen at the lovable Little Bear, before taking centre stage at their new concept, that, as the name suggests, is upstairs. Here, it’s tasting menu only – but it’s kept concise enough to appreciate every nuance of Hiep’s locally-inspired approach that’s hinted at from the get-go with the custom carved wooden service plates that have Vietnam’s highlands, rice fields and delta carved into them.

The names of the dishes reveal Hiep’s, who’s from Hue, homespun inspirations too, Hến Xúc Bánh Đa, inspired by Hue’s baby-clam filled cơm hến and Quang Nam’s turmeric noodle dish Mì Quảng – flavors to make Vietnamese sigh with nostalgia and international guests get caught up in the mood anyway. Each comes with a pairing from another rising star, sommelier My Tran, whose championing of small producers and boutique wineries – like the Pinot from Yarra Valley producer, the retro-labeled Mayer, or a Sauvignon Blanc from Tasmania’s Torch Bearer, a buttery Burgundy Chardonnay from Pierre Girardin – fits Hiep’s philosophy perfectly.

Tales by Chapter 

Mild-mannered but wildly ambitious chef Quang Dung steered his two venues in Hanoi – the fire-cooking focused Chapter Dining and Habakuk Fine Coffee & Bistro – to MICHELIN Selected status. So, there’s a lot of hype around his first restaurant project in Ho Chi Minh City, Tales by Chapter (10 Nguyen Thanh Y, Dakao, District 1). Here, he’s doubled down on the sustainable philosophy he honed, especially at Chapter, and which MICHELIN duly trumpeted.

Dung even had us dubbing him a Medieval genius due to his old-English cookbook inspirations (he studied at Exeter University as you might guess from his English accent).

The restaurant’s first chapter is ZERO – a ballsy 14-course plant-based tasting menu “where every part of the plant is celebrated.” It’s the result of another period of study, this time into sustainability, that led to some serious conclusions about the future of food and sustainability. And so, here, carrots embrace their main-character energy and a cornucopia of corn is conceptualized into an entire dish. They’re mixed with influences Dung picked up on his travels like his trip to India last year, with a take on pani puri in the snacks and some poee bread to soak up the X.O. mushroom and tofu sauce in the cauliflower dish in the starters. Book soon, not to get left behind, as the Tales by Chapter team promise, neither will any part of the plants they use.

YeYe Lẩu

YeYe Lẩu (75 Pasteur, District 1) is a colorful sliver of Hong Kong’s intensely populated, neon-strewn district of Mong Kok along Pasteur Street. In fact, this downtown Saigon thoroughfare is becoming a particularly culinarily eclectic part of the city – across the street is Prime Boutique Steakhouse, and Eddie’s New York Deli & Diner and Anatolia Turkish Cuisine are neighbors.

Inside is almost as dazzling as the outside with suspended street cones and table tops on industrial oil drums. The double-trayed hotpots come loaded with Sichuan spice and the trays of beef are bountiful enough for sharing and lingering longer in the neon-lit wonderland.

Oaksip Whiskey & Cocktails Bar 

Further up Pasteur is a bar enclave too, with the refined Angel’s Share and right opposite it, House of Merlin. Here, in the same alley as the original branch of Pasteur Brewing Company (and a suitable pre- or post-dinner cocktail bar for any of the above restaurants), Oaksip Whiskey & Cocktails Bar (144/2 Pasteur, District 1) is a refined, reliably precise, Japanese-style cocktail bar with spirit-forward beverages, a wide selection of unusual Japanese gins and spirits — Benizakura, a Hokkaido craft gin, “Yaso” 80, a Niigata spirit made from 80 types of natural plants, and Asakura Craft Gin from Fukuoka — and its own brand of cacao, a bespoke Japanese-made bitter nama chocolate.

Livannah – Sips & Bites

Sakal Pheuong might be satisfied with dividing his time between District 1 institution, Le Corto, and his Thao Dien outpost, P’Ti.

But when the space in front of his partner’s home furnishings store needed a concept, he shrugged off any highfaluting fine-dining desires and created Livannah – Sips & Bites (12 Nguyen U Di, Thao Dien) with his 20-year-old son in the kitchen helping to serve up inexpensive bites, lots of them straight from the grill. Elsewhere, he plays around with Vietnamese streetfood classics like bánh xèo and even hột vịt lộn, all at a price point that even the most cash-conscious resident of Thao Dien can get behind.  

Noriboi Omakase

It’s sometimes hard to tell where the city’s culinary centre of gravity lies. During the pandemic, Thao Dien certainly had its moment, becoming a sealed-off incubator for some of Saigon’s best restaurant concepts.

