Tag: banh mi

Categories
Vietnamese

Jacob’s Vietnamese Place – Ashfield NSW Restaurant Review

We’ve been meaning to go to Jacob’s Vietnamese place in Ashfield for quite a few months now, but have failed each time due to their odd opening hours. Though they open 7 days a week, they both open a bit late for breakfast, and close a bit too early for dinner. It’s a good thing that when they do open in the morning, however, they offer a full on all-day Vietnamese menu.

We had the phở đặc biệt (the special beef rice noodle soup) for $19, which is quite a reasonable price for the size of the meal. There was a good helping of rare beef, tendon, beef balls, and tripe. The tripe and tendon in particular being not something that you see in a lot of pho restaurants these days – including sadly Pho Vien down the road.

The taste of the pho was quite good. It had quite a traditional and flavourful broth, and came with a lot of green onion as well as a very healthy portion of bean sprouts, which I love. Unfortunately I did find  I did find (and my partner found this too) a bit of an unusual and unpleasant taste with the tendon. Even though I normally love tendon, and the texture of the tendon was perfect, the flavour of it was kind of weird. I don’t know why this has happened, if it’s a one-off thing or if it’s a recurrent thing to do with where they sourced it from. But I really didn’t love it.

The other thing that we had on our first visit was the cơm tấm đặc biệt,($19), the broken rice deluxe with the grilled pork chop, shredded pork skin, steamed pork cake and fried egg. This is really a dish that was more than the sum of its parts, many of which were fine in insolation but great in combination.

For starters, we did not love the pork skin, even though I’m sure it was perfectly adequate according to the standards by which pork skin prepared in this manner are usually judged. The egg was fried and fully cooked which is I guess fine, and perhaps it’s only our westernized taste buds that prefer a partially cooked egg. The pork loaf and the pork chop were delicious, with no negative points to say about them, and of course the fish sauce really helped to bring everything together, moisten the rice and make it all great.

First visit thoughts – Overall, the meal was only $38, and really got two adults very full at 10am in the morning, and for the rest of the day.  I had wanted to get some more stuff, and was luckily talked out of it, so we ended up actually going again a few weeks later (prior to this review being published).

On our second visit we started off with some chicken wings ($15), which were quite unexciting, flavoured essentially with salt and not much else, lacking completely in complex spices and flavours apart from the side of dipping sauce and pickled vegetables. It didn’t feel like a restaurant dish, and I didn’t feel like they were any better than what I could do with my air fryer at home.

The bun bo hue ($19) was contrastingly pretty good – a large bowl, with a huge quantity of different meats inside and a nice tangy-spicy taste. It wasn’t the best I’ve had in Sydney, but definitely one of the better in recent times, and probably better than Pho Vien’s down the street.

This beef brisket with bread roll ($19?) was really thick and rich, probably too rich for me to eat having already had my half of the BBH. Neither of us were able to finish it, and we had to take it home, where it was diluted by takeaway frozen broth from Pho Vien and subsequently consumed. That said, the bread was very nice and does mean that their banh mi has potential to be quite good as well. An adventure for next time.

ADVENTURE, NEXT TIME

I returned by myself for some banh mi, thinking that I would get two and eat half of each.

The crispy skin pork roll ($10) was pretty good. I enjoyed the crispy crackling pork, and the flavour of the roll overall, though felt that it was overall a bit light in terms of filling quantity, particularly that of the meat. Something that I did enjoy was that the bread went briefly into a toaster oven before serving, making it nice and warm and crispy.

The feeling of lightness was particularly amplified when it came to the cold cut pork roll ($7), which was so minimal and unsubstantial that there’s no way I could recommend it given the other local options available.

Jacob’s Vietnamese Place
27 Hercules St, Ashfield NSW 2131

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Happy Snack Cafe House – Homebush West NSW Restaurant Review

I found these photos on my computer from a year and a half ago, and realised I had never written anything about these porks roll. Searching through my Whatsapp chat with my girlfriend where sometimes feelings about banhs mi go, there was nothing noted, suggesting that these were neither memorably good nor memorably bad.

