The Standing Bar - Hanoi, Vietnam

The prevalent beer style in Vietnam is Bia Hoi, which is a light lager, which is sold ice-cold on every street,  in odd little "bars" which are more like the front room of private houses, furnished with primary-school sized plastic tables and chairs.

There are however a couple of what we would identify as proper craft taprooms, the best of which is The Standing Bar. This mostly open-plan bar, with a delightful upstairs terrace with a stunning lake view, serves an excellent variety of mostly Vietnamese modern craft beers, with some imports from elsewhere in SE Asia.

The clientel is mostly Western ex-pats, which is hardly surprising considering the roughly European price levels of the beers. (On one of the nights we were there, there was an excellent stand-up comedy night, with one of the acts hilariously berating the audience for standing there drinking craft beers at 15x the price that we could buy a Beer Hoi across the street!)

The staff were delightful and attentive, and the bar is a wonderful refuge from the incredible heat and bustle of a chaotic Asian mega-city.