Hidden Bars & Street Food Night Tour in Saigon | Chill Nights

Most bars in Saigon end up in District 1 downtown... Neon, buckets, someone shouting "happy hour" at you. This tour isn't that 😌

I take you to Tân Định neighbourhood instead. It's an old neighbourhood around the pink church, a few minutes from downtown but a different world: narrow houses, alleys barely wide enough for two motorbikes. Grandmas watching TV with the shutters up, kids doing homework on the doorstep, someone grilling pork on the corner.

It's also where Saigon's bartenders go to drink after their own shifts. The real speakeasies here don't put up big signs, you could walk past some of them ten times and never notice.

Tonight we don't walk past.

This isn't a history tour, it's more like a night out, like going for drinks with a local friend who knows all the good spots: good drinks, good street food, and some stories.

What we do

I work with seven small bars in this neighbourhood, and during the tour we visit three. I won't tell you which ones before the tour. It depends on the night, the crowd, and a little bit on you.

What I can tell you is what might be waiting.

There's a vending machine on a quiet street that sells snacks. Or that's what it looks like. Open it the right way and you're somewhere else: a small room where moss covers the walls and even the bar. The drinks are named after the places moss grows. Every so often, a bell rings. I'll let you find out what that means.

There's a room with nearly 600 bottles of whisky, rum and cognac, red walls and art deco lamps, like a little opera house. That's no accident. One of the owners trained as an opera singer. The other is a mathematician. Together they bottled their own whisky. Ask the bartender about it.

There's a place that doesn't feel like a bar at all. It's more like walking into a friend's living room. Old furniture, a small welcome treat, and bartenders who explain every drink and ask what you like before they make yours. There's also a cat. The cat is in charge. Don't take its seat.

There's a bar at the end of an alley, so small that the owner just asks what you're in the mood for and makes it. No menu speech. One guest called his Negroni one of the best he'd ever had.

There's a café dressed like 1990s Hong Kong, the Hong Kong of old kung-fu dramas on video tape. By day it makes strong Vietnamese coffee. By night it does something stranger. It takes bánh xèo, the crispy pancake you might have just eaten on the street, and turns it into a cocktail. Savoury and sweet at the same time.

And there's a room upstairs, a few steps from the canal. Coffee by day, live jazz on some nights, and a menu that isn't written down. You tell the bartender what you like, and they build a drink around you.

Three of those. Which three? You'll see.

Street food, wherever it's good tonight

In Vietnam nobody drinks on an empty stomach, so we eat too. We make one or two stops, and I pick them on the day, depending on what's sizzling.

Maybe a crispy pancake as big as a plate, wrapped in mustard greens and herbs and dipped in sweet and sour fish sauce. Maybe pork skewers off the grill, eaten on plastic stools so low your knees end up near your chin. Maybe something I won't explain until you've tried it.

A few stories

I'm not going to make you take notes. But Saigon has some great stories, and a few of them come out over drinks.

Like why the pink church wasn't pink for its first 80 years. Or how villagers once hid their homemade liquor from the French in grass taller than a man, which is why Vietnamese moonshine is still called rượu đế, "grass liquor". Or what the little slash in a Saigon address means. That one you'll use all week.

And at every bar we play a game. I tell you three short stories. Two are true, one I made up. You guess which. Whoever wins picks the last toast of the night.

How the night goes

It goes roughly like this, but it shifts with the night, the weather and what's open.

1. Meet at 7pm in Tân Định

   We meet at 7pm in Tân Định. I'll send you the exact spot after you book.

2. Street food first

   First we eat, and I teach you to toast like a local. Một, hai, ba, dô! You'll be shouting it by the end of the night.

3. The first bar

   Then comes the first bar and the first drink, and the game starts.

4. Through the alleys to bars two and three

   We wander through the alleys to the next door, stopping for more food if anyone's still hungry. Second bar. Third bar. No rush, no schedule to chase.

5. Tips, and a Grab home

   At the end I give you my tips for the rest of your trip and help you get a Grab home. Or you stay. These bars are open late, and nobody will chase you out.

Make it yours. Want to skip something, or need the food to work around a diet or an allergy? Message me on WhatsApp and tell me what you'd change.

Who it's for

It's for people who'd rather have three great drinks than ten bad ones, and want a fun, easy night instead of a big party. Solo travellers, couples, a few friends.

If you don't drink alcohol, come anyway :) Every bar makes good mocktails, and the night is just as fun without the gin.

The practical stuff

It's private, just you, your people and me. Your street food stops are included, and so is a table saved for us at every bar.

Drinks are on you. You order and pay at each bar, so you drink exactly what you want. Most cocktails cost 200,000 to 300,000 VND, about $8 to $12. Bring cash or a card. Hotel pickup isn't included.

We start at 7pm and finish around 10. The meeting point is in Tân Định, in central Saigon, and I'll send it once you've booked. We walk about 1 km, and a few of the bars have stairs.

The tour is 18+ only. If you have allergies or there's something you don't eat, tell me when you book. And if it rains, we still go. The bars are all indoors, and Saigon looks beautiful in the rain.