Soul Kitchen — Restaurant in Hội An

This is an excellent, laid back hangout at An Bang beach. They have a diverse food menu, a rich variety of drinks and lots of comfy seats, sofas and cabanas facing the sea, as well as a great selection of chilled western music and Vietnamese classics. There is also regular live music and a fascinating colony of feral cats that roam the grounds and rooftops (although I worry about how long they have before they are permanently chased away at the insistence of the increasingly prevalent and empowered Korean tour groups). This is a great place in my opinion, and can I just mention that the only purposeful reviews are those that either strongly recommend or strongly warn against something. To disparage reviews for being all 1 or 5 stars is to misunderstand the usefulness of reviews and the nature of inspiration to compose a review. Who has a mediocre, entirely unmemorable experience and then feels compelled to write about it? Edit: minus 1 star for telling my wife she can’t consume outside food or drink when she was just eating a street snack on top of the items we had already ordered and consumed courtesy of Soul Kitchen. Street food and sellers should be encouraged, but in contrast to a few years ago, they appear to have been banned from all the beachfront establishments at An Bang which is a shame because it was a chance for tourists to encounter and make conversation with Vietnamese locals as well as a chance to try interesting snacks like unripe mango with chilli salt and other items not on the menu of most restaurants. Restaurants have done this to maximise profits for themselves while stifling the local community, but if tourists themselves prefer not to be ‘bothered’ by local salespeople, I question why they are holidaying in a foreign culture at all (and of course the reasons are a) it’s just cheaper and b) Instagram). Happy to hear arguments FOR stifling the local community if you want...

My absolute favorite, when it comes to beach bars in Hoi An. The food and drinks in the Soul Kitchen are great. Music is great, staff is friendly and the beach wonderful.

The Soul Kitchen can be little bit tricky to find. You need to head to the small "side alley" from the Bai Tam An Bang sign and walk like 50 meters and it's coming on your right side.

To use the sunbeds, you must order a drink. The beach is relatively clean. If you want to get a sunbed, I recommend arriving either in the morning before 11:00 or after 13:00. Midday is the busiest time.

If there is something to complain about, the sunbeds can only be used until 16.00 when the locals arrive to enjoy the sea. Vendors also arrive around this time. After that, you can either go to the restaurant above you or go enjoy the beach with the locals.

Soul Kitchen's drinks are relatively inexpensive, but the food is pricy. As for the atmosphere, you can probably guess what is played at the Soul Kitchen. Music is from The Velvet Underground to The Whitefield Brothers to Ian Dury and Voom Voom. For me, it hits exactly the soft spot. In the evenings there are even some live music and a DJ.

Place is...

The food there is good, atmosphere is pretty chilled, prices are above average. It was all fine except these 2 incidents which is why I can’t give full 5 star reviews

The bathroom walls are fairly low which unfortunately led to an uncomfortable experience. There is a person with learning difficulties hanging around here. I went to use the toilet and I noticed a man watching me pee from a cubical next to me. When I stormed out and tried to confront him, he was not coming out of his cubical, so I asked a staff member to speak to someone about it. I was told this is not the first time this happens and the person in question is “crazy”. Fully appreciate this is a delicate situation but maybe some full walls to the cubical can help with this ?

After eating our lovely food, we were literally harassed by a staff member to pay for the bill. We did and got a receipt, then a different staff member chased us saying that we haven’t paid our bill. We showed them the receipt and upon that he calmed down. No apology though, but I guess better communication between colleagues can maybe stop this from...