Underground in Ho Chi Minh City: insider’s guide to the places to eat, drink, party and shop
Where to find the hidden restaurants, back alley bars, concealed clubs and more as we take you beyond the tourist haunts of a city that offers a fascinating mix of cultures and cuisines
If Paris is the city of light, Ho Chi Minh is a place of shadows. Tourists may be more familiar with its crowded centre and remnants of a debilitating war, but for locals there exists an underground world where anything is possible. Secret spaces in abandoned buildings, hidden rooftop restaurants, back-alley bars, and the endless street food stalls. Here, we pull back the curtain on the former Saigon, giving you an inside glimpse at a hidden Ho Chi Minh City.
Ho Chi Minh is a fascinating mix of cultures, a place where fresh-faced returning Vietnamese and long-resident foreigners happily share the same soil. The best place to rub elbows with that mishmash blend? The Observatory (5 Nguyen Tat Thành, +84 8 3925 9415) – a dark, dingy, weekend-only club, situated appropriately right on Saigon Port. An ever-revolving mix of local and international DJs grace its smoky stages, and it’s one of the very few spots that keeps its concealed doors open till late.
Ho Chi Minh’s cafe culture is unrivalled, and thousands of makeshift coffee shops serve up the country’s jet-black, up-all-night blend. Ditch the popular spots and take a perilous journey to 14 Tôn That Dam, a half-abandoned colonial-era building that holds some of the city’s coolest cafes, each suited to individual personality types.
