How Much I Spent Per Week in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

When I moved to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, my work was going quite well and beginning to scale significantly, so that will be reflected in my budget. Keep in mind that this budget may not be reflective of other expats or foreigners living in Saigon, and it can be done on a lot less. Also, I’m writing this now several months out of being in Ho Chi Minh, where I spent just over a year. 

I moved over to Saigon from Taipei, Taiwan, which was much needed for personal and professional reasons. If you’re curious how much I spent per month while living in Taipei or how much a luxury serviced apartment there costs, check out my past articles! 

I figure this type of article is important to include what I spent per month for rent in Ho Chi Minh, as it is probably the largest base cost, so let’s get started. 

Rent Per Week in Ho Chi Minh

You can find a complete breakdown of what I spent per month on a luxury serviced apartment in Saigon here (including utilities). My monthly rent in Ho Chi Minh was USD $900, or VND $21,000,000, so divide that by 4, and you get USD $225 per week, or $32 per day.  

I’m not going to factor this or utilities into my weekly expenses, but thought it was prudent to get it out of the way. Also, I had both a gym and pool at my apartment, so those were both free costs.  

Now, onto the week!

Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday

The famous Cafe Apartment on Ho Chi Minh’s Walking Street (Nguyen Hue Street) where Poke Saigon is located.

My goal for the week was to keep my daily expenditures under about VND $1,500,000 (USD $65), but sometimes exceeded that due to living a bit in excess (I’m not saying that is good). 

Mondays always started off with a bang for me, as I’m typically in a self-loathing mood after one too many drinks over the course of the weekend. What that means is instead of taking a Grab to work (one of the best ways to get around Vietnam), I’d throw on my finest pair of New Balances and make that 15 minute walk to District 1 to settle in at my favorite cafe – Workshop Coffee. And, that’s free.   

From Monday to Friday, I typically ate both breakfast and lunch at Workshop Coffee, L’Usine, or Au Parc, three of my favorite spots in Saigon. You can read about these three cafes in my posts tackling the best cafes to work out of and best spots to brunch at in Ho Chi Minh City.  

Breakfast for me typically consisted of a Western omelette, English Breakfast, or Eggs Benedict, along with three cold brew coffees and two sparkling waters. A breakfast main, coffees, and sparkling waters would typically come out to USD $10-$13. 

I scaled back a bit more, and would usually stick with a salad with grilled chicken for lunch, along with a watermelon or lime juice. Mix in the occasional Pâté chaud, and my day typically came out to around USD $20-$25.

I’m a man of such predictable routine, that this was pretty across the board for the entire week. 

Post-work, I’d take a Grab car home for about USD $3, grab some sparkling waters from my downstairs shop ($3-$5), and order food to my apartment ‘Icon 56’ – located in District 4.   

For dinner, I’d typically order (sometimes I would just eat there as well) American BBQ, Turkish, Indian, or poke bowls, which would cost me anywhere from USD $10 to $25. Below are several restaurants that were on my rotation:

• Jake’s American BBQ: You can find more about Jake’s in my article on my favorite barbecue restaurants in Ho Chi Minh. My go-to was always a half rack of Jake’s ribs, a side of mac and cheese (maybe two), mashed potatoes, and sometimes the fried pickles. This was a pig-out meal, and usually served as a snack or my lunch for the next day as well.
• Pasha: This is a great spot for Mediterranean and Turkish food (also a great spot to smoke shisha if you enjoy that). They have everything from kebabs, to kofta with mashed potatoes, to avocado and haloumi cheese salads, all the way to pizza and pastas.   
• Poke Saigon: I ate a surprising amount of poke during my year in Saigon. This spot is actually located right in the famous Cafe Building on Nguyen Hue Street, and makes a mean salmon or tuna poke bowl. 
• Tandoor Indian Restaurant: A high quality Indian restaurant that makes killer samosas and Lamb Rogan Josh. 
• Pho Le: Some of the best pho I’ve ever had – absolutely packed with beef and vegetables, a mix of electric flavors (citrus and chili), and high quality ingredients.

Thursday

Thursdays are where things got interesting for me, as there was as a professional meetup I would frequent, that often took place at a local brewery or local watering hole. These nights usually lead to somewhat of a big night out. If I wasn’t at the professional meetup, I was most likely at one of Saigon’s dozen-plus breweries. 

Make sure to check out my article on five of the best breweries in Saigon! Several of my go-tos were (and still are):

• Pasteur Street Brewing: Make sure to check out their Jasmine IPA – my favorite Vietnamese beer. Pasteur Street also offers up some great drunk bites, including meatballs with garlic bread, burgers, and sweet potato loaded fries. 
• East West Brewing: As I noted in my best breweries article, East West has the best bang-for-your-buck steak of all restaurants. The appetizers leave quite a bit to be desired, but stick with this and you can’t go wrong. 
• Belgo Brewery: Belgo won me over because of their 1.4L wit beers and tenderloin with foie gras. They have it all. Great appetizers (Belgian frites, bitterballens, chicken wings), steaks, and desserts (waffles and chocolate mousse). 

It’s a bit of a grey area with how much I would spend per week at these spots, as it was usually a hefty amount. These were my go-to spots to post up and drink and eat with buddies for a good portion of the night. Between dinner and far too many IPAs, my dinner would cost anywhere from VND $1,200,000 (USD $52) to $2,500,000 ($110). This is definitely excessive. 

And, every few weekends we would sprinkle in the Argentinian Steakhouse ‘El Gaucho’, which also was conducive for a big night out. A night at El Gaucho would also ring in around USD $150. This would sometimes encompass 500 gram steaks, pitchers of sangria, apple pie vodka shots, lobster bisques, and assorted tartars. 

