Banh Mi – Vietnamese Rolls

Join the queue but you’ll get fast service here. Lovely fresh food

If you have had a look at my Unilocal profile, you will notice that I have a thing for Banh mi. Oh yes, crunchy rolls, wonderfully flavoured meat and pickled veggies. A winning combination. I think that is my favourite thing about Vietnamese Food, balance of flavour, fresh and vibrancy.
Banh mi — Vietnamese Rolls is the star in the Adelaide CBD. If you want quality, you have found it. The rolls are always fresh, the vegetables are perfectly pickled and the meat is oh so tasty.
Now, I have tried the crispy pork, lemongrass chicken & tofu banh mi. Also some of the salad bowls and Vietnamese coffee. Yes, I am a fan girl. My favourite? Well… the crispy pork of course. The pork crackling is salty and crunchy. The pork is full of flavour and spice. Perfection! Great portioning of ingredients as well. I also love the tofu banh mi. Great option for vegos and carnivores. It has a lovely tomato based marinate flavour, paired with the pickled veg goes down a treat!
As for the service, it is fast, friendly and consistent. The owner is very passionate about his work and is at the front of the production line getting to know his customers.
Be sure to check them out on a Monday to get your Vietnamese coffee special which will keep you going through the day. It packs a punch!

Quick and friendly service. Decent prices and a good range of options in your banh mi. The cold rolls are good too. I wasn’t as captured by the noodle salad but it’s definitely ok. The fit out is interesting and tidy if you want to eat in. One if my favourite lunchtime places in Adelaide at the moment.

I’ve been here a few times and I just wish it was down my end of town!
The rolls are fresh and packed with meat and salad. Also when you ask for extra chilli, they actually give you extra chilli!
The Vietnamese Ice Coffees are awesome too. Really strong and nice and sweet.

Andy is so attentive and welcoming when you place your order, service is fast for the lunch trade, just got to as everyone seems to be in a hurry, short lunch hour break is just not on! Loosen up employers!
A couple of specials worth mentioning are the $ 2 iced coffee on Mondays and the meal deal of bahn mi with coffee at $ 9/​$ 10 which makes it a very reasonable priced lunch.
I have tried a couple of fillings choices and my favorite being TL combination, the filling is well filled and the lightly pickled carrots are just right, with the cue, coriander and chilli form part of the filling, the bahn mi is a well balanced meal. Perhaps it may not be your 2 & 5 but definitely you are half way there.
The roast pork with crispy skin is really crunchy and tasty, one of the best bahn mi in the city.
Will have to revisit for the bún one day as there are a few different sauces on offer.
The ready wrapped rice rolls are generous size, looks like that will have wait till another visit.
The ambience of the café is great and the shared tables reminded me so much of those in vietnam and the mural on one wall makes you feel as though you could be sitting by the roadside in Vietnam. Just wished they could reduce the height of the shared table by taking away one of the stools? With shorter stools, that will complete the Vietnamese side street scene?! Perhaps that may not go down well with the ‘tall’ customers.
Well done Andy!

Love Banh Mi rolls for lunch, simply perfect EVERY time! Wholemeal Chicken with the lot including chilli please! Service is exceptional, always friendly — even when there is a line up out the door! Definitely a lunch to recommend.

I was lured in by the sign promising $ 2 Vietnamese iced coffee (Mondays only!), and I ended up getting the coffee plus two banh mi sandwiches to go. Standard banh mi selections are $ 5.90, premium ones $ 7.50, but still competitive with Subway and twice as delicious.
They have a small selection of other things on the menu, like rice noodle bowls. Lots of indoor and outdoor seating.

Dang.
Do you know what happens when you venture south of Rundle St?
You will cry, you will laugh, you will be merry.
The chili, the spices, the meats, the rolls. and all for a decently priced 6 and change per roll will take you for a spin.
the staff don’t care about you (and why should they? you should bow when you walk in! that’s how good this place is). Sit outside and munch away while you trample on pigeons, or sit inside in the shade and bustle of the place.
Question is, why are you reading this and not buying a roll as we speak?
David, I owe you one!