It doesn’t seem particularly fair, therefore, to even put up a post about Happy Snack Cafe, except for a fact that it acts as a reminder to myself that I’ve been here and that I don’t have to ever go back, unless it is to try some of their sit down options.

A completely unrelated flashback from the past is that it looks like we picked up these porks roll as we were actively worried about the possible impending death of our cat Evie. She had started wobbling all over the place, falling over, and had stopped eating. We had taken her to a couple of different vets who had given her IV fluids and each time she seemed to get better, but got worse again post-discharge.

Eventually we took her to the Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) at North Ryde, where for the cost of $8,000 or so they put her in the MRI scanner under GA, took a CSF sample (from just under the occiput in cats!), and a bunch of other specialised tests. Seen by neurology, ophthalmology, dermatology, general surgery, and internal medicine, the presumptive diagnosis was thiamine deficiency based on increased signal intensity of bilateral basal nuclei. Some thiamine supplementation, and she didn’t have to die, and she’s been fine ever since.

These pork rolls were picked up on our way to pick up Evie from SASH. Here she is, in the car, with her neck all shaved for vascular access. I love her.

I honestly don’t remember enough about the porks roll to recommend Happy Snack Cafe House, but I remember a lot about SASH and can definitely recommend them to a friend or colleague.

Happy Snack Cafe House
104 The Crescent, Homebush West NSW 2140

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Thuan Thien Bakery – North Strathfield NSW Restaurant Review

Not to be outdone by the banh mi my junior brought for me at work from Nguyen Hot Bread in Canley Vale during our last fortnight together, I picked up a variety of three options and an almond croissant to share on my way to work.

We had a selection of banhs mi. The first to be pictured and discussed is the roasted pork roll ($7), eaten by me, ultra fresh, walking through the hallway at work so that I can provide an accurate account of its quality for the internet. The bread was nice and fresh, slightly crusty on the outside and soft on the inside – no complaints or painful mouth cutting here. The filling sadly was not ideal, with the pork being really quite dry, and uninspiring (again, note that I’ve eaten it fresh in this case.) On subsequent visits the pork has actually been quite good, and I’ve now had banh mi from here at least six times.

The pate I will discuss in this subsequent paragraph dedicated to the original pork roll ($6.50), which was much better than the roast pork. Unlike most porks roll that I’ve had, the pate at Thuan Thien was very thin and spread with a spoon rather than a knife, which I didn’t find too problematic but my Vietnamese friend did not find satisfying. Whilst I agree the volume administered was on the lower end of the spectrum, she was quite disappointed by it. Luckily the standard collection of cold cuts in the original pork roll meant that there was little opportunity for error, and this is overall a pretty good roll, even eaten at our late lunch period after 6 hours in the fridge. There was no mention of the option of extra pate on the menu, but I suspect it’s something you could convince them to do for a little extra. but I now have learned to just ask for it, and it makes it all delicious.

It’s hard to know if this next roll, which I ate at lunch 6 hours after purchase, is the same roll as the roast pork roll, or in fact the BBQ pork roll ($7), which I had also ordered. I guess I should assume that it’s the BBQ pork roll which I had ordered, but it kind of looks nothing like the menu photograph, with not a smidge of crackling in site. Either way, it was surprisingly not as dry as the first roll I had that morning, so there’s a chance that it was in fact different. I should note the inclusion of red onion on this banh mi, which I feel is not that common an ingredient, whilst my friend and colleague, an influencer in her own right, decried the lack of daikon in this store’s offerings (not a problem for me.) I appreciated also the inclusion of a proper buttery Vietnamese mayonnaise, rather than margarine from a tub, which is passed off as acceptable at some establishments.

The almond croissant ($4) was pretty good. Lots of custard inside, and cheaper than Zouki.

Overall thoughts
Will I add Thuan Thien bakery into the rotation? It’s possible – but only because it’s somewhat on the way, now that I’ve started taking tolls to work and A) XCel Roll has dropped off in quality and B) Nhu Y Kings Hot Bread requires a more significant detour.

Update, mid 2025. The quality was better on every subsequent visit, and this is now my regular haunt.

