Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Book before the star raises the stakes.
CieL earned a Michelin star in 2025 under Chef Viet Hong, and with a 4.9 Google rating from 91 reviews, it is already one of the hardest tables to secure in Ho Chi Minh City. At ₫₫₫₫ in the residential Thảo Điền neighbourhood, this is the right choice for a food-focused special occasion dinner — book well in advance and treat the reservation as the anchor of your trip.
CieL earned its Michelin star in 2025, and the 91 Google reviews averaging 4.9 stars tell you the room was already full before the guide arrived. If you are planning to eat here in the next four to six weeks, expect to find nothing available at peak times. This is a hard booking. Treat it accordingly: lock in a date as far out as your plans allow, and build your trip around the reservation rather than the other way around.
CieL sits in Thảo Điền, the quieter residential pocket of Thủ Đức on the eastern side of Ho Chi Minh City — a deliberate remove from the tourist circuit in Districts 1 and 3. Chef Viet Hong runs an innovative menu at the ₫₫₫₫ tier, which puts this squarely in the upper bracket of what you'll spend at a single sitting in this city. That price point needs to earn its place, and by the evidence of the 2025 Michelin recognition, it does.
The Thảo Điền address also signals something about the restaurant's intended experience: this is not a walk-in-on-a-whim venue. The neighbourhood is calm, relatively low-traffic, and well-suited to a longer, more deliberate meal. For a food-focused traveller who wants to understand what Vietnamese fine dining looks like when it pushes past convention, CieL makes a compelling case. For someone who wants a quick dinner between activities, look elsewhere.
CieL's Michelin star and ₫₫₫₫ pricing suggest a restaurant built around a formal evening format, and dinner is almost certainly the fuller expression of what Chef Viet Hong is doing here. The innovative cuisine category implies a tasting menu structure or at minimum a multi-course format, where the kitchen has room to sequence dishes with intent , and that experience reads most clearly at dinner, when there is no time pressure and the pacing can be controlled.
Lunch, if offered, is worth considering for a specific reason: at ₫₫₫₫ pricing, a shorter midday format could represent meaningful value if it gives access to the same kitchen at a lower spend. Michelin-starred venues in Southeast Asia that offer lunch menus frequently price them at 40–60% of the dinner equivalent. If CieL runs a lunch service, it is worth checking whether a condensed version is available , you get the technique and the address without the full evening outlay. That said, the restaurant's location in Thảo Điền, away from the business lunch circuit, suggests dinner is the primary service and where you should direct your booking energy.
For a special occasion, dinner is the correct choice. For a first visit on a budget, check whether a lunch option exists before assuming the full ₫₫₫₫ spend is unavoidable. The distinction matters more here than at a standard à la carte restaurant.
The 2025 star is recent, and that recency matters. A restaurant in its first Michelin cycle is often at its most focused , the kitchen is operating with the discipline that earned the recognition, not yet coasting on it. Booking CieL now, in the period immediately following its star, is a reasonable time to go. The energy in a newly starred room is typically different from one that has held the accolade for years, and that difference usually favours the diner.
Chef Viet Hong's innovative approach places CieL in a category that includes a small number of Vietnamese restaurants willing to move beyond direct tradition. Compared to what [Å by T.U.N.G](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/-by-tung-ho-chi-minh-city-restaurant) has done in establishing a tasting-menu register for Vietnamese fine dining, CieL occupies similar territory and merits serious consideration from anyone building a food-focused itinerary in the city. Visitors who have already eaten at [Akuna](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/akuna-ho-chi-minh-city-restaurant) or [Nén Light](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/nn-light-ho-chi-minh-city-restaurant) will find CieL a natural next step in the same conversation about where Vietnamese cooking is heading.
Ho Chi Minh City is producing serious restaurants at a rate that has outpaced the expectations of most regional food observers, and CieL is part of that momentum. If your Vietnam trip includes other cities, the comparisons are useful: [Hibana by Koki in Hanoi](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/hibana-by-koki-hanoi-restaurant) and [La Maison 1888 in Da Nang](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/la-maison-1888-da-nang-restaurant) represent the fine dining register in their respective cities, but neither is doing exactly what CieL is doing in terms of an innovative Vietnamese frame at this price tier in Saigon specifically.
For context beyond Vietnam, the innovative fine dining category in Seoul , with venues like [alla prima](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/alla-prima-seoul-restaurant) and [Soigné](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/soign-seoul-restaurant) , shows what this format looks like at the Asian regional level. CieL is operating in the same intellectual register, at a price point that remains significantly lower than comparable Seoul equivalents.
Explore the full picture of what the city offers across [our Ho Chi Minh City restaurants guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/ho-chi-minh-city), or extend your planning to [hotels](https://www.joinpearl.co/hotels/ho-chi-minh-city), [bars](https://www.joinpearl.co/bars/ho-chi-minh-city), [wineries](https://www.joinpearl.co/wineries/ho-chi-minh-city), and [experiences](https://www.joinpearl.co/experiences/ho-chi-minh-city) in Ho Chi Minh City.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| CieL | ₫₫₫₫ | Hard | — |
| Anan Saigon | ₫₫ | Unknown | — |
| Coco Dining | ₫₫₫ | Unknown | — |
| Long Trieu | ₫₫₫₫ | Unknown | — |
| Bánh Xèo 46A | ₫ | Unknown | — |
| Bò Kho Gánh | ₫ | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Yes, and it's a strong choice precisely because the Michelin star (2025) arrives with a 4.9 Google average across 91 reviews — the room was delivering before the award confirmed it. The ₫₫₫₫ price point and Chef Viet Hong's innovative format signal a dinner built around intention, which suits anniversaries or milestone meals better than casual celebrations. If your group wants a looser, more social atmosphere, Anan Saigon is a more flexible alternative.
Anan Saigon is the most direct comparison for creative Vietnamese cooking at a high price point, with broader name recognition among international visitors. For something more grounded and local, Bánh Xèo 46A and Bò Kho Gánh operate at a fraction of the cost and deliver their own form of precision. Coco Dining and Long Trieu fill the mid-range gap if ₫₫₫₫ is outside budget but you still want a considered meal.
At ₫₫₫₫ and with a 2025 Michelin star, the tasting menu is the right way to experience CieL — ordering off-format at this kind of restaurant usually undersells the kitchen. The Michelin recognition under Chef Viet Hong points to a coherent culinary perspective that rewards the full sequence. If a multi-course commitment doesn't fit your appetite or schedule, CieL is probably not the right booking; the format is the product.
Specific menu items are not confirmed in available data, and CieL's innovative format under Chef Viet Hong means the menu changes with the kitchen's direction. The safest approach is to follow the chef's menu in full rather than customising — at this price point and star level, the sequence is intentional. check the venue's official channels for current menu details before your visit.
Dress code details are not documented for CieL, but a ₫₫₫₫ Michelin-starred restaurant in Thảo Điền warrants polished, neat attire — think presentable evening wear rather than streetwear. Thảo Điền's residential, low-key character means the dress code is unlikely to be black-tie formal, but arriving underdressed at a restaurant at this level is a straightforward way to misread the room. Confirm expectations when you make your reservation.
For a ₫₫₫₫ tasting menu in Ho Chi Minh City, CieL is one of the harder reservations to argue against right now: a 2025 Michelin star under Chef Viet Hong, a 4.9 Google rating from 91 reviews, and a location in Thảo Điền that filters out casual foot traffic. The value case is strongest if you are specifically looking for innovative, chef-driven cooking at a high standard. If you want Vietnamese flavours without the tasting menu commitment, Anan Saigon or Bánh Xèo 46A offer better value for their respective formats.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
