Giang Cafe

With bland chains taking over Hanoi's café scene, ancient holes such as this one have become revered treasures. To be sure, Cafe Giang's timeworn patina is almost a bleak exaggeration of communist-era non-chic.


Giang Café is humbly hidden on a small lane on Nguyen Huu Huan Street in the city’s old quarter. It may be difficult to find for visitors, but it is well worth the effort. It continues to be hugely popular among Hanoi’s coffee addicts with its special ca phe trung, or egg coffee.

Giang Café was founded by My Father, Mr. Nguyen Giang in 1946, when he was working as a bartender for the famous five-star Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel. Although the café has been relocated twice, its egg coffee recipe is almost the same as in its early days, with its chief ingredients being chicken egg yolk, Vietnamese coffee powder, sweetened condensed milk, butter and cheese.


The coffee is brewed in a small cup with a filter before the addition of a well-whisked mixture of the yolk and other ingredients. The cup is placed in a bowl of hot water to keep its temperature.
My father developed the recipe in days when milk was scarce in Vietnam. He used egg yolks to replace milk.

Giang Cafe 

39 Nguyen Huu Huan Street, Hoan Kiem  #Hanoi #Vietnam