RAILWAY TUAN CAFE (The ORIGINAL) ) — Restaurant in Hà Nội

Had an excellent experience at Railway Cafe today. Here are the reasons why you should visit Railway Cafe if you're in Hanoi:

It is one of the few cafes with seats on both sides of the track

The booths are beautifully decorated so much so that we hear many visitors commenting that they want to visit as they walked past

The view from the booth is around the bend which offers excellent views as the train approaches or leaves the cafe

The cafe is NOT barricaded which means you have access to the tracks.

The egg beer and spring rolls are pretty solid :P You can also choose the juices or smoothies for non-alcoholic options

Tuan, the owner doesn't really tout. This allowed us to have the whole booth (of up to 7 seats) all to ourselves. This is in contrast to cafes around that were pretty packed during scheduled passings

Remember to contact Tuan in advance via his website/Whatsapp to arrange for him to lead you to the Rail Cafe. Probably the best cafe to check out the trains passing by in Hanoi!

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DO NOT COME HERE AS A FOREIGNER

Came here hoping to drink some good coffee whilst watching the trains go by.

Started off strong. Vietnamese owner seemed friendly and sat us down.

Halfway through our drink, some hijabi tourists were taking photos on the railway in front of us like many other tourists. They were laughing and having fun (as they should of course!).

Suddenly, the other cafe owner (who was European/white) shouts from across the street at the Vietnamese owner, about Muslims always being loud and disruptive. They were laughing and complaining about foreigners.

The Vietnamese owner spent the next 20 minutes talking to other customers about hating Muslims and foreigners. It was disgusting and disturbing to overhear.

After reading other reviews on Reddit and reviews, it’s clear that the owners here are racist to everyone, and are not only Islamophobic.

DO NOT COME HERE as a foreigner. They might smile to your face, but are extremely racist. They don’t...

Definitely WhatsApp Tuan before going. We let him know the night before and he recommended arriving at 8:20am for the 8:50am and 9:20am train that passes through. We arrived only at 8:40am because he have 2 kids and the policemen at the barrier stopped us and would not let us through. They were being incredibly difficult and I’m not sure why but I called Tuan and he came over to speak to them and they were not having it. We hung around for a while until we managed to slip in when they weren’t paying attention. Tuan was incredibly helpful, hospitable and sat down to talk with us. We loved the decorations and ambience and you have great views of the train passing through. Loved the salt coffee and vegetable spring rolls. A great experience. After the second train passed through we had to wrap up and leave as the policeman was not happy when he found out we had made it through. We feel incredibly lucky to have experienced it and we have Tuan to...