Next to phở and bún chả, bánh mì is another dish that everyone will say you must try while visiting Hanoi, and for good reasons. While the idea behind this signature Vietnamese street food is as simple as stuffing meat and veggies into bread, this dish has so many variations that it’s now basically an entire food category by itself.
So, if you find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available, here are 8 bánh mì stalls in Hanoi that stand out from the rest of the pack.
Image credit:Thịt Xiên Hoàng Đức
Visit Chùa Láng street north of Hanoi and ask any young person for bánh mì Hoàng Đức, or “bánh mì đẹp trai” (“handsome bánh mì”), and you’ll be pointed toward a 3-story bánh mì shop called Bánh Mì Thịt Xiên Hoàng Đức that is always buzzing with customers. You can’t really miss the place, as the alluring scent of grilled pork can be smelled from across the street.
Image credit: Thịt Xiên Hoàng Đức
If you are puzzled by the “handsome” part of the stall’s name, that’s because Hoàng Đức, the owner, is endearingly known among netizens as the “handsome bánh mì bro” – because he always greets every customer with a brilliant smile and a warm welcome that makes them feel right at home.
Hoàng Đức is well-loved by his customers for his extreme friendliness
Image credit: Thịt xiên Hoàng Đức
But enough drooling over attractive guys, let’s drool over our main dish: bánh mì. There is only one filling option here: grilled pork with veggies. However, the bánh mì always comes hot and crunchy, with a touch of sesame to highlight the juicy meat inside.
Address: 55 Chùa Láng Str., Đống Đa District, Hanoi
Opening hours: 11AM-1PM & 4PM-7.30PM, Daily
Price range: VND25,000-VND50,000 (~USD1.08-USD2.16)
Bánh mì with fried nem chua and French fries
Image credit: Bánh mì nem khoai cô Ngà
Nem chua – raw pork wrapped in banana leaves and left to ferment – is a traditional Vietnamese food that has been around for generations. But over the past couple of decades, people have started deep frying it with flour to turn it into a tasty afternoon snack, which ended up becoming massively popular among Vietnamese youths.
Image credit:@thao.xi.muoi
Now, some bánh mì stalls have taken the formula one step further, using fried nem chua and French fries as fillings for their bánh mì. And turns out, when you take three things that everyone loves and rolls them all into one, they become even better. Who would’ve thought?
The dish went on to be known as bánh mì nem khoai – nem being nem chua and khoai is short for khoai tây chiên, the Vietnamese translation for French fries. And among bánh mì stalls that offer this innovative recipe, Bánh Mì Nem Khoai Cô Ngà is hailed as one of the best.
Image credit: Bánh mỳ nem khoai Vĩnh Ngà
Biting through the crunchiness of the bread and French fries into the savory nem chua complemented by chili sauce and mayonnaise is an extremely satisfying experience that’ll keep you coming back for more.
Address: Alley 28 Hương Viên Str., Hai Bà Trưng District, Hanoi
Opening hours: 7AM-9PM, Daily
Price: VND20,000 (~USD0.86)
Image credit:Trường Giang Phí
Bánh mì is mostly remembered as a convenient grab-and-go meal, but a variation that is no less popular is bánh mì chảo (frying pan bánh mì), where instead of being stuffed inside the baguette, the fillings are served sizzling hot on a frying pan. Bánh Mì Hiệu Lực is one of the stalls that popularized this trend.
Image credit:@n.mh.96
A standard portion here (VND30,000, ~USD1.29) comes with a fried egg, sliced sausages, ham, and pate, which you can take straight from the pan to put onto your bánh mì. The homemade pate comes in a big chunk and is especially flavorful.
Address: 326 Bà Triệu Str., Hai Bà Trưng District, Hanoi
Opening hours: 7AM-9.30PM, Daily
Price range: VND30,000-VND50,000 (~USD1.29-USD2.16)
Image credit: @huoghuong_
At first glance, this offering from Bánh Mì Ngọc Hiếu might look like another bánh mì chảo with fillings served separately on a pan. But make no mistake, they are two very different dishes.
Image credit: @gdbaby1881988
See, instead of your usual pate and sausages, the star of Bánh Mì Ngọc Hiếu’s signature dish is beef marinated in lemongrass and spice and fried under high heat on a cast iron pan, which is touted as “Vietnamese beef steak.” The beef is accompanied by meatballs, fried eggs, and French fries for an ample meal.
