Owner hated by customers, 'snobbish' sweet soup shop still famous for 60 years in HCMC

The owner of the chè shop nicknamed "snobbish chè" or "cold chè" claims that many customers find him annoying and openly hate him, but the small shop is still famous, with many customers coming to it for decades.

A "cool" dessert shop with a familiar red three-wheeled vehicle on Nguyen Phi Khanh Street. Photo: Ha Nguyen

"Snobbish" tea, "cold" tea

On Nguyen Phi Khanh Street (Tan Dinh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City) there is a famous sweet soup shop, commonly known by the nicknames “cool sweet soup” and “cold sweet soup”. The shop is small and stands out with a red 3-wheeled cart placed in front of the house.

The restaurant is small, with only a couple of stainless steel tables for customers to sit on. During busy times, diners have to sit on the sidewalk.

The shop only sells two dishes: mung bean sweet soup and grass jelly. However, these sweet soups are all rated by customers as delicious, and unforgettable after just one bite.

Visiting the sweet soup shop at noon, the elderly customer said he was a regular customer of the shop. He shared that the sweet soups here are very delicious.

An elderly customer came to buy Mr. Thanh's sweet soup and confirmed that the sweet soups here are very delicious. Photo: Ha Nguyen

“With the bean dessert, the beans are not crushed, soft, chewy, and rich, eaten with fragrant, fatty coconut milk, just right. The pomegranate jelly dessert has a distinctive aroma, the grass jelly is crispy, and quenches thirst,” this person commented.

Meanwhile, young customers learned about the chè shop through social media. Curious about the name “chè chào” (cool chè) and “chè thương” (cold chè), they came to experience it.

The owner of the chè shop is Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh and his wife, now 60 years old. The place where the chè is sold is also rented by the couple. Mr. Thanh said that the nickname “chè chào” and “chè thiên” of the shop comes from his personality.

He said: “I am different from other people, I only ask once, not twice. One time, a group of customers came to eat sweet soup, I asked them what they were eating but because we were so engrossed in conversation, no one answered.

Seeing that, I stopped asking. Later, the customer complained when I didn't bring out the tea. I said: 'You didn't tell me so I don't know how to sell it'.

Mr. Thanh said the nicknames "snobbish" and "cold" tea come from his personality. Photo: Ha Nguyen

The customer was visibly upset and said, 'If you sell tea, then bring tea, what else do you bring?'. Hearing that, I said bluntly, 'There are 3-4 types of tea here. If you don't say anything, I won't sell them.' Then I asked them to stand up and leave.

When it's crowded, people who come to buy tea have to line up, whoever comes first, I sell first. Anyone who intentionally pushes ahead, rushes, or demands me to sell first, I invite them away and refuse to sell.

So some people say I'm arrogant and don't need customers in my business. Plus, I hardly talk or smile to customers, just scoop the sweet soup and take money, so people give me the nicknames 'arrogant sweet soup' and 'cold sweet soup'.

Mother to son

Mr. Thanh said the dessert shop has been around since 1965, cooked and sold by his wife’s parents. Many years ago, when his wife’s parents were getting old and saw their son-in-law and his wife facing many difficulties, they decided to leave the dessert cart to their children. To date, the dessert shop has existed for 60 years.

Currently, Mr. Thanh's wife still keeps the desserts and the recipes from her parents' time. The desserts retain their old flavors and are loved by many people. Some people who ate them decades ago are still regular customers of the shop. Before that, Mr. Thanh's desserts did not have names. Anyone who wanted to eat something could come and point to the dish they liked.

The shop only sells two dishes: bean sweet soup and grass jelly. Photo: Ha Nguyen

In 2016-2017, Mr. Thanh’s younger brother opened a branch, so he created a menu and named the desserts to make it easier for customers to order. Since then, the desserts at the shop have names such as: 3-color dessert, green bean dessert with coconut water, black bean dessert with coconut water, grass jelly with coconut water, etc.

Currently, the shop is open from 9am to late at night. The desserts here cost 15,000 VND/cup.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the “che voi” shop was very popular. Every day, customers of all ages lined up to buy. Compared to a few years ago, the number of customers has decreased significantly.

Before the pandemic, Mr. Thanh's sweet soup shop was especially crowded, but now the number of customers has decreased a lot. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Mr. Thanh said that the restaurant not only serves city residents and foreign tourists but also attracts many famous artists.

Sometimes when there are many customers, Mr. Thanh still scoops the sweet soup slowly, without speaking or smiling, letting the customers line up in front of him. Sometimes, customers even see him refuse to sell, asking impatient people to leave…

He confided: “This personality of mine makes me hated and the restaurant loses customers. However, this is my personality and who I am.

I don’t want to change who I really am just to please someone. That’s why the chè shop has been nicknamed ‘chè chào’ for decades.”

Nestled on the side of an old apartment building, a half-century-old chè bìm shop in Ho Chi Minh City attracts sweet tooths from evening to late at night. Every day, the shop sells nearly 1,000 bowls of various colors and flavors.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/chu-bi-khach-ghet-quan-che-chanh-van-noi-tieng-suot-60-nam-o-tphcm-2461375.html