Espresso topped with a layer of whipped egg yolk foam almost as rich as tiramisu cream, eaten spoonful by spoonful as bitter and sweet melt together in your mouth — egg coffee is a Hanoi original, and one of the easiest ways to win over a Taiwanese traveler on their first try.
What egg coffee is, and how it came to be invented
Egg coffee is made by whipping egg yolks, condensed milk, and a little sugar into a thick, velvety foam, then layering it over a small cup of espresso. To drink it, you can stir the foam into the coffee below, or simply spoon through it layer by layer — the texture lands somewhere between tiramisu and a latte, sweet but with the coffee's bitterness still coming through clearly.
This coffee was invented in 1946 by Nguyễn Văn Giảng, who was working as a bartender at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi at the time. Facing a postwar shortage of fresh milk, he had the idea of whipping egg yolks into a foam in place of milk froth — and accidentally created this signature drink. The shop is now run by his son, Nguyễn Văn Đạo; during the 2019 US-North Korea Summit in Hanoi, Café Giảng reportedly served around 3,000 cups in a single day to the international press, briefly making international headlines.
How to drink it like a local
The anchor shop and other essential stops
Café Giảng (39 Nguyễn Hữu Huân Street) is the shop opened by the inventor himself, Nguyễn Văn Giảng, now run by the second generation — it's the widely recognized birthplace of this drink. CNN has featured it repeatedly, and it has over 13,000 Google reviews with a 4.4-star rating.
That said, egg coffee is worth collecting as a dish in its own right rather than tying yourself to a single shop — the Old Quarter is now full of egg coffee cafés each with their own flair, like Loading T Cafe (8 Chân Cầm Street), tucked on the second floor of a century-old house, or Café Đinh (13 Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street), with its balcony overlooking Hoàn Kiếm Lake — both are frequently mentioned alongside each other by travelers, and worth trying a few to find your own favorite.
Local know-how
Prices and hours (verified July 2026)
- A cup of egg coffee runs about 25,000–50,000 VND; hot egg coffee is commonly priced around 30,000 VND.
- Café Giảng is open roughly 7:00–22:00, year-round, one of the few Old Quarter institutions where you can still sit down for a leisurely coffee in the afternoon.
- A phrase to order with: 'Cho tôi một cốc cà phê trứng nóng.' (One hot egg coffee, please.)
Tips before you go
- The Old Quarter has many egg coffee shops with similar-sounding names — confirm the exact address beforehand so you don't end up at the wrong one.
- Seating is often cramped and reached via narrow stairs — worth noting if you have mobility concerns or don't do well in tight, warm spaces.
- This drink runs quite sweet; it's not recommended to have more than one or two cups on an empty stomach.
A creative coffee born out of a milk shortage — what you're really drinking isn't so much caffeine as Hanoi's knack for turning scarcity into flavor.