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Vietnam is literally becoming the place to visit in Southeast Asia, and Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City, if you're being formal) is leading the charge. The city's creative scene is absolutely buzzing right now, and if you're after a cocktail experience, Time Out Bangkok has found somewhere pretty special.
We're talking about Ômm Mixology, Vietnam's first mixology concept bar, born from a belief that cocktail culture here could move beyond instant gratification. At Ômm, mixology isn't about theatrics or molecular showmanship. It's a structured dialogue between craft, culture and human connection, where drinks are composed like artworks rather than assembled from recipes. The philosophy is simple but radical for Vietnam's bar scene: less sweetness, more depth. Balance over spectacle. Restraint as a form of expression.
The whole operation is curated by Japanese mixologist Shuzo Nagumo, who's a bit of a legend in the bar world. What sets Nagumo apart isn't just technique, it's culinary thinking. His approach to mixology is fundamentally rooted in kitchen disciplines, treating ingredients with the same respect and precision a chef gives to seasonal produce. This culinary foundation shapes everything at Ômm, from how botanicals are sourced to how flavours are layered, balanced and allowed to speak without interference. You can tell from the moment you walk in that something different is happening here.
In a city that rarely slows down, Ômm feels intentionally restrained, a place where flavour, silence and conversation are given equal weight. It's tucked away on the first floor of a building on one of Saigon's absolutely mental streets, Ho Tung Mau Street. The space itself is conceived as an art gallery merged with a flavour laboratory, where artistic expression and technical experimentation coexist. Light drifts across textured walls, contemporary art hangs in quiet conversation with the room, and every element feels calibrated to support presence rather than distraction. It's a setting that mirrors the drinks: thoughtful, layered, never rushed.
So what makes Ômm different? It's built on three pillars that aren't just brand language, they're felt in every interaction. First is harmony, the balance between tradition and modernity, between sweetness and depth, between restraint and expression. You taste it in cocktails that refuse to pander to sugar cravings, offering instead a more reflective experience. Then connection, the human element that ties culture to art to conversation. This isn't a transactional bar experience. It's about dialogue, between bartender and guest, between Vietnamese terroir and Asian ingredients, between the drinker and their own palate. Finally, innovation, not for its own sake but as a tool to unlock deeper flavour and meaning. Advanced techniques like vacuum distillation and centrifugation serve the story, not the spectacle.
The process starts way before your drink arrives at the table. The Ômm team actually goes out to meet growers, distillers and roasters. They're having conversations with the people who produce the ingredients, learning the stories behind everything that ends up in your glass. Vietnamese produce gets equal billing with premium imports, houjicha from Japan, teas from China and Taiwan, specialty cacao and coffee. Everything is treated as part of the same creative language, and that connection to origin is what gives each drink its emotional weight.
What's really cool is that Ômm has become something of a regional meeting point for Asia's bar community. These guest shifts have quietly turned Ômm into a space where Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai and international bartenders exchange ideas rather than compete. They host monthly Guest Shift events where prominent bartenders from Vietnam and abroad come in and do their thing. It's this spirit of connection that's helped position Ômm not just as a bar, but as a cultural node where cocktail thinking evolves through shared dialogue.
The ingredient sourcing alone is worth talking about. These guys don't just ring up a supplier and order a batch of tea. They physically go and meet the people growing it, roasting it, fermenting it, distilling it. They sit down, have conversations, learn the craft behind each ingredient. Then they take those stories and somehow transform them into drinks. Vietnamese produce gets equal billing with premium imports, houjicha from Japan, teas from China and Taiwan, specialty cacao and coffee. Everything is treated as part of the same creative language.
What's really cool is that Ômm has become something of a regional meeting point for Asia's bar community. These guest shifts have quietly turned Ômm into a space where Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai and international bartenders exchange ideas rather than compete. They host these monthly Guest Shift events where prominent bartenders from Vietnam and abroad come in and do their thing. So if you're a regular or even just lucky with your timing, you might catch something really special.
Right, let's talk about the actual drinks because that's why we're here. The cocktails are built around tea, cacao and coffee, each menu reading like a different philosophical chapter. The tea cocktails deserve particular attention, a curated quartet representing four distinct origins: Taiwan, China, Japan and Vietnam. These aren't fusion drinks. They're respectful translations of terroir into liquid form, where each origin is given space to speak.
If you need somewhere to start, get the Lishan nectar. This drink begins with high mountain Taiwanese tea from 2,400 metres above sea level, gently infused into Bacardi white rum. Pear and honey puree adds soft sweetness, elderflower liqueur brings a light note and Ômm's signature rancio syrup anchors everything with lingering complexity. The finish is floral, restrained and entirely lovely. It's the kind of drink that asks you to slow down.
The roasted Newton fizz is rooted in slow roasted Japanese hojicha, which gives you this warm, smoky aroma. Ripe apples are clarified through centrifugation to extract only the clearest essence, then sous vide techniques unfold the sweet, mellow aromas slowly. A delicate cloud of white chocolate espuma floats on top. It's a study in textural harmony.
Then there's white fleur, which leads with Chinese white tea from mountaintop gardens. Elderflower, grey goose pear vodka, lemon juice, lychee and a hint of muscat grape all join in, bound together by Ômm's secret syrup. It's soft, juicy and lands like sunlight through curtains. Bright, graceful, balanced.
Rounding out the tea quartet is Primitive, which honours Vietnam's own tea traditions through a contemporary lens. It's a drink that speaks to place, rooted in local terroir yet refined through Ômm's methodology, bringing the collection full circle from Taiwan back to Vietnam itself.
What's refreshing about Ômm is that it manages to be serious without being stuffy. The team clearly knows their stuff and the techniques are advanced, but there's no pretension. What you feel instead is intention. The belief that cocktails can offer something beyond immediate pleasure, that they can be contemplative, that Vietnamese drinkers are ready for flavours that challenge rather than simply satisfy.
Ômm exists because someone believed cocktail culture in Vietnam could grow beyond overly sweet, chemically driven drinks into something more thoughtful. It's where harmony, connection and innovation aren't marketing pillars, they're the lived experience of every evening. Saigon's got plenty of places to drink, but Ômm is doing something genuinely different. It's where you go when you want the cocktail experience rather than just cocktails. When you care about the story behind what you're drinking as much as the drink itself. Ômm isn't chasing trends. It's quietly building a language of its own, one drink at a time.
Ômm Mixology is at 1/Floor, 63 Ho Tung Mau Street, District 1. It's open Tuesday to Sunday from 5pm to midnight. Find them on Instagram at @ommmixology, on Facebook at Ômm Mixology or check out ommmixology.com or call (+84) 83 788 1010 for more info.