Nha Trang Guide
← Cafés

5 places for Sidewalk Coffee & Phin Filter Nha Trang

Rating: 4.4 / 5 — Our own score, not an average of guest reviews

Our own score, not an average of guest reviews

Plastic stools, a dripping phin, 20,000₫. How locals actually drink coffee

City centre

Illustrative photo · Souradeep.Dasgupta · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · 2024

Illustrative photo · 하나두리 · CC BY 2.0 kr · Wikimedia Commons · 2015

Address
Carts all over the centre, plus five addressed shops at the foot of the page, prices read off the board
Opening hours
From around 6:00; many close after lunch
Price range
15,000 – 30,000₫/drink
Best time to go
6:30 – 9:00 in the morning

Overview

Alongside the sea-view places charging 100,000₫ a glass, Nha Trang has another layer of coffee: plastic stools on the pavement, an aluminium phin dripping into a glass, free iced tea alongside, and a price of 15,000–30,000₫. This is what locals drink every day.

They're thickest around Nguyen Thien Thuat, Hoang Hoa Tham and Bach Dang streets. Ordering "cà phê sữa đá" is the safe move. Strong, sweet, and enough to carry a whole morning.

Ordering and sitting have their own rhythm, and knowing it saves fumbling. You sit, name the drink, and it arrives as a glass with an aluminium filter dripping on top plus a free glass of iced tea, which is normally refilled at no charge. Wait the four or five minutes for the filter to finish before stirring; stir early and the top is weak while the bottom is syrup. You pay when you get up, and cash is simplest.

A true pavement cart is almost invisible to Google Maps. No sign, no listing, so no search finds one. Sweeping the whole city with three different queries returned only places with a shopfront, and the one actually called "Vỉa Hè". Pavement. Turned out to be a beer joint selling pork ribs. So the five addresses at the foot of this page are not carts: they are shops with house numbers selling the same coffee at the same price, and every figure was read off a board on their own wall. For the carts, walk Nguyen Thien Thuat, Hoang Hoa Tham or Bach Dang in the morning and sit where the locals are.

In the same family: tourist-quarter cafés and the early openers. Most pavement stalls are going by six.

Some shops, with addresses

  • Yên Cafe 24/7

    Open map →

    21 Lac Thien, north Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa

    3.9★ Google · 182 reviews20,000 – 35,000₫

    21 Lac Thien, north Nha Trang, and the only place on this site that writes 24/7 into its own name. Ground floor and one above, with a garden and an air-conditioned room, fairly large, comfortable seating, and a mostly young crowd. The drinks are ordinary. You come for the hours and the seat. Two marks against: the outdoor tables sit close together so a neighbour's cigarette smoke reaches you, and it is quiet late at night, so ring first if you are counting on three in the morning.

    Reference photos from sources on the internet.

  • Tiệm cà phê

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    30/17 Doan Tran Nghiep, north Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa

    3.8★ Google · 65 reviewsOpen 7:00 – 22:0022,000 – 45,000₫

    Black and milk coffee both 22,000₫, bạc xỉu and chocolate 25,000₫, cold brew 35,000–40,000₫. A small room with bookshelves and tables for sitting a while. Closer to a traditional drip shop than a photo café.

    Reference photos from sources on the internet.

  • Cà phê Xưởng 1925

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    23B Biet Thu, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa

    4.8★ Google · 325 reviewsOpen 7:00 – 21:0022,000 – 50,000₫

    23B Biet Thu, and the only roastery inside the tourist quarter. Its real seating is the pavement under the trees. Sitting there early, with hotels all around, is the best of it. Espresso 30,000₫, quick service, ordinary prices. They keep oat milk for cappuccinos, which few places in Nha Trang do, and the Aerocano is the unfamiliar one worth trying. There is a bakery next door and you can bring what you buy across. Shuts 21:00.

    Reference photos from sources on the internet.

  • Cà phê Hòn Chồng View

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    6 Pham Van Dong, north Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa

    4.1★ Google · 430 reviewsOpen 6:00 – 22:0023,000 – 45,000₫

    Black coffee 23,000₫, milk coffee 25,000₫, coconut 45,000₫. Pavement prices at the Hòn Chồng rocks. It also sells wood-roasted unblended coffee to take away: beans or ground 260,000₫ a kilo, filter bags 140,000₫ a box. Opens at 6:00. A line on the board mentions a surcharge for drinks-only tables.

    Reference photos from sources on the internet.

  • Cà phê Hạt Phượng Hoàng

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    05 Le Thanh Ton, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa

    3.8★ Google · 185 reviewsOpen 6:00 – 22:0031,000 – 37,000₫

    05 Le Thanh Ton, open from 6:00 in principle and about 6:30 in practice, with table service. A plain neighbourhood coffee shop with a wide frontage, so both cars and bikes can park. There is phin and there is machine coffee, and coffee is what to order. Skip the matcha latte and the peach tea: the matcha is gritty and thin, and the peach tea is made from a bag.

    Reference photos from sources on the internet.

Addresses come from each shop's own Google Maps listing, and the Open map button opens that shop's pin rather than running a search. 18 shops on the site have no listing we could confirm, so they have no button: the address lookup returned a different business, and a button that points at the wrong place is worse than none. A Google score appears only when Maps carries both the score and the number of reviews — a bare average cannot be weighed, so this page leaves it out. Street-food stalls change hours and close without telling anyone; call ahead if you are travelling across town.

What to order

  • Phin-brewed iced coffee with condensed milk. Strong and sweet
  • Free iced tea served alongside
  • 15,000–30,000₫ a glass
  • A front-row seat on the city's morning rhythm

Practical tips

  • Say "cà phê sữa đá" for sweet, "cà phê đen đá" for black
  • Let the phin finish dripping before you stir, about four or five minutes
  • Vietnamese coffee is strong. One glass will do for the whole morning

Frequently asked

What does a street coffee cost?

Around 15,000–30,000₫, with a free glass of iced tea. That is what locals pay every day.

What should I order?

Ca phe sua da for sweet and strong, ca phe den da for bitter. Both are filter-brewed and both are potent. One glass covers a morning.

Are they open in the afternoon?

Far fewer. Many pack up after lunch. The reliable window is 6:30–9:00 in the morning.

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