Cheo Leo Cafe - The oldest coffee shop in Vietnam

Hidden in an alley in District 3, Cheo Leo is overshadowed by surrounding houses and stores. Unlike many trendy coffee shops around the city, it looks quite plain, with stainless steel tables and plastic stools. There’s a wooden sign with the name of the shop and a coffee cup. But who needs a fancy sign for a coffee shop that has stood for 78 years.

In the past, the place was popular among students of Saigon’s elite high schools such as Petrus Ky, now Le Hong Phong, and Chu Van An. These days it is a favorite venue among people who are nostalgic and want a reminder of what Saigon coffee used to taste like.

The essence of Cheo Leo’s lasting charm lies in its old-fashioned, almost extinct, way of brewing coffee with a clay pot and a cloth strainer. There are just a handful of shops that are still using the method around the city. Cheo Leo’s owners are known for having been meticulously carrying out the whole brewing process for decades, treating it like a ritual.

The current owners, three sisters named Tuyet, Suong and Sau use tap water to brew coffee, but before it can be used, the water must sit still in a tank for three days. The practice is dated to the days when their father, Vinh Ngo, still ran Cheo Leo and wanted to get rid of all the unwanted smell of disinfectants in the water.

They still use an old stove that their father made specifically just for boiling water. They then poured the hot water into a cloth strainer containing finely ground coffee. The strainer is placed in a clay pot that Chinese people often use to cook medicinal herbs.

The coffee sits in the strainer for a while before being poured into another pot, which she then places near the stove to keep the coffee always warm and maintain its perfect flavor.

It is important to keep the stove at a right temperature, because if it is too high it will spoil the coffee, she says. But when the temperature is too low, it will fail to draw out the coffee’s fragrance. Every cup is also washed in boiled water before use to make sure the coffee stays warm.

The father, Mr. Vinh Ngo, opened the coffee shop in 1938 when the rural neighborhood was nearly uninhabited.

He named his shop Cheo Leo, which means “high and dangerous” in Vietnamese, being inspired by the fact that it stood on an isolated spot quite far from the nearest houses.

Even though Ngo passed away more than 23 years ago, people who have patronized it for a long time have many stories about the late owner.

Daily at 5:30am, the three sisters, who are all single, Suong, Tuyet and Sau, get up to open their 78-year-old café. The three women are busy all day, until 7pm.   This is one of the oldest cafes in Saigon today. It was opened in 1938 by a man from the former royal capital of Hue – Mr. Vinh Ngo, the father of the three sisters Suong, Tuyet and Sau.     Cheo Leo café has a lot of loyal customers. This man – Mr. Vinh – said he has come here for dozens of years. In the years before Saigon’s liberation (1975), Cheo Leo was one of the most famous cafes in Saigon. It was the destination of students of Petrus Ky and Chu Van An schools.   In the years before Saigon’s liberation (1975), Cheo Leo was one of the most famous cafes in Saigon. It was the destination of students of Petrus Ky and Chu Van An schools.   Ms. Sau is preparing coffee.   Cheo Leo still serves its customers with coffee that is filtered by net, not metal coffee filters. A cup of coffee is priced VND130,000-VND15,000. Ms. Suong A young man who is a loyal customer of Cheo Leo Cheo Leo has its own music As they have many customers, sometimes the three sisters have to write the names of customers on the wall.