The Hanoi Social Club — Restaurant in Hà Nội

When I first walked into this café, I thought, Wow, this place is so cool. I ordered a Banana Mango smoothie, and it was so good that I finished it way too fast.

After that, I decided to sit for a bit and get some work done on my laptop. About 20 minutes later, a waiter came over and asked if I wanted anything else. I politely said, I'm fine for now. For some reason, my response didn’t seem to sit well with him. To keep things smooth, I ordered a coffee and went back to work.

Another 20 minutes passed, and I finished my coffee. The waiter returned and asked again if I wanted to order anything else. I smiled and said, No, I’m fine, but thank you so much. He walked away, but at that point, I started to feel a little pressured—like maybe I had overstayed my welcome. Not wanting to make anyone uncomfortable, I decided to pay and leave.

When I got up to pay, I noticed that the waiter only charged me for the coffee. Being honest, I let him know he also needed to charge me for the smoothie. He corrected it, and I paid.

Afterward, I went to the bathroom, and as I was leaving, they suddenly stopped me and said I needed to pay 20,000 more. I wasn’t sure why, but they insisted it was a mistake related to my smoothie. The explanation didn’t make sense, but they were adamant about the extra charge. I don’t like conflict, so I just paid to avoid any issues.

Walking out, I felt disappointed. I had entered the café feeling great but left feeling uncomfortable—like I had been pressured and tricked with the pricing. The atmosphere was welcoming at first, but by the end, I felt unwelcome.

I don’t usually write reviews (this is only my second ever), but this experience didn’t sit right with me, so I felt like I had...

Stumbled in here after a long day of walking in the relentless Hanoi heat, racking the steps up. We needed to get off our feet and wanted a stiff one to reward ourselves. I needed to feel something other than my legs throbbing.

Up to this point, we had ZERO luck finding a good mixed drink in Vietnam, so we were ready to just get a whiskey on the rocks. But, after briefly scanning the menu and seeing a Pho cocktail with a little arrow next to it that said “HOT TIP,” our hero could only assume that meant it’s a house recommendation.

My hands were tied. When in Tuscany, have some Chianti. When in Hanoi, have a pho cocktail. You wouldn't get it...

After waiting about 15 minutes, which consisted of me hitting my buddy on the arm while asking “are they killing the pho back there?” to try and get a laugh, the pho cocktail arrived.

The mix of Gin, Cointreau, lime juice, topped with jalapenos and pho herbs/spices tasted like a la croix flavored pho with a little kick. It honestly wasn’t half bad.

It wasn’t as stiff as I’d like and neither was my buddys little girly drink, so we ended up ordering whiskey on the rocks after.

As our Whiskey’s arrived, the good people at Hanoi Social Club informed us that there was a live music show going on upstairs. But honestly, at that point, nothing sounded better than just being SLUMPED in these comfy chairs and sipping on a whiskey on the rocks while beginning to reminisce on the trip of a lifetime that was coming to a close.

The whiskey really did the trick though. Mission accomplished.

IG @jnov_ Tiktok...

Ordered the vegan tempeh reuben sarnie (it comes with no salad or fries) at 150k so £5/$6- for that price in Vietnam, I was expecting something pretty good.

The first sandwich came out smothered in cheese (so the veggie version) so I returned it - it looked a decent size though. The vegan version came out around ten minutes later (around 60% of the size of the first version) by which point my husband had largely eaten his meal. I then had to find a waitress for some cutlery to eat it as they forget it. My husband had the same issue when they brought his meal...how are you supposed to eat?

The sandwich had two slices of cold greasy fried bread and 3 skinny slivers of tempeh covered in spicy sauce with some cabbage. It was soooo spicy and the bread greasy it was inedible. A joke!

At the front desk, I advised I hadn't been able to eat my lunch and gave feedback as to why. I was asked to fill in a feedback form so they could consider what to do (?)....given I'd already explained the problem in detail, we'd had service issues throughout and I'd left the whole sandwich...I said no, paid the rest of my bill (275k for two juices and the Mexican veggie plate - which was overpriced for the size) and left.

Don't recommend - frankly it's a rip-off for the so-so service and food. I left hungry!

Seems to be western prices for gullible tourists - but not good...