During my trip in Da Lat, I paid a visit to a brother of mine who had relocated to the city in early 2022 to work in the field of lodging. On a day off, we enjoy breakfast and coffee together, as is customary, a feature that has grown ingrained in Vietnamese society because they can drink every day at any time. He took me to a cafe he believed I would enjoy because of my open-air lifestyle. This city, by the way, has a big number of open cafes and is gorgeous due to the city's tourism dynamism and its location on low and mild valleys and hills. As a result, having high-ranking and eye-catching cafes is simple.
We had to hike up a tiny incline to get to the top, which was rather narrow, so we parked at the bottom and went up. Meli, which means "infatuation with something" in Vietnamese, is the name of the coffeehouse. Because I don't see the interior area save for the preparation area and the toilet, it belongs to the garden coffee style. Maybe they want everyone to be able to use the space. But it's also lovely because I get a sense of nostalgia as soon as I walk in due of the rusticity and calm. We were the only ones there, as you can see, because it was already 11 a.m., not a good time to be out and possibly because the sun scared them. Now I see why my friend suggested I'd enjoy this location because he knows how much I enjoy quiet and privacy. Greetings, friend!
I order a traditional milk latte for myself. What exactly does that imply? When there were few contemporary coffee makers available, Vietnamese people would use an aluminum cup with small holes drilled bottom (similar to a filter bag) and a little aluminum plate underneath as a filter. They'd put ground roasted ground coffee in an aluminum cup, pour boiling water in it, close the top, and wait. Coffee will be trickled down the cup after being filtered carefully through two layers. It usually takes a long time, approximately 5 to 10 minutes, so the taste is slightly different and the process is intriguing. It's entertaining to watch each drop of coffee drip, waiting to be savored. It has a bitter but fragrant flavor, and you can taste the true essence of coffee. Nowadays, a lot of places still utilize this approach because it takes a long time to wait, therefore it gives me a nostalgic sense when I come here.
Here it is decorated quite nicely, the wooden tables and chairs are very simple and small, arranged separately from each other into small garden plots. Flowers and plants are arranged around alternately to create the feeling of sitting in a small garden. The tables are near the fence with the view below they only use a long wooden board as the table and the high chairs create the best conditions to enjoy the view below and beyond the hill.
The owner of this restaurant has two beautiful pets. A rabbit and a gray cat (imported type). The rabbit is not afraid of people and just runs and jumps, and the cat is cold and unapproachable, I can't capture its eye color directly because they are really beautiful.
Foreigners, according to my buddy, love the closed, modern restaurant design with many glass doors, open space, and an unusual plant arrangement. When there is more mental ease, I believe it is much more pleasurable to converse with people outside. Another intriguing feature is that it is adjacent to a tiny bookstore with hundreds of books in both Korean and Japanese (which were published quite a while ago). A place where you can borrow and read a book while sipping a drink.
What are your thoughts about this cafe? You can use the selection if you are traveling in Da Lat. It's located at 2 Dang Thai Than Street in Da Lat City's Ward 3.