The Old Compass Cafe and Bar

A cafe and bar on the third floor of an old apartment block in Alley 63 Pasteur, opened in 2016 by the Rusty Compass team, known for its evening cultural events and home-style Vietnamese food.

The Old Compass Cafe and Bar is on the third floor at No. 11 in the alley at 63 Pasteur, Ben Nghe ward, District 1 - right in the busiest part of central Saigon, yet tucked away in an old apartment block built in the 1960s. It was opened in 2016 by the team behind Rusty Compass, Mark Bowyer's well-known independent travel blog about Vietnam, growing out of the blog's travel and history content into a physical space. The interior keeps the old patterned floor tiles, vintage wrought-iron window frames and a nostalgic round bar, mixed with recycled and restored furniture for a feeling at once nostalgic and warm. It serves Western breakfasts (eggs, buttered toast), coffee, and home-style Vietnamese rice sets that change with the season at lunch and dinner, along with wine and craft beer. Its distinctive feature is a series of evening cultural events - happy hours, author talks, architecture discussions and small performances - that have made it a familiar meeting point for expatriates and Vietnamese who love Saigon's culture and history. As of late August 2025 the cafe was still receiving visitors and being written about, indicating that it remains in normal operation.

English text: machine translation from the Localis platform — proper names kept in Vietnamese.