Thuan Thien bakery
199 Concord Rd, North Strathfield NSW 2137

Categories
Vietnamese

Pho Hanoi 1979 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

I’m alone at home in Sydney at the moment (partner being away in Wollongong without me) and with very little food in the fridge that I can actually bring myself to eat (the fourth beef burger patty in the pack is truly not something I want for the fourth day in a row) I took myself out for a late dinner at a recently opened local Vietnamese restaurant.

The Combination Pho – Pho Dac Biet (Medium – $21.90) is one of the better bowls I’ve had, and definitely the best I’ve had within a 5km radius, having tried multiple. This bowl is a true Northern style pho dac biet, with a clear though slightly salty soup, and a real combination of all the bits of the cow – rare beef, beef brisket, beef balls, beef tripe, and beef tendon. The majority of restaurants in Sydney miss out on one or more of the tripe or tendon, though I suspect the calculus was made that Burwood locals are likely to be less squeamish than most about non-meat parts of the animal. Either way, both components were enjoyable additions – with no weird aftertaste to the tendon like I experienced at Jacob’s in nearby Ashfield.

The pho was served with only a small serving of bean sprouts on the side, offered directly by the server as apparently not everyone likes them. Though the serving size was smaller than I expected visually, they ended up being enough, and more servings are available as a no-cost option on the menu.

The bowl was topped with a large serving of spring onions, which didn’t do anything special for me but also didn’t hurt me. The brisket was deliciously fatty and umami, though importantly not too fatty. I felt it was superior to the rare beef, a rare compliment from me. It’s interesting to note that the restaurant offers bowls of soup and meats without noodles as add ons – possibly an option for those lowcarbing among us. (Should be me).

The spring rolls Cha Gio Chien (4 for $8.80) didn’t do anything for me. Though freshly fried and crispy, their filling of minced prawn and pork was hard to appreciate, with a very loose texture and a non-distinctive flavour. I wouldn’t get them again.

I never have sauce with my pho usually, but available tableside was quite a nice assortment of a tangy chilli sauce, a sate sauce, and thinly sliced pickled garlic, amongst other things. They were all delicious, and helped to save the spring rolls a little.

Thoughts
Pho Hanoi 1979 is now my favourite source of pho in my local area, with truly top notch non-meat additions in their PDB, not available elsewhere. They offer a 30% discount between the hours of 9PM and 11PM, which means that the actual cost of the 2 dishes I had was a very reasonable $15.33 for the pho and $6.16 for the spring rolls.

Will be back.

SUBSEQUENT THOUGHTS
I walked past the restaurant again one night (23rd July 2025) in Burwood. They’ve changed the discount percentage for night time, but now there are different discounts for other times of day. What kind of person would eat during their peak times?

VISIT 2: BANH MI
I went back this morning to take advantage of the 50% off offer for banh mi between the hours of 7 and 10AM. It’s difficult to write this review and decide which price to base it on. As someone born without generational wealth, my feelings about food linked to both the quality of the food and the price paid. While some (mostly paid influencers, I suspect) might argue that good food is good food no matter the price, I think that as it’s something you pay for, the value proposition is inherent in the decision making process when you go out to get a meal.

I will try to assess these banh mi based on the price that I paid for them rather than the full price, however it’s very possible that some people might come and get their banh mi for lunch after 10AM and be charged twice what I paid.

I had a series of 3 half banhs mi, cut professionally so that readers don’t need to be subjected to photos of my teeth marks (as of this point I suspect I’m 100% identifiable based on my dental record alone).

The Classic Pork Roll – Banh Mi Thit Heo ($4.50 half price, $9 full price) will be the first to be discussed, even though it was the last to be eaten – the reason being is that it is the only roll that I have a representative side profile for showing the size of the banh mis on offer here.

This cold cut pork roll checked all the boxes. It had a good ratio of salad to meat to bread with each bite a mixture of salty umami meat, fresh crispy and tangy vegetables and soft yet crispy bread which both had a good crunch but also didn’t cut the mouth. I didn’t ask for extra pate but the amount of pate and Vietnamese mayo given was very good and probably equaled the amount of pate given when I ask for extra pate at most Vietnamese bakeries. An instant classic.