From there, Thursdays typically devolved into a ‘Bui Vien’ night. If you are not familiar with Bui Vien, just know that it is Ho Chi Minh’s backpacker street and home to countless bars blasting bass-thumping music while serving up beer towers and nitrous balloons. Between the likes of Miss Saigon Pub, The Chicken Coop or Hen House, TnR Saigon (for craft beer and quality DJs), The View (a great rooftop bar), Ong Cao Craft Beer, and Go2 Bar, this would typically tack on another VND $1,500,000 (USD $65) to $3,000,000 ($130) to my night. 

Add on some late-night food at Nha Hang Tan Hai Van, a bustling Chinese restaurant open 24 hours, and another VND $500,000 (USD $20) to $1,000,000 ($43) can be safely added. 

Friday

For me, Thursday nights in Saigon were typically far bigger nights out for me than the weekend because this is generally when a great mix of my buddies were keen to congregate. Friday was typically an extremely unproductive recovery day, accompanied by a somewhat decent dinner. I’m a huge sushi fan, so more often than not, you could generally find me posted up at one of Saigon’s countless sushi bars or restaurants, scarfing down Dragon Rolls and salmon belly sashimi. 

My good buddy and I found an absolute godsend for sushi in Ho Chi Minh over at Nhan Sushi-Bito (right near the towering Bitexco). Several salmon sashimi platters, two specialty rolls, and five or six individual nigiri sushi rolls generally ran me anywhere from VND $800,000 (USD $35) to $1,500,000 ($65). 

Another spot on my Friday restaurant list was the German restaurant ‘Gartenstadt’. Surprisingly, I didn’t really drink here much because I often went alone. A plate of German fried dumplings in a to-die-for mushroom sauce (I’d drink it if I could), jaegerschnitzel (my political affiliation is pro-schnitzel), and soft drink would cost just around VND $500,000 (USD $21). 

Occasionally, I would be dragged out (that’s a lie, I would more than happily go) to a bar close by, or sometimes would even make the trek out to District 2 for a few post-dinner pints at Buddha Bar – an expat watering hole and institution.  

Saturday 

A night out at Biển Dương with some beers and snails!

While Saturday was not generally as big a night out as Thursday was, it usually escalated into a night a bit wilder than I would have liked (I lied again, I liked it). I commonly went out with a few Vietnamese friends on Saturday, so we would mostly stick to local BBQ or seafood restaurants – sometimes we would head to Saigon’s Little Japan Town to start the night at an izakaya as well. As you can guess, local spots are exponentially cheaper than the Western breweries and steakhouses. 

Three Vietnamese seafood and BBQ restaurants we would start our night out at included:

• 5KU Station: This is probably one of the most popular BBQ spots in all of Saigon (for locals and foreigners alike). The beers are cheap (under USD $1), quality of meat and seafood is better-than-average, and you can bet your ass that you will be covered in sweat at some point from hovering over your personal grill. 
• Lau De: A GYOG (grill your own goat) BBQ joint where the beers are a plenty (and usually warm) and the atmosphere is electric. 
• Nha Hang Bien Duong: A classic Vietnamese seafood restaurant that boasts everything from snails and most shellfish, to grilled fish, all the way to frogs and pork intestine. This is as local as it gets.     

Of course this isn’t an exhaustive list. There were plenty of spots similar to this (extremely local Vietnamese restaurants) that frankly, I have no idea what they were called. The above three just happen to be some of the most popular. For these types of restaurants, my buddies and I would typically rotate between paying. For a group of five or six, which included countless beers each, your fill of any type of seafood, and sides galore, the bill would usually come out to around VND $1,200,000 (USD $52) to $2,000,000 ($85). The above restaurants can all be done for far cheaper as well, depending on how much you drink, where you order any specialty seafood, and of course, how much you order.

One note about any local Vietnamese restaurant that has beer attendants or servers (you’ll often have a person donning clothing with a beer logo such as Heineken), don’t forget to tip them. They spend your entire meal refreshing and refilling your drinks. 

Post-Vietnamese BBQ, you could usually find me and my group heading to a rooftop bar, such as Broma Not a Bar or The Observatory. If we were particularly boozed up and looking to escalate the night, that usually involved throwing back a few cocktails at Social Club Saigon, Chill Skybar, or SkyXX Garden & Lounge. Depending on how I was feeling, this could cost me anywhere from VND $1,000,000 (USD $43) to $3,000,000 ($130). 

Make sure to check out my guide to the best rooftop bars in Saigon!

Sunday

As you could have probably guessed from my article on the best brunch spots in Saigon, Sunday was Big Body’s brunch bonanza. After exploring and testing countless brunch spots, I then usually rotated through my key five:

• Au Parc
• Park Hyatt Saigon
• Restaurant Social Club Saigon
• The Deck Saigon
• L’Usine

My brunch range was anywhere from VND $1,000,000 (USD $43) to $2,000,000 ($86). 

The rest of my Sundays were then spent preparing for the new week, and I would typically order from one of the aforementioned delivery restaurants to cap the night off (USD $10-$25). 

Final Total & Thoughts

Calculating the grand total in USD seems a bit more manageable, so I’m just going to go with that. Once again, I am including rent in this total. These calculations aren’t perfect by any means, but the below average (multiplied by four) is a good ballpark of what I spent per month while living in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. 

Big Body’s Weekly Estimated Spending Total in Ho Chi Minh:

Low End: USD $600 – 700

High End: USD $1,000 – $1,200

Average: USD $875

Keep in mind that this schedule and cost estimate did often fluctuate. And, it was never set-in-stone that I wouldn’t have a big night out on a Monday or Tuesday, or even occasionally stay in on a Thursday night. Sometimes I would have cheaper weeks than the low end, sometimes a tad higher than the high end.

Best,

-Big Body