Places like Noriboi Omakase (31 Pho Duc Chinh, Nguyen Thai Binh, District 1) broadened the district’s palate with opulent omakase sets in an architectural oddity off Thao Dien Street itself. Now, like it’s been missing out on the party, Noriboi has upped sticks and decamped to the characterful District 1 enclave of Nguyen Thai Binh Ward.

Not surprisingly, considering proprietor Dani Phuc Nguyen’s obsessive attention to detail (she’s also behind Soko Group’s other projects) – and we can add the Thao Dien branch of Soko that’s just opened to this list too – it’s leveled up from the previous location, with a serene tea room downstairs, where the gentle sound of water pre-ambles the theme of the set menu.  And, perhaps uniquely, the tasting menu aims to pair local ingredients with the finest flown-in fish, so there’s Hoa Loc mango, lotus leaves and lotus flowers, alongside bluefin tuna, Mie oysters from Ise Bay, and Amadai fish imported directly from Japan, set into wildly creative custom plating – a temple diorama for the desserts and a suitcase for the petit fours – lots of which are doused in sprayed gold, just for good measure.

Yakiuo Ishikawa Saigon

Restless proprietor Lanh Phan supplied some of the city’s best Japanese restaurants with fresh imported fish, before opening his iconoclastic own place, Maguro Studio with chef Lam, a fun, edgy take on the traditional omakase restaurant. We called it “funky and fresh” when it opened in 2022. Then they opened Shoku, a few blocks away, with creative, a la carte Japanese cuisine more akin to an izakaya. Generally, Lanh was content to let Lam and the team take the spotlight.

But at Yakiuo Ishikawa Saigon, he’s taken centre stage (at least for the opening period), dramatically delivering oversized plates of cuts of different fish destined for the grill, a bottle or two of Dassai, and then theatrically swabbing the fish against the grill while forensically examining it with a torch to ensure its perfectly cooked. This is, he says, meat-free yakiniku, meaning a grill-style restaurant that serves fish instead of beef, so there’s meaty cuts of tuna to douse in egg as you might do with a piece of Wagyu.

Casinha 

It’s thrilling to see different cuisines represented in Ho Chi Minh City (because we remember the days, not so long ago, when the options were restricted). Enter Casinha (154 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street), a cutesy but boldly-branded apparition, offering, as they themselves proclaim, dishes from the only 100% Portuguese bistro in Vietnam.

Naturally, it started with the Pasteis de Nata, their take on arguably one of the world’s great pastries – the Portuguese egg custard tart. To that they’ve added big bistro flavors: their award-winning Chouriço sausage cooked over flame, or their Bacalhau à Brás, another Portuguese classic that’s a mix of cod, potato, onions and egg. You can even start your day the Portuguese way, with their Lisboa breakfast of freshly squeezed juice, a freshly-brewed espresso, and a Pastel de Nata. From Portugal with love. 

Mowe Wine Space

We don’t have a destination natural wine bar yet, like Mosto in Berawa, Bali (whose Chef Lorenzo De Petris we spoke to in late 2022) or Mod Kaew in Bangkok, although Binh Thanh’s Que by Kaarem and Nob – Natural Wine Corner (that’s now moved to District 1) have been keeping our thirst for organic, natural and biodynamic wines quenched. It’s early days, but Mowe might be it. It’s the kind of fun, easy going-place you would expect to find in Bali or Bangkok.

They’ve already thrown together a sake and Vietnamese food pairing dinner, a coffee roastery takeovers, and they’ve hosted DJs dropping by to drop tunes as a backdrop to the Mowe Wine Space’s (40/8/7 Pham Viet Chanh, Binh Thanh) curated and convivial collision of wine and convos.

Stairs Bar 

Despite our well-documented and undying love of a good Martini (we even once reported on our search) there aren’t so many places to get a good one in Ho Chi Minh City. So, when Yugen shuttered it was another spot sadly crossed off the list. As much as we love a good Martini, we appreciate a remarkable resurrection – who doesn’t? We’re talking Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.

When we heard Stairs Bar (95/32 Le Thi Rieng, District 1) had taken the Yugen space, and kept the same classic cocktail-philosophy that had made it famous, we were duly excited not only because of the spirit-forward cocktail but because Stairs Bar (and its predecessor) expanded Saigon’s cocktail map into that netherworld around the backpacker district around Pham Ngu Lau and the touristy, hotel-filled streets around Bui Thi Xuan.