The first banh mi that I actually ate was the Crackling Pork Belly Roll – Banh Mi Heo Quay ($5.75 half price, $11.50 full price). This roll was absolutely loaded with crackling pork belly, pâté and Vietnamese mayonnaise, making it an extremely decadent pork roll. The pork crackling was actually extremely crispy, a far cry from some of the pork belly I’ve had recently in other settings. The only complaint I would have about this roll, apart from the fact that it felt like it was of a level of decadency that I didn’t deserve, was that there was the fact that the pork itself was a little bit too salty. This wouldn’t have been a problem had they just filled the roll up with a normal amount of pork, but the serving was so generous that the sheer volume of pork meant that the whole roll ended up leaning towards the more salty side. An odd problem to have. Still good.

The BBQ Pork Roll – Banh Mi Nem Nuong ($4.50 half price, $9 full price) was really good. Unfaultable. There was a generous amount of nem nuong which was a little bit sweet and a little bit salty but certainly not too salty, avoiding the problem that the crackling pork belly roll had. This was well balanced by the large amount of salad as well as the large amount of pate and Vietnamese mayonnaise. I literally couldn’t fault this roll, it was one of the best I’ve had, for $9, let alone $4.50

The lemongrass beef banh mi – Banh Mi Bo Xao Sa ($5.75 half price, $11.50 full price) I didn’t love so much. The lemongrass flavour was too strong for my personal liking, and caused it to be a bit bitter. Perhaps others would still enjoy it.

My palate is not so refined in the Vietnamese arts to really differentiate the MeatBall Roll – Banh Mi Xiu Mai ($4.50 half price, $9 full price) strongly from other pork based rolls. The pork meatballs were soft and warm and fell apart, producing an almost pate like consistency that permeated the entire roll.

THOUGHTS of BANH MI
All things considered, the banh mi at Pho Hanoi 1979 are very good. They’re a clear winner in terms of being my top banh mi in the area, and will likely likely usurp Thuan Thien Bakery in North Strathfield for my go-to banh mi on the way to work, as long as I’m able to find street parking nearby in the morning.

Whilst $4.50-$5.75 for one of these banh mi is an absolute steal, I think they’re so good that I honestly wouldn’t be in opposition to paying the full $9 for the nem nuong banh mi, for example, especially as local competitors are selling their inferior version for $10.

FURTHER VISIT, LATE 2025

I don’t know why I thought that a bun bo hue ($15.30 with 30% off in the morning, $21.90 full price) was the right thing to eat whilst feeling generally unwell, but this is where fate led me.

What struck me about this meal was just the huge quantities and chunks of protein in it. The cinnamon pork loaf, blood jelly, pork hock, beef, pork sausage and other meat products was absolutely insane in terms of quantity – a full meat meal with a side of noodles and soup. Speaking of the soup, the flavour was OK but again, like almost every other time I’ve had bun bo hue, it didn’t astound me. I think it’s very possible that I’ve stopped enjoying it, and this could be the last bun bo hue review you see on this site.

Probably not a reflection on the quality of this bowl, more just a reflection of my personal preferences.

Pho Hanoi 1979
128 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Nguyen Hot Bread – Canley Vale NSW Restaurant Review

My junior/friend/colleague brought me these banh mi for lunch at work, not knowing that I am lowkey a banh mi influencer in the microsphere of Western Sydney. My thoughts, however brief, should be taken in the context of a approximately 5 hour dwell time within the enhanced post-operative care unit’s breakroom refrigerator.

Within limits of dwell-time, these were still only OK. The meat in the crackling pork roll ($7.50) was plentiful, especially for the price, but neither it nor the cold cut pork roll ($7) had adequate vegetable to carry moisture through the course of the meal. These rolls also lacked the deliciously unhealthy concotion of butter/Vietnamese mayo, instead featuring a rather more pedestrian and Western margarine-like spread instead.

I’m told there are a number of different hot bread stores in the area. Perhaps another, next time?

Nguyen Hot Bread
33 Canley Vale Rd, Canley Vale NSW 2166