5 First places checked out in Trung Hoa

I may be writing about the first week of public school teaching in Hanoi, but I thought this deserved addressing before continuing with more articles on schools. The fact of the matter is that most of the internship’s down time during the day was spent chilling out in cafes, restaurants, or the famed Bia Hoi’s of Hanoi. After a while the places on this list would lose some of their lustre, but I felt the need to acknowledge 5 places I checked out at the start of the internship that may not have been all time classics, but were definitely visited quite a bit in January and February;
I will put street food, cafes and restaurants I actually stuck around in on different lists, so stay tuned for them!

#1 Nhà Hàng Vườn Xoài

This was the first real Bia Hoi the teachers discovered in the district, and it happened to be near the couples house. Tuborg was heavily promoted on the dresses of slim, attractive Vietnamese waitresses, the food was unremarkable but usually included old monkey nuts, had a plethora of options (including turtle) and the beer was cheap. The most notable thing about it was the spacious outdoor area with plenty of tables to sit down in groups of 6-10. The BME internship ceremony would take place here too.

Ultimately cheaper and more intimate Bia Hoi’s would be found, such as the lakeside Bia near Trung Hoa school. While it may not have had the outdoor fans, food, or facilities of Vườn Xoài, it would be altogether cheaper and quieter, allowing for a better place to talk about the day.

#2 Mon Hue

Mon Hue to put it lightly had a disastrous end, shutting down all its chains in October 2019 and abandoning all its chains and headquarters due to debt problems. If you try to visit any of the chains by now the chances are they have been occupied by another restaurant or shop. Not pretty.

But despite its unfortunate legacy, it did serve decent Vietnamese food, and would be seen as a good entry to the cuisine if you had never eaten it before. Plenty of noodle dishes, as well as a satisfying menu of drinks, juices and vegetarian options. Myself and House 5 would sometimes meet up here for a catch up that wasn’t on the ground floor and with a lighter atmosphere. I would say the big weakness of Mon Hue was that once you discovered the street food, then that would be the place you would go to rather than a franchise’s version of the same dish. The real deal bun cha, bun thit nuong and nem ran would always beat Mon Hue.

#3 Vuvuzela

Ah, Vuvuzela, the Hooters chain of Hanoi (allegedly)…
I’ll admit, the first thing that got me attracted to this place was the name. How a Vietnamese sports bar chain managed to runaway with the signature instrument of the 2010 World Cup is the sort of thing that makes me love Vietnam. They just do things, regardless of whether it makes sense to do it or if it will be immediately dated.

But while the name is great and there are indeed Vietnamese dancers (though its more of a cheerleader dance than anything too raunchy), it fell apart a bit with the customer service and prices. Megan in particular had a bad time asking for some meat to be removed from her order. When the food arrived, it had meat, When she asked again, the exact same plate arrived 4 minutes later with some meat remnants still there. She wasn’t happy.

Despite that its not a rotten bar by any means. The drink is on the deerer side for Hanoi (meaning a Tiger is $2 instead of $1.25) but there is quite a lot of variety, including a few European brands and spirits. While the food is overall generic sportsbar fare, you can smoke inside, so if you are an expat who yearns of the time before the smoking ban, then this is the spot for you.

#4 “Crossroads” restaurant/moc coffee

I feel really bad for not finding the name of this place in any of my records, nor even in any group chats or photographs, but it was a small cafe sized place that would flood with teachers at night that wanted something a little more…western.

Located at a crossroads partway down Lane 125, Nguyễn Ngọc Vũ, this place served garlic bread, an instant win win for me, but also served plentiful spaghetti and pizza dishes too. However, it also served plenty of bottled beer, so you wouldn’t need to move too far to be satisfied. It was relatively cheap, and considering a lot of street food vendors stopped serving early in the night, this was ideal with its later closing time to have a hot meal. You could even get some fried rice from a man cooking with a wok about 50 meters down the road and bring it back to the restaurant as a takeaway while buying beers from them. These were Friendly people.

Legend has it that the owners made so much money from groups of teachers being there that they had enough cash to move somewhere else. If that’s the case then fairplay!

5. LỤC GIÁC Karaoke bar

The other 4 places on this list were all decent places that lost out to other restaurants and street food down the line (with the exception of crossroads). However, this karaoke bar was visited just once before we all went to different venues to sing!

This was located on Nguyễn Thị Định’s southern side, and near most houses by BME accommodation. It was a karaoke bar that had booths for singing, as well as drinks and cigarettes for sale while chilling out.

We went into the dark club with a series of smaller rooms to have a karaoke session. While on the surface a lot of fun, it actually turned into a headwreck with hidden fees for cigarettes, beer and fruit bowls. With so many teachers buying cigarettes off them not knowing of the additional charges, we ended up with a 1.75 million dong bill. on top of that, many teachers had left the bar already and the rest of us had to foot the bill of those that left. It was not a pretty sight, with an additional 40’000d being pitched in by everyone to pay the extra charge. Splitting the bill doesn’t work in Vietnam, so you can tell how well that went…

Overall good karaoke, but hidden charges are not on and enough to find somewhere else, such as in the Owl N’ Hen or elsewhere in Tay Ho.

So there you have it, 5 places Myself and a lot of teachers visited at the start of the internship. It wouldn’t be long before we figured out where to find the true top notch grub and drinks, but these places left their mark.