My obsession with large cafés in HCMC continues -- I have now found the MOST beautiful cafe in Ho Chi Minh City, the LaDo Café. The location, however, is as far out of the inner city as it can get without going across the outer belt highway of QL 1A west of Saigon. The address is 101/18 Gò Dầu Street in the Tân Qúy ward of Tân Phú district. I am surprised Kevin at SaigonNezumi hasn't found it first since he spends a lot of time in that district.
The location is just too far out and hidden away, which is unfortunate because this truly is a modernist masterpiece in a beautiful garden. I am told the owner and designer is an architect, and I would love to talk with him someday.
I didn't have my camera with me on this visit, so some fuzzy old iPhone pics are going to have to cover the design for now. The occasion was an outing with friends from my office, which is what visits to cafés in Việt Nam are all about -- socializing.
We get by in a mixture of Vietnamese and English. The usual beverage of choice for women is a blended fruit drink.
Lado Cafe is one of the largest cafes I have been to, and it is unfortunate we were one of the only groups there on a Saturday afternoon. Given its out-of-the-way location, it is also much quieter than most cafes, and the music is played at at a reasonable level that allows good conversation. While we were there, a few Chistmas songs were played within the mix of western and Vietnamese tunes.
There are two garden sides split with a center pavilion.
Most seating is at the garden terraces.
The selection of plant material complements the architecture (or vice versa) very well and is very deliberate in how it is planted and maintained. There is nothing random to the choices and means of planting -- everything is selected to work together in a very pleasing composition.
The water in the pools is deliberately stagnant so that they have a beautiful green color. Yellow architectonic elements like walls and frames are used to unify the composition.
