How to order coffee in Vietnam

Almost every café, from a pavement stall to a chain, serves the same two core drinks. Traditional coffee is brewed in a phin, a small metal drip filter that sits on top of the glass. For milk coffee, a layer of condensed milk waits at the bottom; you stir it in, then pour it over a glass of ice. If your coffee arrives with the phin still on top, be patient: wait until it stops dripping, lift the filter off and rest it upside down on its little lid.

Black coffee (cà phê đen) is intense and, at many street stalls, comes with sugar already stirred in, especially in the South. If you want it plain, say so when you order. More on that below.

Hanoi calls milk coffee nâu (brown) and black coffee đen (black), so the everyday orders are nâu đá and đen đá, with nóng (hot) for the hot versions. In Saigon you'll hear cà phê sữa đá, usually shortened to sữa đá, and đen đá for black.

Both cities understand both sets of names, and the full name, cà phê sữa đá, works everywhere. The word for the glass changes too: cốc in the North, ly in the South. For more differences like these, see our guide to Northern vs Southern Vietnamese.

Beyond the basics, four drinks are worth knowing by name.

Bạc xỉu is Saigon's gentle option: mostly milk with a small amount of coffee. The name comes from the Cantonese of Saigon's Chinese community and roughly means 'white cup, a little coffee'. Order it if regular milk coffee is too strong for you.

Cà phê muối (salt coffee) comes from Huế: coffee topped with a lightly salted cream. The salt rounds off the bitterness, and it has spread to cafés across the country.

Cà phê trứng (egg coffee) is Hanoi's signature: egg yolk whipped with condensed milk into a thick, sweet foam over strong coffee. Café Giảng in Hanoi says its founder created it in the 1940s, when fresh milk was scarce. It comes hot, often in a cup sitting in a bowl of hot water, or iced.

Cà phê cốt dừa (coconut coffee) blends coconut cream, condensed milk and ice into a slush, with coffee poured over. It's half drink, half dessert.

The default Vietnamese coffee is sweet, sometimes very sweet, because condensed milk does the job of both milk and sugar. If you like it less sweet, say so when you order: once the condensed milk is in the glass, it can't come out.

Ít means little and không means none, so ít đường is less sugar and không đường is no sugar. For milk coffee, ask for ít sữa (less milk) to cut the sweetness. Sữa đặc is condensed milk and sữa tươi is fresh milk; some cafés will make your coffee with fresh milk if you ask.

Iced coffee is the default almost everywhere, and in the South a glass can be more ice than coffee. If you want it hot, add nóng. If you want your iced coffee to stay strong, ask for ít đá (a little ice) or ice on the side, and pour it yourself as you go.

In the cities, café ice is usually factory-made and delivered in big bags, the same ice locals drink every day.

At a chain or takeaway counter, you'll be asked whether you're drinking there or taking it away. At a street stall nobody asks anything: you sit down, someone comes over, and the coffee turns up a few minutes later. Call staff the same way you would in a restaurant, with em ơi, anh ơi or chị ơi (more on that in our guide to ordering food in Vietnamese).

In many Saigon cafés a glass of iced tea (trà đá) comes free with your coffee and gets topped up while you sit. At most street cafés you pay when you leave. And if someone invites you to đi cà phê, it's rarely just about the coffee: it means sitting and talking for an hour.

To practise your order before the first morning, the Food phrasebook in the app has the drinks, the sweetness and the ice lines recorded.