Cheo Leo Cafe

Operating continuously since 1938 from an alley at 109/36 Nguyen Thien Thuat in District 3, Cheo Leo is widely accepted as the oldest surviving cafe in Saigon. Three generations of the same family have maintained the original wood-fire roasting method and cloth-filtered phin brewing that almost every other establishment in the city has abandoned. Coffee arrives in a small glass with condensed milk and a pat of butter on the side, a combination that has not changed in eight decades.