Kim Thanh Hot Bread

Best pork roll buns. ever!
I dont even like to eat pork. Lady is super nice and cheery

Cheap, tasty food. their pork rolls are delicious.
Unfortunately the customer service is so fake to the point of it being unbearable and I will be sure to avoid this place.

Support local bakeries! Especially this wonderful Vietnamese bakery that has a delicious French /​Australian influence. Kim Thanh is certainly better priced than some of the chain bakeries around and the service here is quick and efficient. It’s wonderful watching the range of customers that visit as well.
The banh mi is delicious and freshly made, and a steal at $ 4 (well, a steal by Australian standards). Make sure to ask for chillies on it though, as it’s not always a given! Their range of sweets can vary, and sometimes have a slightly more Asian influence. I encourage you not to be scared though and try everything out. You won’t regret it.

So this bakery sells all kind of amazeballs pastry and things of loaf like nature but the main reason I visit multiple times a week is for the bánh mì thit.
Sorry — I mean for the french baguette with meat and other lovely ingredients.
But you can just call it bon mee when you order one. Or 2. Anyhow for $ 4 you can have the small which is like a 6 inch or for $ 5 the large which is more like an 8 inch french baguette loaded with tasty goodness. Ingredients include fresh cucumber, coriander, chili peppers, and pickled carrots combined with various meats, mayo and pâté. Oh man I just got hungry.
Anyhow, buy some pastry too.

Kim Thanh’s Hot Bread is a West End gem. The baked goods may look less presentable than those found at chain bakeries, but this doesn’t detract from their deliciousness. My favourite is the Sweet Bread roll, which is exactly what it sounds like, for under $ 1. There are the Vietnamese bakery classics (apple turnovers and Vietnamese bread rolls) along with the regular classics (muffins, cupcakes, meringue worms). There is also a great selection of drinks, from juices to flavoured milks.
Kim Thanh’s Hot Bread is a charming bakery on the corner of a shabby street, but this is all part of its West End charm. The staff are also lovely and helpful, if not a little blunt.
The main downside for me is that often the hot food (pies, sausage rolls) can be slightly luke warm. And if you’re starving, there’s nowhere to sit down unless you’re willing to share the bench beside the bakery with a homeless fellow covered in ravenous pigeons.

If you mention this bakery to a local, they will most likely respond in one of two ways.
The type 1 response is to revere their signature pork rolls, moving into a celebration of Kim Thanh’s midnight special which is their allowing your procurement of baked treats from 12am onward when they are baking for the next business day. There is of course then, the obligatory statement of «it’s so cheap, too».
The type 2 response is to revere their signature pork rolls, celebrate Kim Thanh’s midnight special, and make the obligatory statement: «it’s so cheap, too». The second response will add in a complaint of how rude the counter staff can be sometimes, and ponder openly to themselves about how they find themselves incapable of abandoning Kim Thanh’s even though the bakery has had this eerie sewerage leak smell emanating from it since who can remember when. Along with the type 2 response is often a remark regarding the overly sweet quality of the baked goods on offer.
Even though everything that the type 2 response says is spot on, you’d put all your money in the bank on a bet that says you’ll see them lined up tomorrow buying a loaf of bread or a pork roll. The simple fact is, it’s too cheap not to.

It’s fairly common knowledge among gourmands that unless you have access to a personal French baker, the best way to get a quality baguette in Brisbane is head to one of the Vietnamese bakeries. Decades of French influence in the SE Asian country have rendered their boulangeries tres bien!
Kim Thanh Hot Bread are a fine example of affordable and quality cheap eats in the heart of the cosmopolitan melting pot that is West End. The baguettes are crunchy on the outside with a soft inner which manages to be substantial enough without being either too chewy or too airy. A heated display houses a good selection of pies and sausage rolls, most under $ 3, which offer value for money far superior to your average service station.
But the star of the show for me (and legions of others) are their famous pork and salad rolls. They are made fresh on request, and though the ingredients in and of themselves are rather humble sounding (pork luncheon meat, carrot, cucumber, coriander, chilli and a kind of pork liverwurst on a bread roll) combined they add up to more than the sum of their parts. The fragrant coriander and fresh salad adds a delicate counterpoint to the two kinds of pork. Be warned, that if you ask for chilli, they can tend to pile it on. Usually I will specify «a little bit of chilli, please».
The staff are very cheery and accommodating, and sometimes after a big night at the local pub I’ll pass them doing their first early morning bake in the wee hours If you have the right change handy they usually don’t mind selling you something freshly baked, which is undoubtedly the best drunken munchies around!

My experiences with bakeries don’t often vary. Either it’s acceptable or just plain bad. Rarely does it go to the extremes that other flavoursome categories offer, but in this circumstance, it was a pretty dire affair. Kim Thanh Hot Bread resembles a den built for dealing with cheap plastics, not a bakery. Not to be put off by the sullen look of the place, I thought it’d be worth a shot to buy a loaf.
Being bread, I don’t expect much. Perhaps it was the butter’s fault or the condiments that followed but I doubt it. The bread was just tasteless and felt like it wasn’t fresh. I had been assured by West End locals that it’s a fine place to grab some cake or whatever, but for me, it was very poor quality even for something as simple as a loaf of bread.
The only thing that prevents me from completely writing the place off is the price. This place is super cheap. If you’re starving on the street and you need something to serve as a basic survival food, then you should be in good hands. Not everyone can afford to pay $ 5 for a loaf of bread. In that aspect this place serves it’s purpose. I just wish it didn’t leave such a stale taste in my mouth.

What a strange little place this is. Don’t be put off by my use of the word strange, I mean it in the best possible way. Kim Thanh Hot Bread is located along Vulture Street close to the centre of West End. It makes sense why someone may not spot it as it just seems to blend into the building and is barely a couple of feet long.
I was stepping out of another outlet when I spotted it. Feeling slightly peckish I quickly browsed what they had on offer. It was like most bakeries in terms of what they had on offer, but I was truly astounded by how low the prices were! I saw products that were on sale for $ 2 that hadn’t cost $ 2 since I was but a young lad hungry for a sticky bun. Being the frugal fiend that I am I felt my heart begin to race and small beads of sweat slide off my brow. With haste I decided to procure a single, yet sizable, rum ball for less then $ 2.
Walking away from the store I quickly took a nibble and I was surprised that it actually didn’t taste like cardboard. In fact, it was pretty good — perhaps not the best rum ball I’ve ever had but my main dispute was with the recipe as opposed to the method. In other words, I was confident that it was made cleanly and safely and I am certain that someone else might consider this to be an absolutely outstanding rum ball.
A few short bites later my impulse rum ball was gone. Briefly saddened by my loss, I was soon renewed with the promise that I’d be able to check out Kim Thanh Hot Bread another time and perhaps try another one of their sweeties.