Westerners love Hanoi sidewalk beer, praise 'smooth taste, fresh like autumn air'

Hanoi has many small and large beer restaurants, but the sidewalk shops often attract the most international tourists. On autumn afternoons in October, when the gentle yellow sunlight shines through the leaves onto the sidewalks and steps, that is when many foreigners start to drink beer and watch the street.

At a beer house on Bat Dan Street, Lee Kirby (left) and his friend Declan Green (from the UK) shared that they often come to this beer house every Tuesday. They have loved Vietnamese draft beer since they first came here 8 years ago. “I love it. It is easy to drink, doesn’t make me bloated because it doesn’t have much gas, and most importantly, I don’t have a headache the next morning when I wake up,” Lee Kirby said.

“I just sit at this table. I can watch everything that happens every day while sipping a few beers here. What could be better,” the British man added.

Just a few tables away, Toshiyuki Watanabe was also sipping his beer. Toshiyubi was drinking alone. “I like to immerse myself in the atmosphere of a street beer hall. It’s a very interesting space. Everything is bustling around me, but I still find enough quiet to enjoy my beer and do my own thing,” the Japanese man confided.

At another beer house on Duong Thanh Street, Aaron Horwath (USA) and Lianna Fokart (Netherlands) were chatting enthusiastically. “Today is my friend’s first day in Hanoi. I wanted Lianna to experience the real Hanoi style, so I brought her here to drink draft beer,” Horwath said.

Lianna shared that before going to the beer house, Aaron took her around the streets of Hanoi in the fall, enjoying dishes that she felt were attractive and rich. This was the first glass of Hanoi draft beer Lianna had tried. “Beer in my country is usually more bitter. This beer is easy to drink, smooth, fragrant and very fresh, just like the air in Hanoi at this time,” the Dutch girl happily said.

Unlike the Vietnamese style of drinking beer with snacks, foreign guests usually only drink beer straight. Because beer has a lower alcohol content than imported beer, on average each person drinks 4-8 glasses per visit.

Lianna added that she really enjoyed the feeling of drinking beer here. She will definitely come back to enjoy it one day soon.

At another shop on the sidewalk of the old quarter, Mr. Vincent said that he had just come to Vietnam from the US for work. When his colleagues introduced him to Vietnamese draft beer, out of curiosity, he immediately went to drink it with everyone.

As the evening progresses, more and more foreign tourists flock to the bia hoi. Isaac Crawford’s family from the UK have been visiting Vietnam for a few weeks. “We were introduced to this as a daily draft beer. After drinking it, I found the beer to be light but crisp. It cooled my body down, even though Hanoi is quite cool in the fall,” Crawford said.

As a beer lover, Isaac tried bottled beers but in the end, draft beer still impressed him more. "I think I like draft beer, partly because of the atmosphere when I sit here drinking," he said.

According to Mr. Le Trieu Duong, owner of a beer shop on Duong Thanh Street, there are many brands of draft beer and many different production facilities, people often call it Hanoi draft beer. The beer here is imported directly from the factory by Mr. Duong on the same day so it is always fresh.

According to Ms. Tran Thi Nhung, manager of a beer bar on Bat Dan Street, the number of international visitors coming here to enjoy beer is especially high on weekends and holidays. This place once welcomed a group of 70 foreigners. There are close foreign guests who have been coming to her shop for many years to drink beer.

Tran Quoc Toan, an employee at a beer bar on Bat Dan Street, shared that since he started working here, he has served an average of 20 foreigners every day during the summer, and sometimes he has met groups of customers who drank up to 60 glasses of draft beer.

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