Joe's Art Cafe

Personal taste, of course, counts for a lot when you are assessing a town’s options for after-hours action and, for some, Nha Trang’s numerous late-opening, late-closing backpacker bars and pronounced edge of sleaze win it bonus points over Mui Ne.

In our experience, however, the formula of laid-back beach bars with a smattering of options for more prolonged debauchery gives Mui Ne a unique vibe that ranks up there among the best in the country.

Indeed, its eclecticism really counts in Mui Ne’s favour.  On my first visit to the resort in February of 2010, my first port of call was Sangkara, where I was to ease the relative pain of a fairly mixed round at Ocean Dunes with several expertly mixed Mojitos. On that occasion, I left with the impression that I had stumbled upon Vietnam’s Ibiza – an easy mistake to make having spent the night supping cocktails in smart, comfortably upholstered booths while listening to Balearic beats and watching lithe, tanned bodies get into the party spirit in the venue’s swimming pool.

Sangkara, however, is only part of the story here. Of course, the presence of booming backpacker and kiteboarding scenes means that opportunities to join the party are myriad. For unabashed liveliness, the current favourites are Wax and Pogo. The former enjoys a prime beachfront location on the main strip and could be best described as the trashy ying to Sangkara’s opulent yang, while the latter is a little more bohemian with pool tables, bean bags and great drink deals making it an ideal hangout after another gilded day.

One of my personal favourites is Joe’s Art Café.  Normally you’d expect a place that prides itself on never closing to be full of dead-eyed party animals. Not so here. Vermont native Joe and his Vietnamese wife Thao have converted a crumbling old villa into a place where good live music, good food and good times are served up in ample portions.

There are many more strings to Mui Ne’s nightlife bow that the venues I have selected here. Why not try Hoa Vien for some authentic Czech microbrews or Jibes for a leisurely drink with the kitesurfing crowd?  There’s no lack of options or variety and there’s certainly no need to take an early night.

Grilling clams and crabs at Bo Ke restaurant

The bounty of fresh morsels offered up by the East Sea in this part of Vietnam may seem limitless, but it’s not always treated with the respect it deserves by the area’s restaurateurs. Indeed, on my numerous previous visits to the area, I tend to fixate on the truly memorable seafood feasts — like the one I experienced along the road in Phan Thiet, at one of the local restaurants that line the estuary. What a feed that was. A smorgasbord of swimmer crab, giant grilled shrimp, and a jellyfish salad given crunch by the presence of lotus flower stems and zing by a zesty blend of limejuice, fish sauce and chilli and then washed down with bottles of ice-cold Saigon Red. Delicious.

The range of dining options is greater in Mui Ne, but for quite some time I had failed to equal my momentous evening in Phan Thiet. The provenance of the seafood is beyond doubt, yet the glistening offerings displayed on ice outside the strip’s many restaurants can be interchangeable and perhaps rendered humdrum by careless cooking, inflated tourist prices and disappointingly cheesy atmospherics.

I had just about given up hope when a chance encounter with a drunken Australian acquaintance – who needs the Lonely Planet when you can call upon inebriated Antipodeans – threw up the name of Bo Ke. “Best place in town,” he slurred enthusiastically in the general direction of my girlfriend and I. Turns out he was right.

The restaurant (or quan in Vietnamese parlance) is situated on the right hand side at the northern end of the strip quite a way beyond the thick of the action. It would be tempting to call it basic due to its low, low prices and utilitarian concrete tables, but the al-fresco setting adjacent to the waves actually provides it with one of the best ambiences in town, as suited to a romantic feast for two as it is for a rowdy gathering of compadres. There is nothing fancy about the food. Various morsels — including lobster, crab, grouper, snapper and others — are plucked live from a concrete tank out front, grilled or sautéed (perhaps with the addition of a sticky tamarind sauce) then served up with a DIY dipping sauce of fresh lime, salt and pepper.

I’ve eaten there several times now and have had no cause for complaint. Service can be erratic, but never malevolently so, and you probably won’t care so much when you are ordering your third serving of scallops with spring onion and peanuts.

* Photo credit: Sites ‘n Bites