Anan Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Anan Saigon is a contemporary Vietnamese restaurant at 89 Ton That Dam in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, set directly inside the Chợ Cũ old market. It is designed for diners who want a polished, chef-led interpretation of Vietnamese street and regional food rather than a casual market meal. The restaurant’s strongest appeal is the contrast between its setting and its cooking: a narrow urban “tube house” rises above an active wet-market environment, while the menu reframes familiar Vietnamese flavors through modern technique. The decisive limitations are equally important. Dinner is the only service, reservations are strongly recommended, children under 12 are not accommodated, and the restaurant itself states that the walk-up building is not suitable for wheelchair users or guests who require step-free access.

The location is central but intentionally unlike the lobby-and-valet environment of a conventional fine-dining hotel. Anan describes itself as part of Chợ Cũ Tôn Thất Đạm, one of Saigon’s old wet markets, and the surrounding produce stalls and narrow shopfronts are part of the context the restaurant uses to explain its food. Inside, the vertical building concentrates several concepts: Anan occupies the core dining floors, the Nhau Nhau cocktail bar sits above, and a rooftop dining bar provides an elevated view over the city centre. This layered layout can make an evening feel more like moving through a compact hospitality house than sitting in one large dining room, but it also means stairs are integral to the experience.

Chef Peter Cuong Franklin’s cooking is rooted in Vietnamese food culture but presented through the lens of his international training. The restaurant says he was born and raised in Dalat, trained at Le Cordon Bleu, and worked in restaurants including Caprice in Hong Kong, Alinea in Chicago and Nahm in Bangkok. His stated approach, “New Vietnamese Cuisine,” uses local ingredients and techniques learned abroad without trying to erase the identity of the original dishes. That idea is visible in the menu structure: the food is recognizable by name and flavor references, but the form, portioning and presentation are often far removed from a street stall or family table.

At the time checked, Anan offered two principal tasting menus plus an à la carte menu. The shorter Saigon Tasting Menu focuses on modern interpretations of recognizable dishes, while the longer Chef Peter’s menu is framed as a culinary journey through regions of Vietnam. The restaurant also lists signatures such as Bánh Xèo Taco, Đà Lạt street-style pizza, Mekong Delta fish, cơm tấm Saigon and fish-sauce ice cream. This is useful to know before booking because the choice is not simply between “Vietnamese” and “Western” food; the experience depends on whether you enjoy reinterpretation, small-course pacing and playful references to everyday dishes.

The tasting-menu format requires more planning than the à la carte option. Pre-booking is required for tasting menus, with published seatings at 17:30 and 20:30, and everyone at the same table must choose the same tasting menu. The restaurant asks guests to state dietary restrictions when reserving and suggests booking around two weeks ahead. Those rules make Anan better suited to travelers who can commit to an evening in advance than to visitors making spontaneous dining decisions after sightseeing. The à la carte menu provides more flexibility, but availability should still be confirmed because the restaurant is compact and its reputation can make popular dates difficult.

Cost is firmly in the special-occasion category by local standards. When checked, the official booking page listed the Saigon Tasting Menu at US$115 food only and the longer Chef Peter’s Tasting Menu at US$145 food only, with optional wine or zero-alcohol pairings priced separately. These are current published figures rather than permanent tariffs, so they should be rechecked when reserving. For travelers comparing Anan with high-end restaurants in hotels or tasting-menu venues elsewhere in the city, the value proposition is not large portions or low prices; it is the combination of a market setting, a recognizable Vietnamese flavor vocabulary and a highly structured contemporary dining format.

Anan opens for dinner from 17:00 Tuesday through Sunday and closes on Monday. The official site describes service as continuing “to late” rather than publishing a fixed closing time. If you choose a tasting menu, the fixed seating already determines your arrival. For à la carte dining, arriving near the start of dinner service gives more time to settle in and, if desired, have a drink before or after the meal. There is no formal dress code, which fits the market location, but this should not be confused with a casual drop-in restaurant: reservation procedures and menu commitments are more formal than the clothing policy.

Finding the restaurant is straightforward once you are on Ton That Dam Street, but the old-market environment is busy and the entrance is part of a narrow building rather than a freestanding destination complex. Use the exact street number, 89 Ton That Dam, and allow a little extra time to orient yourself inside the market block. The restaurant’s own accessibility warning should be taken seriously: guests who cannot manage stairs should contact the restaurant before booking rather than assume an elevator or alternate entrance exists. Families should also note the minimum dining age of 12.

A visit works best when treated as the main evening activity rather than squeezed between other plans. A tasting-menu dinner can reasonably occupy roughly two to three hours, while an à la carte meal may be shorter depending on ordering and pace. The surrounding central District 1 location makes it easy to continue the evening elsewhere, but Anan’s market context is already part of the experience, so there is value in arriving without rushing and noticing how the restaurant relates to the neighborhood outside.

The restaurant will appeal most to diners interested in how contemporary chefs reinterpret Vietnamese food without abandoning its core ingredients and references. Travelers looking for inexpensive traditional dishes, a quick family meal, or fully step-free access should choose another venue. For those comfortable with the price and reservation structure, Anan offers a distinctive way to encounter modern Ho Chi Minh City dining: not separated from the street in a luxury enclave, but placed directly above and within one of the city’s old market environments.