After many hot and humid hours of sightseeing in Hanoi… Paul and I were dying of thirst. Plus, our feet needed a rest!
And what better way to quench our thirst then with some beers, which would hopefully be cold.
Yet, what was going to be a couple of drinks… ended up being an impromptu bar crawl! So in this blog post we’ll go through 7 bars in Hanoi Old Quarter that we went to.
So let’s get to it…
#1 Blues Bar
Address: 6 Lương Ngọc Quyến, Hàng Buồm, Hoàn Kiếm
We walked down a street called Luong Ngoc Quyen, and found this bar…
There were only 2 other people here at the time, so we had a good choice of seats.
We took front row seats to people watch, and the staff member turned the fan on for us.
When we ordered we checked with the staff member to see if the beer was very cold. He said that the bottled beers were very cold.
That was good enough for us. We decided to go local and ordered Hanoi beers.
Each bottle was 30,000 VND each (about USD $1.30). And yes, the beers were cold. Paul’s first beer didn’t even touch the sides of his mouth!
We forget the name of the guy that was serving us, but he spoke good English. He was also friendly and helpful.
We thought it was really quiet. And he said that was because it was early! He mentioned that it would start getting busy around 5pm.
I asked him where the beer street Hanoi was… and he said that it was called Ta Hien. Great, so we’d be visiting there soon then!
After a couple of brews at Blues Bar, we moved on. It was a good bar with great service here.
# 2 Warning Pub
Address: 8 Đào Duy Từ, Hàng Buồm, Hoàn Kiếm
From the outside, Warning Pub looked like it’d be cold inside… as the doors were shut. And we thought, or rather hoping there’d be some air conditioning on.
So we tried our luck and the air conditioner was blasting! And our bodies were appreciating being cooled down by the cold, refreshing air con.
We decided to order Hanoi beers again, which were in cans this time. The beers were chilled, as was the staff and atmosphere!
It looked like there was an upstairs section too. There was a small darts board as well as other things you could do! You can see what I mean in the photo below…
The beers here were 30,000 VND for Hanoi beers in cans.
#3 Pateta
Address: 23 Đào Duy Từ, Hàng Buồm, Hoàn Kiếm
Pateta was on the corner of Đào Duy Từ and Hàng Buồm streets.
It looked like there was an upstairs section too. Yet, we chose to sit on ground level at the front.
By this stage it was about 4pm. It still wasn’t super busy on the streets, but we could see the traffic picking up.
I ordered 2 Hanoi beers, which ended up being the large 450ml size. And these were surprisingly cheap at only 25,000 VND each (about USD $1.10).
Unfortunately, I made the BIG, HUGE mistake of not asking for very cold beers. And the staff member gave us beers that were barely cold. Not his fault, but we drank those Hanoi beers super quick.
Then, it was time to move on to the next place!
#4 A Random Bia Hoi Bar
Address: Corner of Phố Mã Mây and Đào Duy Từ streets.
OK, this was a must do in Hanoi Old Quarter that we had to tick off our list…
We had to have a bia hoi like the locals on the tiny plastic chairs! One glass of bia hoi was 7,000 VND (about USD $0.30), and we knew this one wasn’t going to be ice old. But who cares, it was for the experience!
It wasn’t the best bia hoi we’d had… yet it was funny seeing Paul on the tiny stool drinking lukewarm beer.
It goes without saying, we didn’t stay for another beer and moved on.
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#5 Local Bar
Address: 16 Tạ Hiện, Hàng Buồm, Hoàn Kiếm
The Local Bar looked like a pretty cool little bar from the outside. So we decided to have a beer here.
When we went the staff member was really nice and she spoke English well.
Then she told us that it was happy hour. And she pointed at the sign behind her, and it was buy 1 get 1 free from 12pm to 9pm for certain drinks! Those sure are happy hours!
So we stuck to the local brews and chose Hanoi beers. The normal price would be 45,000 VND (about USD $1.95) for a bottle. Yet, during happy hour it was 22,500 VND each.
And the beers were ice cold! Awesome.
And even though the doors were open, they had strong air conditioning, which kept the place cool. So that was a bonus.
#6 Tom’s Bar
Address: 2 Tạ Hiện, Hàng Buồm, Hoàn Kiếm
There were 2 Tom’s Bars directly opposite each other! The owner or manager waved us into one of the Tom’s Bar, behind glass doors.
So we wanted to continue drinking the local Hanoi beer. Yet, when we asked the staff member what local beers they had, it was only Halida.
We had tried it before at a beer festival in Danang… But we couldn’t recall if we liked it or not, so we got one anyway.
It was cool inside as the doors were closed and the air conditioner was blaring. However, it was very smoky inside so it was unpleasant for us.
The beers were cold, and a bottle of Halida beer was 50,000 VND (about USD $2.15).
#7 The Corner Beer Bar
Address: 27 Tạ Hiện, Hàng Buồm, Hoàn Kiếm
The last bar in this blog post of bars in Hanoi Old Quarter, is The Corner Beer bar…
And by this stage the Hanoi nightlife was bustling, with lots of people roaming the streets… and traffic weaving through the crowds. Plus, the sounds of motorbike horns was mixed in with thumping music from the bars.
At The Corner Beer bar, some of the staff can’t speak English well here… but they’ll get someone who does.
We chose Hanoi beer again and the great thing was it was cold! Plus, the beer here cost only 25,000 VND each. And we could enjoy them on those classic tiny Vietnamese stools!
Being on the corner, it was a great place to people watch and see the world go by.
The bar crawl was great fun, and it was great to explore! And after downing several beers each, we were ravenous. So it was the end of the bar crawl. Yet, we topped it all off with the best banh mi in Vietnam!
You can read our blog post about it HERE.
So get out there, enjoy traveling, drinking and eating!
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