A princess' retreat in Ho Chi Minh city

The Princess & The Pea Café is the place for dreamers in Ho Chi Minh city.

The café is located on a small, quiet alley off Pasteur street. Just when you feel like you've gotten lost in the labyrinth, the cafe appears like a magic.

As the name would suggest, the place is a theme-café featuring everything about the fairy tale "Princess & The Pea".

It is a very popular place, especially for young people. During a busy weekday, its nice to take a break in this magic world with magic chopsticks and flying carpets.

The walls that line the dark staircases tell the story of the lovely princess.

Once up the stairs, the cafe is cozily divided into three rooms connected by large doors and a low window that almost reaches the floor.

Customers sit on cushions on the floor, surrounding small wooden tables. Fresh flowers adorn each table, bird cage decorations hang from the ceilings and white curtains over the windows all make for a very pretty cafe, but the fairy tale paintings on the wall make it a bit "girlie".

In the corner is a pile of small mattresses and next to that a small library corner where customers can read by the light of an Aladdin-style lamp.

And at the end of the room, there is another tiny staircase leading to a seemingly forgotten garden, where pink roses charm with the roofs of Saigon in the distance.

From there, I could see half-open windows and lazy cats. Life in this busy part of District one suddenly seemed to have a slower pace.

The Princess & The Pea café offers a variety of diverse teas such as Oolong (VND35,000), ginger (VND30,000), Tra Rau Bap (corn herb tea-VND30,000), lotus tea (VND30,000), and salted lemon (VND35,000).

There is also a long Yogurt menu with mixes that include Aloe vera (VND40,000) and strawberry (VND50,000). There are several fresh fruit juice options such as grape fruit with honey, lemon and ginger (VND42,000), strawberry and passion fruit (VND50,000); plus smoothies, cocktails and mocktails.

The café also serves light food such as baked sandwiches with peanut butter or strawberry jam (VND30,000), chocolate cheese cake (VND35,000), Tiramisu (VND40,000), and fried fish balls (VND30,000).

The café has stand-up comedy on Friday night each week (from 8.30pm to 10.15 pm) plus live music on Wednesdays.

Princess & The Pea cafe
63/85 Pasteur Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

By To Van Nga