Having missed the family long-​weekend roast pork lunch yesterday, I had a hankering for some tasty pork and good ol’ fashioned ‘almost crack the teeth’ crunchy crackling. I decided to go past Banh mi on my lunchtime walk, having been made aware of a Tuesday special that had been on, $ 5 per roll. I should note that I did pass a couple of other Banh Mi joints to go there, so expectations were high!
Although this special seems to now have ended, I nevertheless decided to brave the line, which by mid lunchtime was already out the door. I had Banh Mi banh mis (haha a bit confusing!) at work a few weeks ago, when our receptionist ordered a selection of tasty treats from BM for one of our inter-​office lunchtime seminars. They were good then, and they are still good today.
I checked my watch. 1.23pm. A fairly sizeable lineup, I thought. I like to give places a shot at proving they deserve repeat patronage despite the lineup and BM smashed it. 7 minutes in and out. For a takeaway lunch joint in the CBD, I’d expect under 10 minutes. If not, either the food is REALLY good, or you’re taking the mickey. Anyway, they got my order spot on (I specifically asked for extra hot chilli, which I got) and the service comes with a smile (although you could blame them for not being friendly, everyone behind the counter seems to be working really hard).
Once I made the short walk back to my office, I plowed into the spring rolls. Nice and crunchy, warm but not too hot, and a good core (also, extra bonus — BM give you a choice of sauces to have with your Springies. Not everywhere in CBD does that).
The banh mi roll itself was really well balanced. By balanced, I don’t just mean flavour, I also mean the physical location of all of the ingredients. It seems like such a small thing, but if you’re taking huge bites and getting nothing but carrot or coriander or chilli and no meat, you haven’t built the sandwich well enough (I’m looking at you, other popular banh mi joint in the CBD whose name I won’t mention!).
The bread had good crunch (not great, mind you, but good), the meats were warm and tasty, not too fatty and the salads were of perfect proportion.
All in all, despite missing the daily discount, I was very happy with my decision to eat here. I will certainly return, hopefully next time I can catch one of their specials! Thanks Banh mi!
Final side note, they do take EFTPOS, but there is a 25c surcharge for orders under $ 15. A good excuse to get your mate to pay — and if not it’s worth it anyway!

Banh Mi is so much more than my initial thoughts (a big white roll with fillings aka a Vietnamese subway).
My fellow diner was experienced, so I followed suit with a chicken roll with the lot, light on the chili. Thinking all the while how big it was and how I’d never finish it, half way through I was reveling in its explosion of flavor and knew then none of it was ever going to reach a take home bag.
I’m craving that taste again just writing the review, so it won’t be long before I’m back on cheap BM Tuesday when they’re only $ 5!

After professing my love for the Vietnamese rolls (Banh Mi) from Daily Choice, someone suggested that I try the rolls from Banh Mi in Grenfell Plaza, just off Grenfell Street. Not one to shy away from a challenge, especially one concerning food, I decided to make that my Tuesday lunch stop.
The good news is that at the moment every Tuesday is $ 5 day, that’s right, you can get a fresh roll for just $ 5.
There are 10 roll options on the menu, so choosing one wasn’t easy, but if I was to compare to the Daily Choice version, it would make sense to go the chicken version so that’s exactly what I did.
These rolls come with the traditional Vietnamese mayonnaise (as opposed to butter from Daily Choice), while you have the option of adding chilli, coriander or both to your roll. All rolls come with pickled carrot, cucumber and lettuce.
I didn’t have long for lunch, so I grabbed my roll to take away and rushed back to the office to sit down and enjoy.
The flavour of the chicken was outstanding, it tastes as if it was cooked over charcoal, though I believe this is not the case. The roll was large and extra crunchy, just how I like it and it was quite filing, not to mention delicious.
I’m still going to lean towards the Lemongrass Chicken roll from Daily Choice as my favourite, but this is a serious competitor and a roll that I would definitely be happy to eat again. Banh Mi also do Noodle Salad and Rice Paper Rolls if that’s what you’re after, and after enjoying my roll so much, I think I might be back to try those in the not to distant future.
I’d happily eat the rolls here anytime and while they remain $ 5 on Tuesdays, I may have found my Tuesday lunch spot!

Adelaide’s obsession with Banh Mi has always escaped me. Like seriously people, it’s a roll with some cold meat and limited salad stuffed inside.
But the other day I wrapped my hands around a crispy white baguette which flattened and proceeded to explode crisp white bread flakes as soon as I bit into it and I understood. So much so I had a craving for banh mi today and just had to return to my first love.
Like that guy you never got over in high school, this place has me eying off their peppery cold chicken roll with fresh whole chunks of chilli, corriander, carrot, a slice of cucumber and some amazing peanut sauce in a dreamy daze. All the other menu items just blend into insignificance to me as I see them stuffing their big, fat, white rolls with ingredients.
However, the Mama’s Fried Tofu Vermicelli Salad did catch my eye today as someone was hoeing into one whilst I was sitting at their communal wooden table in the middle of the store. I almost was swayed to change sides, but decided against it and continued to scoff my bahn mi. Maybe lust will get the better of me one day though.
There is always a line up at lunch time and yet you are seemingly served within 5 minutes each time. At $ 7.50 a roll and with a little cutie behind the counter serving me I don’t think I will ever go anywhere else to get «my banh me fix». Adelaidians, I now understand you implicitly.