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Comment by alphabettsy | Hacker News Reader

Does the proximity of a Hard Rock Cafe count?

Not necessarily. There is a Hard Rock Cafe right next to the main train station and major mall in Warsaw, and I wouldn't call that mall touristic. It's just a nice mall, as far as malls go.

I think Hard Rock Cafe exists to keep those tourists away from the other places.

(Though I've only been in one once, when my friend's band played a gig.)

Considering it was the first such place in Poland, it's sort of a tourist trap in and of itself.

Or was. Never been there, because 25PLN for a beer was an outrageous sum at the time.

There’s a Hard Rock cafe in Wrocław charging 2x the price of every other restaurant. From memory 70PLN for a burger. And yet it’s always full. I genuinely don’t understand.

Many tourist are really scared of trying something they don't know.

Sure, but I wouldn’t call the area an ugly mass tourism zone. That would be more the Old Town.

As a tourist who has been to said mall, it is a pretty damn nice mall, maybe the nicest I've been to.

(I didn't go to the mall for touristic reasons, I just wanted to grab a bite after arriving in Warsaw by train.)

Seattle had a Hard Rock Cafe for a couple of decades. I never saw anyone go there before, seems like most of the tourists just stand in line waiting to visit the first Starbucks.

The Hard Rock Cafe in Saigon, before it closed down, was actually kind of fun (where else would you hear a live Rock coverband in Vietnam?) and the food was decent.

> where else would you hear a live Rock coverband in Vietnam

Acoustic Bar and Yoko Cafe in D3

So that’s where they ended up?

Maybe? I was never in Saigon when the Hard Rock Cafe was around. That said, D3 has an amazing arts and culture scene. Lots of hip cafes, art shows, and popups. Plus, because of the large Viet Kieu community back in California, a lot of cultural interchange occurs between the two.

D3 is the locals "wealthy" area going back to post war days. Many homes there were gifted by the government as a reward. It is indeed a really nice part of town. My partners family lives on Tu Xuong street.

Yep! It does have the posh stereotype.

Though it does feel like a lot of energy is moving away from D1/D3 and towards D2/D7 as there's similarly priced property that is newer.

D7 is for the wealthy Koreans who come over and manage the factories. There isn’t really much else there, but the mall and a bunch of wannabe stuff.

D2 is for the wealthier western expats to ride around without helmets.

D1 is just… well… downtown.

I spent a lot of time exploring literally all of Saigon (and a lot of the rest of the country as well). More so than most locals really. There isn’t a corner in Saigon that I haven’t been to many times.

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