A charming new bar at The Anam Mui Ne, an Indochine-era inspired resort in Vietnam’s popular beach town Mui Ne, has introduced an exciting menu replete with imaginative cocktails, homemade kombucha, tapas and ‘smoothie bowls’.
The 1.2 hectare resort recently opened the new Saigon Bar, in homage to the intimate Saigon bars of yesteryear on some of the resort’s most inspiring ground overlooking Mui Ne beach.
Saigon Bar’s extensive drinks menu includes a broad spectrum of spirits, beers, wines, soju beverages, signature cocktails, martinis, gin cocktails and sour cocktails.
Signature cocktails include ‘Mother River’ comprising Song Cai dry gin, DOM Benedictine, dill, clarified lemon juice and maple syrup, and ‘Tikki Passion’ made up of Vietnamese Rum Sampan 54°, Flor de Cana white rum, Kraken rum, pineapple juice, clarified lemon juice, orgeat syrup, cinnamon syrup and cinnamon powder.
Classic cocktails with a twist include, for example, ‘The Anam Negroni’ with Vietnamese AT gin, strawberry infused Campari and Dolin vermouth red.The Herbal Spritz with De Bortoli sparkling wine, St-Germain elderflower, soda water is among the selection of Spritz cocktails. The espresso martini, ‘Smokey Garden Gin’ with Vietnamese AT gin, Dolin vermouth white, DOM Benedictine, angostura bitter, fresh mint, soda water and smoked apple tree bark, and ‘Pisco Sour’ featuring Pisco Demonio de los Andes, lime juice, syrup and egg white, are among the most popular martinis, gin cocktails and sour cocktails respectively.
Bar-goers select their own fruit for their mojitos, daiquiris, and margaritas such as mixed berries, strawberry and red dragon fruit.
The bar’s shelves are lined with all sorts of boutique spirits from Vietnam and around the world, such as Ho Chi Minh City-based Lady Trieu’s craft gins including ‘Dalat Flowerbomb’, ‘Mekong Delta Dry’, ‘Hoi An Spice Road’ and ‘Sapa Citrus Tea’.
The menu brims with all sorts of non-alcoholic beverages such as Vietnamese coffee, Italian coffee, hot chocolate, milk shakes, loose green and black leaf teas, freshly squeezed juices, and home-made iced teas. Watermelon-, passion fruit-, berry-, and turmeric and ginger-flavoured kombucha is concocted on the resort’s grounds. Kombucha is believed to offer all sorts of health benefits ranging from controlling cholesterol and boosting the immune system to cleaning the liver.
In addition to ‘smoothie bowls’ packed with different fruits, the bar also serves tapas including the likes of a cheese board, deep fried crab spring rolls, grilled half sundried calamari, salted and spicy crispy pork skin, and deep fried potato wedges with parmesan cheese. The selection of desserts includes ‘Signature Chocolate Bliss’, a moist mousse cake made from Valrhona chocolate with black cherry coulis and red fruit salsa, and ‘Dragon Fruit Cheesecake’, with a cream cheese dragon fruit baked cheesecake accompanied by chocolate, mint and raspberry sorbet.
Adjacent to the resort’s 266sqm saltwater infinity swimming pool and immaculate lawn, Saigon Bar is situated at the other end of the beach to Lang Viet Restaurant & Bar, bookending the resort’s best view over the waterfront.
Softly lit with caged lanterns and candles, the bar is fashioned from hardwood sourced from sustainably cultivated forests in Vietnam’s Nam Dinh province and bedecked with customized encaustic tiles, evoking an atmosphere of old-world elegance.
Fronted by a grey cobble-stone terrace with a handful of outdoor wooden bar tables flanked by rattan stools, Saigon Bar’s interior is home to cozy rattan chairs clustered in semi-circles and a bar featuring woodwork that took craftspeople months to complete.
Greenery cascades down the bar’s exterior from wooden plant boxes fastened to a balcony above.
