Hai Cafe Restaurant & BBQ Courtyard

Hai Cafe is an all-day restaurant in the heart of the Ancient Town, set in a landmark building that runs between two of the old town's main streets, with entrances at 98 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street and 111 Tran Phu Street. It belongs to the same local group as the Red Bridge Cooking School and Red Bridge Restaurant, which share the visithoian.com website.

The layout is one of its main attractions. There are two indoor dining areas and a large garden courtyard, with seating for around 120 people in total, which makes it a practical choice for groups, and the garden courtyard gives the restaurant an open-air space in the middle of the old town.

Every evening the courtyard turns into an open-air kitchen, where you can watch the chefs at work with large woks, traditional barbecues and steamers. The barbecue focuses on seafood and meats cooked with fresh herbs, served with a choice of Vietnamese and international sauces. Through the day the menu also covers traditional Hoi An dishes, and the restaurant describes itself as a place for breakfast, lunch, dinner or simply a drink.

The menu is available through a QR code or link, in English, Chinese and Korean, with pictures, which helps visitors who are unfamiliar with Vietnamese dishes to order with confidence. That, together with the long opening hours, from 07:00 to 23:00 every day of the year, makes Hai Cafe a convenient fallback when you are sightseeing and need a reliable place to stop at any time of day.

Evening cooking classes are run here as part of the Red Bridge Cooking School programme, so you can combine a lesson with dinner in the courtyard. Bookings for both the restaurant and the classes can be made through the published phone numbers or the group's email address.

Hai Cafe suits families, groups and travellers who want a relaxed, flexible restaurant in the middle of the old town. Its double frontage makes it easy to slip in between visits: the Tran Phu entrance is on the same street as the Fujian Assembly Hall and the Museum of Trade Ceramics, while Nguyen Thai Hoc Street leads to Tan Ky Old House, Little Faifo and Morning Glory.