It’s only nine-thirty but already the drinks are kicking in. The volcano kimchi rice - a circular mound of rice circled by a ring of more-ish cheese - the perfectly soothing pairing. Created in conjunction with our favorite Saigon seafood spot, Ngoc Suong, the stir-fried octopus is nose-snifflingly hot. We order and the food arrives quickly despite it being packed and Friday night. The waitress in hip blue Mildang baseball shirt waves at us and leads us to a table. Part cocktail bar, part beer club, part Korean restaurant - or Gastrobar as they call it – Mildang is a buzz…for the ears and the tastebuds. It’s the DJ bumping Cardi B at deafening decibel levels. Mildang’s concierge’s mouth is moving…or it seems to be behind the mask (compulsory due to this new COVID scare here in Hanoi). In short: A night at the (cocktail) museum.Ĭonnect: Facebook | Instagram Mildang Mildang is a buzz. Their Martini is as crisp as the dusk light dancing on the attic beams and across the dinosaur bones. Their Ping Pong is as seductive and syrupy as the Aaron Taylor on the stereo. “This is just the soft opening menu,” Cong Nguyen says apologetically pushing the ‘cocktails & booze’ menu across the bar. This is a cocktail bar that feels like a night at the Natural History Museum. ![]() Oh, and there’s a conspicuous 3-meter-long dinosaur skeleton suspended above the bar too. There are rows of glass vitrines, a whiskey tasting counter with adjoining Gentleman’s club-style smoking lounge and upstairs again is an attic with exposed wooden beams and a bar with display cases full of fossils and hardback books. But we really feel it when we duck under a washing line full of faded underwear to take the stairs up to The Haflington. New is intruding on old everywhere you look in Hanoi. The Haflington The Haflington’s Martini is as crisp as the dusk light dancing on the attic beams and across the dinosaur bones. And fortunately, to balance out the excess, the team behind Ưu Đàm and Sadhu continue to expand their calming vegetarian empire with Cồ Đàm. And then there’s Ngoặm, one of the chicest burger joints we’ve ever been in. Mildang is a banging Korean bar-club with some addictive bites. ![]() Bo / En is a lepidopterist’s dream while The Haflington is an ode to the museum’s dinosaur section. Strangely, it shares a Natural History Museum theme with the nearby Haflington, although they’re inspired by two different wings of the British institution. They opened a brilliant new bar upstairs, just after Tet, called Bo / En. Then there’s Etēsia with its all-counter-seating concept. A little over a kilometer away, Habakuk, a side project of T.U.N.G Dining co-founder Quang Dung, is packed reflecting a real bistro boom. This ‘Oriental Neo Bistro’ by Chef Chi Joon Huyk is an insouciant upstairs restaurant that’s shrugging off the fine-dining label to deliver beautifully presented plates of Asian-accented food made with French techniques that the chef explored in Tokyo. We’re trying to take it all in from a table at LABRI, another remarkable new opening. There’s no other way to describe the boom in bars and restaurants in Vietnam’s capital even through the cloud of COVID that’s consuming the city again. There’s a Bloomsbury gentleman’s club with a dinosaur skeleton suspended above the bar. There’s also a Korean gastropub that feels like you’re eating in a banging club. Some of them might even feature in the 2022 lists. Copy link Amidst the buzz of Asia’s 50 Best bar and restaurant announcements, cool new concepts have popped up in Hanoi.
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