Workshop14 is a cocktail bar restaurant in Tay Ho, Hanoi.
Workshop14 in Hanoi is bartender Rich McDonough's minimal Tay Ho room, ranked No 83 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 and winner of the Campari One To Watch Award.
Why locals love it: A traditional wooden gate hides a 14-seat minimal cocktail bar on the site of Princess Tu Hoa's 12th-century palace, opened 2025 and now in Asia's 50 Best.
Tip: Bookings recommended; the room only seats 14. Tu Hoa is one of 13 craft villages with roots back to the 12th century.
Address: 6 Ngo 5 Tu Hoa, Quang An, Tay Ho, Hanoi
Why locals love it: Enter through a silk shop, walk a long corridor, cross a birdcage courtyard, climb a home staircase, and arrive on a rooftop balcony with the best lake view.
Tip: Look for the red-fronted silk shop on Hang Gai marked 'Silklike'. Egg coffee 50,000 VND.
Why locals love it: Up an old staircase above a Hoan Kiem-side travel agency, this 1987 cafe opened by Cafe Giang's daughter Mrs Bich still serves the original 1946 egg coffee.
Tip: Six seats on the narrow balcony overlooking the lake; arrive before 09:00 to claim one.
Why locals love it: A Bib Gourmand eel-noodle counter on a tiny corner of the Old Quarter, with the kitchen set up on the pavement and just six stools inside. Closes when the eel runs out.
Tip: The dry version (mien luon kho) with crispy eel and fried shallots is the dish to order.
Why locals love it: Through an alleyway off Ly Quoc Su, climb to the second floor of an old French house with worn wooden floors. The terrace looks at St Joseph's spires.
Tip: Daytime cafe; cocktails after sunset. The church-bell soundtrack is the reason to sit by the window.
Why locals love it: Founded 2015 by poet Nam Lu in a quiet Cua Dong lane, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves of thousands of volumes and an attic reachable only by ladder.
Tip: The attic loft is the quietest seat; reach it via the ladder near the back wall. Wi-Fi works on every floor.
Why locals love it: A 1930s French villa second-floor cafe reached past a family shrine, with geometric tile floors, olive shutters and a soundtrack of French ballads.
Tip: The window-table for two on the second floor is the seat to ask for. Cinnamon egg coffee is the signature.
