Moca Cafe, Hanoi

Good, simple food, well served and in interesting surroundings.

Wide choice on menu, good coffee too.

Great location, taxi stop is nearby.

Interesting street with good value, small shops selling tourist bits and lots of other tempting goods.

Clean toilets at the rear of the cafe, ............... welcome as always!

Favorite Dish: Too many to list, believe me the menu is a biggie.

One good thing with many Ha Noi restaurants is that they have a mix of western and local cuisine, are generally not expensive and have choice in beer! (and other beverages!).
Café Mo Ca is located very close to the cathedral, in the old quarter of Ha Noi, and is open late at night, and having a soup with a Belgian red beer after a night visit to the cathedral is an enjoyable thing to do. This restaurant, visited by more tourists than locals looks a bit like the western fast foods, but has a very big choice in soups, fried or steamed noodles, and has also more consequent dishes like roasted duck or ribs; western dishes are also available and among the deserts are flambée bananas (flambéed with rice alcohol) or fresh fruit salads; a good meal is possible for less than 6 U.S.$.

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We went to Moca Café in Hanoi for late lunch after busy walking in the district. We look at the menu, so much variety and not really sure what to make of it. Shall we have Italian, Indian, Vietnamese, steaks, French cakes or what? Finally we decided to go for Italian.

To relax our mind we had glass of wine each, followed by minestrone soup as a starter. For main course we had Pasta Provencal and Pasta Pescatore, mango avocado juice and English tea for refreshment.

We enjoyed our lunch and I think the pasta was good with nice flavouring and it was andante. The house wine was not too good but not too bad. I like the service it was friendly and we didn’t have to wait long.

We had window seat with a good view of watching the motor scooters wiz away, taxi dropping and taking away passenger at the taxi rank, tourist looking at the boutique shops opposite the street. Moca Café also provides magazines to read, interesting books to buy. The cafe could be another bohemian meeting place.

I am not sure of how I could describe the décor it could be French influence lots of wood finishes.

There are other restaurants in the surrounding area. The tourists and expatriates refer to this street as Church St as Moca Café is very close to St Joseph cathedral. The price is reasonable, our bill came to 275,000 dong. I am sure you can find a lot cheaper one.

Address: 14-16 Nha Tho St
Telephone: 04 8256334

It was the one of the only few open during Tet and we were just grateful that there was somewhere to sit down and eat. Still quite a cool place to hang out and the menu was extensive. Standard local and international fare but at least came in good-size portions. It was packed when we got there because there were few other places to go. I like the decor and french style chairs and wood finishes. A pleasant meal for a lazy afternoon.

Coffee roasted on premises, eclectic menu. Pretty good Indian food. I personally don't like the place very much (food is less than so-so, ambience is cavernous and antiseptic), but it appears to be the hands-down favorite of a lot of foreigners. I just don't get it. All the taxis coming to Nha Tho assume you're visiting Moca. Postcard vendors, shoe-shiners, and the like stake out the entrance.

Favorite Dish: Only eat Indian food there. There are several thousand other Vietnamese restaurants in town that have better food at much lower prices.

Pleasant and inoffensive fare in a culinary paradise like Hanoi.