Coco Dining

A villa in District 3

Coco Dining occupies a renovated French villa from the early 20th century at 143 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, in District 3 of Ho Chi Minh City. It opened in 2021 as the tasting-menu room of CoCo Saigon, a small complex that also holds a whisky bar, a garden gin bar and the more casual CoCo Grill.

Managing director Daniel Dang founded it with chef Võ Thành Vương and mixologist Đức Trần. Dang has stressed that the project took no foreign investment or outside consultants, and that it is “created and run by Vietnamese people.”

From the fishing coast to the kitchen

Vương was born in Mũi Né and grew up on the coast near Phan Thiết, where he worked as a fisherman before turning to cooking. He moved to Ho Chi Minh City in 2009 and won Top Chef Vietnam in 2019.

He describes his dishes as beginning and ending in memory: “It usually starts with a memory and ends with a memory.” The menu is where that idea is worked out, season by season.

A menu that keeps moving

There is one tasting menu, and it is rebuilt every six to eight months, along with the drink pairings, the décor and the artwork. Michelin describes a seasonal theme carried through the courses like a storyline, with Vietnamese recipes treated with creative licence.

In late 2025 the menu, Lữ Hành, crossed eleven regions of Vietnam in eleven dishes drawn from the chef’s childhood. One of them shows how literal that memory can be: an eel dish first plated in more refined ways ended up in a ceramic French gamelle, because Vương remembered eating eel from a tin lunchbox in the rice paddies. The more delicate plates were finished with flowers and Trà Quế herbs.

Three hours, three rooms

The evening runs to about three hours. It starts with champagne at the bar, moves to a dining room of black stone tables and a kitchen counter, and ends with dessert back at the bar. Plates and serving pieces come from across Vietnam, including work by Cham artisans, alongside a few from abroad.

The drinks follow the same seasonal logic as the food. A wine pairing is drawn from a dedicated wine room, and Đức, who runs CoCo Bar, makes a house non-alcoholic botanical pairing.

Recognition came gradually. Coco Dining won its first Michelin star in 2025, four years after opening, and keeps it in the 2026 Michelin Guide Vietnam, where it is listed as innovative; the Gourmet Vietnam Awards also named it for restaurant design and ambience in 2025. Diners who want à la carte can eat next door at CoCo Grill.

Sources: Michelin Guide; Epicure Vietnam