El Gaucho | Hai Ba Trung — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Beware: illegal inside smoking.

I had a small filet duo (photo attached), French fries, a side mixed green salad, a bottle of sparkling water, two glasses of the second cheapest house red wine (Argentinian) and my bill, including VAT of 8% on Food, plus VAT of 10%, came to a total of VND 3,195,600.

The food was all prepared to a high standard and the house wine was pleasing.

Four caveats I should mention to qualify my review comments.

I was shocked that smoking is allowed inside the restaurant. It was explained that the manager allows smoking by people seated at the bar. Given that the bar seating area dominates what is a small ground floor table seating area, this means that if you are with children, have chest issues, or simply expect to eat in a "smoke free" environment, you are in for a surprise. The friend of the manager - shown in the white shirt in my photo - was vaping all evening and the air stank with the smell. When I raised this issue, the staff refused to intervene so the smoke smell got worse throughout my meal. The manager sanctions, approves smoking in this restaurant. Be warned.

I returned on 24th July 2025, and the smoke inside the restaurant around the bar was intense. The smoke gets trapped. I started a coughing fit and was moved upstairs.

I checked. Smoking is not allowed inside restaurants in Vietnam. A law effective since 2013 bans smoking in all indoor public places, including restaurants. The law prohibits smoking indoors at restaurants. There are also fines for violations of the smoking ban.

I discussed with several Vietnamese friends. They say the problem is the staff, who may be reluctant to enforce compliance with the law. Shocking.

The internal area is quite dense, with not much space between tables. This is common in bistro-type environments, but would not be suitable if you expect a quiet dinner with space around you.

Be careful when you read the menu pricing. The actual prices are shown in black - ignore the red prices unless you go on the one evening each month when these lower prices apply. This pricing is misleading on the Web site - it seems in places that the red prices apply at all times. You will pay the black prices, unless you plan your trip for the one time a month when the lower prices apply.

El Gaucho is not cheap. There are other, better value options if you want a good steak dinner in Ho Chi Minh City. But the atmosphere - at least in the smoke-free first floor - makes it worthwhile. Perfectly prepared food and good quality ingredients

I hope this...

Shame on Michelin for recommending this place!! Big time tourist trap.

WAY overpriced, less than average food, terrible service.

After seeing this in Michelin guide and having it recommended by multiple hotel concierge (I now understand they thought we were American, not from Europe. I get it, older American crowd who are often staying at that hotel might love this place) we thought this was a solid choice close to our hotel. First experience we make our full order, sides, drinks & all, then at the end the server says oh by the way we don’t have burger buns! It’s was the first item we mentioned! How could he let me even say what toppings I want without stopping to mention this?!? I was craving burger (& on top, the drunk guy at the table next to us was a bit too chatty) so we left.

Second attempt we had the hotel call and reserve us a table. We arrived shortly after and instead of being seated on terrace or on the main floor (which I could see on her app it stated table on 1st floor) they brought us up to the second floor to a bar table. We were exhausted from a day of exploring and obliged to the table despite the awful crowd including a group of drunk men who wouldn’t take their eyes off me the whole time until they left.

My fiancé ordered wine from an honestly brutal selection of airplane wines (the brands you find in a plastic mini bottle) and it was brought to him as a glass without the chance to taste. It was awful so we told the server it was not good and selected another wine, asked to taste it first. This one was barely more drinkable.

Started of minute steak was totally inedible because it was fatty and honestly just looked repulsive. Burger was good, fries were cold and not good. Steak was completely tasteless but was cooked fine.

We were hoping for a trendy, chic place… Atmosphere became more and more of a sports bar vibe as the night went on, with multiple parties having happy birthday sung to them around us. Generally trashy crowd and certainly not what you expect at a place in Michelin guide.

Manager came at the end to ask how our meal was, when we told him fine, we reported that it was nothing special and under expectations, to which he replied would you like a shot? No, we wanted to get the heck out of there. Our bill was over 3 million vnd (120€) for a terrible experience and less than average food.

Tourist...

SCAM.

The meat served at the restaurant is delicious, and so are any sides or sauces you could take. However, the prices are unjustified; even on "Special Tuesday", on which meals are heavily discounted, I do not think it is appropriate to pay 2.150.000 VND (about 90 US dollars) for a plate of mixed grills (for 2 people), none of the meat being Waguy beef or whatever type of special beef that could justify such a price. Moreover, as it's sometimes the case in Vietnam (but usually less so in such high-standing restaurants), taxes are not included in the prices showed, so if you're not careful this could really surprise you at the end.

What really ruined the end of the evening for us was a problem related to the wine. Indeed, the bottle of wine we drank was not the one we ordered, and was in fact twice more expensive. Sure, they did show us the bottle before opening, but I acknowledge my lack of knowledge regarding Argentinian wines, so I did not spot the difference. To be honest, I was also not so cautious, as this is the first time in my entire life this problem happens to me - and God knows that I have bought wine many times in restaurants. The restaurant refused to pay this difference; they did offer desserts as a compensation but frankly we were full at this point and it would have made no sense to accept this "gesture", so we declined.

We ended up paying 1 mill. VND more for the wine.

In total the bill was 5 millions VND, for 1 bottle of wine (2 mill. VND), 1 shared plate of meat (reasonable quantities), 2 sides and 2 sauces.

Good cuisine but severely overrated; the bill is one you usually pay at a very high-standing, gourmet restaurant, not at a BBQ place. Moreover, the mistake with the wine is frankly unacceptable. We are lucky in Saigon to enjoy a wide diversity of quality restaurants, so I can only firmly recommend to avoid this one. For sure, neither of us will ever come back to any "El...