Coffee arrived in Vietnam with French colonists in the 19th century and has since become thoroughly localised, both in how it's grown (robusta beans dominate, giving a stronger, more bitter base than the arabica more common in the West) and how it's served.

The classics

Ca phe sua da, strong drip coffee mixed with sweetened condensed milk over ice, is the everyday default and a good starting point if you've never had Vietnamese coffee before — the condensed milk balances the robusta bean's bitterness. Ca phe den is the same drip coffee served black, for a more intense hit. Egg coffee (ca phe trung), a whipped egg yolk and condensed milk topping over coffee, is a Hanoi original but widely available in Saigon too and worth trying at least once.

Newer café culture

Alongside traditional stalls, Saigon has a large, design-conscious specialty café scene, particularly concentrated in District 3 and District 1's side streets, serving single-origin pour-overs and inventive variations like coconut coffee (ca phe dua) and salted cream coffee alongside the classics. Many of these cafés are destinations in their own right, occupying converted villas or rooftop spaces.

Where to try it: For an authentic, cheap version, a plastic-stool street stall does the job as well as anywhere. For the specialty scene, District 3's café streets and the alleyway cafés tucked into old apartment blocks around Nguyen Hue are the best-known starting points.

Buying beans to take home

Robusta and blended beans are widely available at markets and supermarkets and travel well, along with the traditional phin drip filters used to brew it — a compact, inexpensive souvenir that's genuinely useful once you're home.

Try firstCa phe sua da (iced milk coffee)
Also tryEgg coffee, coconut coffee
Best area for cafesDistrict 3, alleyway cafes near Nguyen Hue