House Of Merlin - Cocktail Bar & Eatery — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

After reading reviews and being told that they would have live music from 9 o clock, we were really excited to try House of Merlin. Yet when we arrived the server only offered us a bar seat until we said we wanted to eat and that we would go somewhere else. After being seated, the server told us that we needed to buy a drink (each) at least five or six times in his introduction (every other sentence was, “You should order a drink. Remember the rules”. We settled on ordering food first with sparkling water, but promised to order drinks while we listened to the band. The sparkling water never came. Our water glasses were never refilled, even after asking. When the Caramelized Onion toast (topped with Camembert) arrived, the cheese was barely warm and the toast was more dried out than toasted. The beef tartare with quail eggs was better, but the rice-paper-y cracker holding the mix together was a bit tough and seemed like an odd vessel for the mixture. By the time the pizza arrived - almost an hour after we arrived, we were being plagued by small flies (see the photo of my glass), which wasn’t helped by the difficult-to-call server - who also left our table uncleaned for 20 minutes after he’d eventually cleared our dishes. After dinner, the cocktails weren’t to my taste so I ordered a Gin and Tonic, and despite being charged for a “premium” mixer, it tasted sweet and sugary… My partner’s non-alcoholic cocktail was better, but not exactly a well made cohesive drink. It smelled like butterscotch and tasted fruity; it also was very sweet. To end on a high note, I thought the pianist in the band played very well and really improved...

I first went to House of Merlin with my uncle and his friend back in March, and we were met with incredibly friendly staff who were patient enough to entertain all of our jokes. After the first visit and noticing their incredible selection of spirits and cocktails, we kept coming back to this spot any time we would go bar hopping in HCMC.

A few months later, I decided to drop in by again and to my surprise everyone remembered me! In all the bars and lounges I’ve been to across America, none of them hold a candle to the unique charm of House of Merlin.

If you’re serious about your spirits and like drinking high quality, this is the place for you. If you’re just looking to try neat cocktails you won’t find anywhere else, this is also the place for you.

Every time I’ve gone to House of Merlin, the staff are always so kind and friendly, and I love joking around with them and just asking them about places to go or which street food stalls are actually the best.

The musicians that play here only add to the atmosphere and charm. It’s easy enough to still have a quiet conversation on live nights, and despite the layout the acoustics work out well.

While the bar itself does have limited seating, it never feels crowded and cramped. It’s easily become one of my favorite bars in all of my travels and I hope I always have a chance to keep enjoying music and drinks here with the staff and my friends.

All in all, this is a spot you do not want to miss if you’ll be staying in HCMC. IMO there’s few cocktail bars that I would place high on my list like...

Update 2: Customers spend money on places with good reviews. We need them to be authentic. Questioning why your reviews are all are identical in tone is my right. The professional approah to my doubts would have been, "please come in and see for yourself how great we are." Instead you stalked me. Discussed my business. Discussed my nationality... I'm hoping you don't treat all expats the same...

Update 1:I live here in Vietnam.... in HCMC For 6 years. The owner was that petty to actually go stalk my name on Facebook, and suss out an account I barely use since 2020!! Lol That's freaky behaviour! The owner seems rude and unprofessional evidently- even trying to dig at my nationality? How low! I wont even address that.

The owner is evidently not OK with anyone questioning why the reviews sound identical. Because... they do. Go judge for yourself.

Review: Why are all the reviews copy paste.... you all discovered a bar in d1 - you all think its got steampunk decor ...you all just happened to go by it with a friend?. You all say EXACTLY the same REVIEW!!.. so now its hard to trust the actual score. Really a shame. Cuz the photos look lovely.... and I was interested to go by...but .... it seems like a marketing ploy which is a bit offensive to prospectve patrons - we are not stupid, this is...