District 1 is the perfect place to start exploring Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. Whether you're hunting down the city's best banh mi, sampling creamy egg coffee, or wandering through quirky multi-level cafes, these six experiences will give you a taste of Saigon's culture, food scene and hidden gems. These are all within or just outside District 1!
1 - Try Creative Banh Mis
One thing is apparent as soon as you arrive in Saigon: there is no shortage of banh mi places. Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon is where banh mi comes from and this delicious filled baguette is the perfect fusion food with a crusty French baguette filled with meats, pate, mayonnaise and salad. There are many banh mi places but were intrigued by Bánh Mì Mẹ Ỉn because of their fillings that we haven't seen elsewhere. They're making beef short rib banh mi or lobster banh mis. These banh mi don't come cheap with the lobster one around 1,150,000VND or around $60AUD per banh mi.
Bánh Mì Mẹ Ỉn is located just near the Ben Thanh Night Market down an alleyway where shop owners hold up signs for manicures and pedicures. The shop is spread across two locations and caters primarily for a tourist clientele. The picture menu shows the range of banh mi and banh mi bowls (toppings with a salad and the sliced baguette served separately).
They recommend us the grilled beef short rib banh mi with BBQ beef rib, cucumber, pickles, green onion, coriander, truffle and egg butter cream sauce. You can get a full version or a half one. It doesn't look like the picture as they remove the bone and chop up the meat before adding it into the sandwich although this makes it more practical to eat.The beef is deliciously soft and well flavoured although needs a touch of seasoning added to it. The truffle aroma isn't really apparent.
We both preferred the grilled pork rib banh mi with grilled pork ribs, cucumber, pickles, green onions, coriander, truffle and an egg butter cream sauce. The meat itself has a touch of sweetness that always suits pork. And both banh mi come with a gorgeously crisp warm baguette and a good amount of salad and sauces.
2 - Try Salt Coffee and Egg Coffee
If you've just been to Bánh Mì Mẹ Ỉn, then just right next to it is the cutest little yellow takeaway coffee shop. It's named Mickey's and is named after the adorable 5 pound or 2.2kg toy poodle who is usually enjoying the air conditioning in the tiny shop. They're known for two types of coffee: salt coffee made with Vietnamese coffee topped with thick cream and a pinch of salt on top. The egg coffee is also popular and is much sweeter with a whipped egg topping made with condensed milk, egg yolk, honey whipped until thick.
"The key is to not taste the egg," says owner Cu, who studied and worked in Canada and is super helpful. Egg coffee or Cà Phê Trứng actually originates from Hanoi and was devised in 1946 by bartender Nguyen Van Giang of the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in Hanoi as a substitute for milk when there were shortages.
And what could make coffee even better? Free hugs from Mickey! Did we stay here for almost an hour chatting to Cu and cuddling Mickey? Maybe!
3 - Try Dinner at HOME Saigon
HOME Saigon is a Vietnamese restaurant situated in a stunning yellow Colonial style building down an alleyway. The entranceway is a bar lined with books and illuminated red lanterns, comfortable couches but for dinner, head upstairs. We are booked for dinner for Mr NQN's birthday and we have a lovely table overlooking the musicians.
We start with the pumpkin blossoms that are similar to zucchini flowers although slightly smaller with a touch of bitterness to them. These are stuffed with a scallop mince and served with a sweet chilli sauce. We love the crispiness of these tasty little bites and they're great dunked in the sauce.
For a bit of theatre at the table, try the langoustines with pomelo salad. They set the silks surrounding the langoustine on fire before cutting the langoustines up at the table and adding them to the fresh salad, punctuated with roasted peanuts. This is also a huge serve of salad, enough for 4 people to share as an entree.
For a real regional treat try the crab from Ca Mau in Southern Vietnam. The creamy golden sauce is made using the tomalley or the green digestive tract and roe from the liver of the crab. This strongly flavoured offal spikes the sauce with a strong flavour and the sauce is a touch grainy as the tomalley is mixed with crab meat and spices but it is entirely unique. It is served with two golden fried mantou buns.
If you want something a little more familiar try the beef served on a platter under which 2 huge tea lights to keep the beef warm. Its tender and cooked medium rare in the centre with plenty of garlic with okra, eggplant, red capsicum, onion and tomatoes
We also enjoy the stir fried nutty textured brown rice with eggs, onion and chillli.
Dessert is a soft tofu with coffee granita and coconut. We add some sugar syrup to this delicious, soft pudding textured dessert.
4 - Visit The Cafe Apartments
This Apartment building is famous in Ho Chi Minh City. It is on the busy Nguyen Hue walking street and was formerly a block of apartments (some residents still remain living there). But most of the apartments have been converted into shops, cafes, spas, clubs and vintage stores across its 9 floors. You can visit here during the day or night but at night the shops are illuminated and it is more of an attraction.
You can walk up the curved staircase but I recommend taking the elevator to the 9th floor and then waking down. It costs around 3000VND (around 20c) per person to use the elevator.
The cafe apartments are where you want to go for a coffee or drink because there are so many cafes here. A lot of people head to Good Day cafe or Meraki Coffee. A lot of them are set up for photo ops outside as well with cute themes like straw hats or red umbrellas. Occasionally you'll walk past someone having dinner in their own apartment.
I come upon a Korean headspa and massage salon and am drawn in by the sound of their Korean heads package. It's 599,999VND or around $38AU for the 1 hour and 15 step process which is an absolute bargain compared to $200 in Sydney. They take me into the salon and the therapist Thu gets to work straight away. She uses all sorts of colour therapy machines and tools on my hair but of course the highlight is the head massage. Definitely recommend!
5 - Visit Banh Quoi
The next two things are not in District 1 but are worth visiting. If the fast pace of Saigon city is getting too much for you, head north to Banh Quoi Village. These 7000 square metre tranquil gardens have a restaurant and cafe, plus they are a great spot to spend an hour or two. And amazingly, the gardens are free to access and a great place to get some photos too! See more in this post about Banh Quoi Village.
6 - See the Pink Church
The Pink Church is in district 3 which is a 10 minute Grab ride away from District 1. This Catholic church is known for its striking pink facade as well as interior using Romanesque, Gothic and Vietnamese architecture styles. The church was built during the French colonial period in the 1870s but was only painted pink in 1957 - the colour was chosen deliberately to bring joy to people after the war.
It's a very popular place to get pictures but just be aware that it closes from 1-2pm. We arrived at 1:30pm and got drinks opposite the road at Dr Do's but when we returned at 2pm they still hadn't opened the church inside. The address is: 289 Hai Bà Trưng Street, Ward 8 (Phường 8), District 3, Ho Chi Minh City.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried a creative banh mi? Have you ever tried egg coffee or salt coffee and if so, which do you like more?
All food in this post was independently paid for except for dinner at HOME Saigon where we were their guest. All opinions remain my own.
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