Cuc Gach Café

In this year's SAVEUR 100, we take stock of our favorite things: recipes, people, places. We consider every last one a new classic.

By The Editors

Credit: Courtesy Cuc Gach Café

The most fascinating place to eat in Ho Chi Minh City right now is Cuc Gach Café, the latest high-concept restaurant by the architect Binh Tran. Painstakingly furnished to resemble a stylish, midcentury Vietnamese home and offering home-style dinners�stir-fried bok choy; pork stewed in caramel and pepper sauce�it shores up nostalgia for a not-so-distant past, before war and political repression changed everything. When the staff threads a tape onto the vintage player, the plaintive sound of a 1960s Saigonese singer�music that remains banned under Communist rule�moves even Western visitors.

Cuc Gach Café
(84/1/101-010; cucgachcafe.com)
79 Phon Ke Binh, Dakao Ward, District 1
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam