Specialty coffee cafés in Hanoi

Where Hanoi's arabica comes from

Sơn La's farmers began planting arabica in the late 1980s. By the end of 2025 the province had about 26,120 ha of it and an estimated output of 37,724 tonnes of green beans, and it plans to hold the area near 35,000 ha toward 2030 while focusing on quality.²³ Almost all Vietnamese arabica is the Catimor variety; buyers from the importer Mercanta saw only experimental plots of other varieties on a 2024 trip.⁵

Quality is a recent story. Before Phúc Sinh opened a processing factory in Sơn La's Mai Sơn district in 2018, local arabica sold cheaply and was often blended with Central Highlands robusta; the company now picks only ripe red cherries for its specialty lots.⁴ The drive from Hanoi to the factory takes more than six hours.⁴

Fine Robusta, liberica and a better phin

Not every Hanoi roaster is chasing arabica. Fine Robusta, robusta grown and processed to specialty standards, has its own following: 30S Coffea Roastery's seasonal Fine Robusta was named “Top 1 Vietnam Amazing Cup 2025”, and Refined sets out to challenge the prejudice against robusta, down to ceramic filters made with Bát Tràng pottery techniques.⁶ RAAW Coffee, founded in Hanoi in 2019, serves only Vietnamese coffee, including liberica, known locally as “jackfruit coffee”.⁶

Many specialty cafés also brew a phin from their own beans. Capella Coffee Roaster's Phin Blend is 100% arabica, mixing Vietnamese beans with coffee from Kenya, Ethiopia, Brazil and Nicaragua.⁶

What a pour-over costs in Hanoi

Pour-over is usually the most expensive line on a Hanoi specialty menu. In 2023, a 200–400 ml pot at the city's pour-over cafés cost 70,000–150,000₫, considerably more than other coffee drinks.⁷ These cafés typically use light roasts, which keep more of a bean's floral and fruit character.⁷ If the budget is tighter, an espresso drink or a phin made from the house beans costs less and still shows what the roaster does.

Where specialty cafés cluster in Hanoi

Tây Hồ (West Lake) has as many specialty cafés as Hoàn Kiếm, three of them on or just off Tô Ngọc Vân and Xuân Diệu: Capella Coffee Roaster at 74 Tô Ngọc Vân, Coffee Roaster 60 in Ngõ 11 Tô Ngọc Vân and Ka Specialty Coffee in Ngõ 31 Xuân Diệu. DoubleB's Specialty Coffee & Brunch is at 156 Phố Yên Hoa and COC Roastery at 47 Phố An Dương.

Hoàn Kiếm has 186 Coffee Roasters in Ngõ Trần Quốc Toản and Soul specialty coffee at 12 Phố Đường Thành. Bean Around Coffee Roastery is at 55 Phố Lê Đại Hành in Hai Bà Trưng, and CLAB is in Cầu Giấy. For an early pour-over, Capella opens at 06:00; COC Roastery pours until 23:00 and Soul until 22:00.