good-days-tea-coffee

by Haneul Shin · July 17, 2026

The Cafe Apartments at 42 Nguyễn Huệ — the old military dormitory turned vertical café village — has a top floor. Floors 8 and 9. And on those floors sits Good Days Tea & Coffee, which might be the sunniest seat in the entire building.

Here's the thing about the Cafe Apartments: every floor has its own light. The lower floors are shadowed by the street. The middle floors get filtered afternoon sun. But 8 and 9? Open sky. The balcony is a garden — hanging pothos, diamond fabric lanterns swaying, a long wooden counter facing straight out over the Nguyễn Huệ walking street. <Quote>

The view isn't a backdrop; it's the seating.

</Quote> You sit facing it the way you'd face the ocean.

I came at 4pm in July, when the light does that thing it does in Saigon — low, gold, slightly hazy, turning the whole walking street into a watercolor. Tall fluted glasses arriving on wooden-numbered tables. The lanterns starting to glow as the sun drops. It was, and I say this as someone who writes about beaches for a living, one of the best golden hours I've had indoors.

The drinks are tea and coffee, bright and breezy to match the room — nothing heavy, nothing dark. This is a daylight place. It closes at 23:30, but the real hours are the sunlit ones: morning through late afternoon, when the balcony is what it was built to be.

Every beach has a season when it's perfect. This balcony has a daily one, and it's late afternoon. Don't miss it.