Been open 35+ years. Founded by Mrs. Le Kim Hoa, whose father ran a street stall near the Phu Dong roundabout selling bread.
Every single day, there are lines of locals and tourists stretching out onto the road.
âEvery banh mi has 13 ingredients: pate, sausage, Vietnamese sausages, butter, ham, pork floss, char siu, herbs, pickled carrot and radish, cucumber, chili, mayo, and bread thatâs crusty outside and pillowy inside. Itâs the heaviest banh mi youâll ever hold.â
Everything in Saigon happens on a red plastic chair or stool. In Vietnam red means luck and happiness and also âsit here, the pho is ready.â đ
Iâve eaten the best meals of my life on red plastic chairs. Com tam suon, hunched over broken rice and grilled pork, green onion oil dripping off the spoon, my knees pressed against a tableđ.
Ca phe sua da sweating in a glass, sitting so low to the ground, watching motorbikes pass. Nobody looks comfortable on a red plastic chair. Everybody looks at home.
Back in Vietnam after almost two weeks in Cambodia, and the first thing I want is a cup in my hand and a chair in the shade. So here it is: a week in coffee, one cup at a time.
Highlands Coffee â Coconut Americano (Americano NÆ°á»c Dừa) I will be honest about this one. It tasted like a strong black coffee with a drop of coconut water stirred in. Not the specialty coconut coffee with milk and sugar I had in my head. Fine, but not the thing. And my health is better for it. đ
Trung NguyĂȘn E-Coffee â BĂči Thá» XuĂąn The best salted coffee I have had in Saigon, full stop. 35K VND, about $1.33. Modern, open air, free wifi, the kind of place that looks like the coffee should cost a fortune. It doesnât.
The husband-and-wife stand â a háș»m off LĂȘ Thá» RiĂȘng – 17K, about 65 cents, for a cĂ phĂȘ sữa ÄĂĄ takeaway, run by a man and his wife in an alley off LĂȘ Thá» RiĂȘng. The cheapest one around, and I love how they make it. Condensed milk at the bottom of the cup, half a shot of espresso, stirred, then ice, then the other half of the espresso poured over the top. That first sip lands hard! And I love that. đ
Nguyen Van Hao Building, sometimes called Saigonâs Art Deco Flatiron. Itâs one of the most important pre-war commercial buildings still standing in the city.
The story: Nguyen Van Hao was born in 1890 in Tra Vinh Province, came to Saigon poor, started as an apprentice at his stepbrotherâs auto parts shop. He saved money, opened his own automobile accessory store at 19-21 Boulevard Gallieni (now Tran Hung Dao), and became one of the wealthiest businessmen in Saigon by the 1920s and 30s. He made his fortune off the growing demand for cars and long-distance travel across the Mekong Delta.
He commissioned this building in the late 1920s. Construction finished in 1937. It was both his family residence and his business offices. The building became known as the âNguyen Van Hao Garageâ because he displayed famous automobile brands there. He also built a petrol station nearby and financed the Nguyen Van Hao Theater on the corner of Tran Hung Dao and De Tham (now the HCMC Drama Theater), which became one of Saigonâs most important performance venues. In 1945, that theater was where the public meeting was held that launched the August Revolution.
The building itself sits at the triangular junction of Tran Hung Dao, Ky Con, and Yersin streets, right across from Ben Thanh Market. Itâs a wedge-shaped Art Deco flatiron, about 100 years old now, with beautiful curved lines.
Hao left Saigon in 1966 after his wife died, returned to Tra Vinh, and left the building to his son. Itâs been decaying for decades. There have been reports of renovation efforts, and some Airbnb apartments have operated inside it.