Image credit: Bít Têt Ngọc Hiếu
The restaurant also offers other dishes such as Bún Bò Huế, or Huế style beef noodles (VND70,000, ~USD3.03), where the rice noodles are served with beef, meatballs, and a whole slice of pig’s leg in a savory broth.
Address: 22 Hòa Mã Str., Hai Bà Trưng District, Hanoi
Opening hours: 7.30AM-10PM, Daily
Price range: VND100,000-VND200,000 (~USD4.31-USD8.63)
Image credit: Vegan Banh Mi
For those who follow a meat-free diet, Bánh Mì Chay is one of the few bánh mì stalls in Hanoi that offers vegan variations of this iconic Vietnamese street food.
Image credit: Vegan Banh Mi
You can order your bánh mì with either seitan or faux meat fillings. Both versions come with tofu-based pate and either pumpkin sauce or mayonnaise for a healthy, guilt-free bite.
Bánh gối – where fillings are rolled in flour into the shape of a pillow
Image credit: Vegan Banh Mi
Alternatively, if you just fancy a light afternoon snack, Bánh Mì Chay also offers Vietnamese spring rolls and bánh gối (pillow cake) (VND5,000, ~USD0.22) – where fillings are wrapped in flour sheets into the shape of pillows and fried to a crisp. Normally, these come with minced pork and egg, but here, they’ve been adapted into vegan-friendly versions featuring seitan, vermicelli, mushrooms, and herbs.
Chè is a sweet soup that many Vietnamese people like to eat for desserts
Image credit: Vegan Banh Mi
Don’t forget to wash down your food with some chè – beans cooked with sugar into a sweet soup. The black bean chè (VND15,000, ~USD0.65) that is served cold with black jelly and lotus seeds makes for a refreshing dessert.
Address: 66B Tran Hung Dao Str., Hoan Kiem, Hanoi
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 10AM-7PM
Price range: VND5,000-VND25,000 (~USD0.22-USD1.08)
Vegetarians and vegans in Hanoi should also check out our food recs here.
Image credit: TWG
Bánh Mì Trâm is one of those places that have been around for so long that people barely even remember its name. Instead, most Hanoi food lovers simply refer to it as “that bánh mì sốt vang place on Đình Ngang Street.”
Image credit: @djyeri
Of course, that means once you’re here, you should order Trâm’s famed bánh mì sốt vang (VND40,000, ~USD1.73) to see what the fuss is all about. In this dish, the bread is served with a bowl of bò sốt vang – beef cooked with tomato, red wine, ginger, and other ingredients into a thick orangey stew.
Scoop up a spoonful of the stew and eat it with a chunk of bread to savor the extremely tender beef infused with the aroma of wine, pepper, and ginger.
Image credit: @foodlifewtitt
Aside from the stew, you can also get the standard bánh mì toppings such as pate, fried eggs, and chả – meat minced and baked into cakes. Again, they are served separately on a dish.
Address: 30 Đình Ngang Str., Hoàn Kiếm District, Hanoi
Opening hours: 8AM-11PM, Daily
Price range: VND35,000-VND40,000 (~USD1.51-USD1.73)
Image credit: @hungrybes
Ask any Hanoi night owl for places to grab a late night snack, and Bánh Mì Dân Tổ would be one of the first names you get. The place only opens from 3AM till early morning, but visit around midnight, and you’ll already see dozens of people lining up waiting to get their hands on one of these bánh mì.
Despite the strange opening time, the place is always packed full of people
Image credit: @phongsmonologues
Bánh Mì Dân Tổ features all the traditional bánh mì fillings such as eggs, pate, beef jerky, sausages, and more. However, in a unique touch, all of the ingredients are stir-fried in a pan before being stuffed into the bread. Thus, the flavors are mixed together, creating an inimitable taste that you can’t find anywhere else.
Bánh Mì Dân Tổ has become somewhat of a social gathering spot
Image credit: @foursisluvfood
The queue can take up to 2 hours, but nobody seems to mind. If anything, it adds to the experience, as many local youths have come to think of Bánh Mì Dân Tổ as a social gathering spot where they can have a casual chat with strangers. One can even say that you haven’t fully experienced Hanoi nightlife if you have not had bánh mì here at least once.
Address: Cao Thắng – Trần Nhật Duật Intersection, Hoàn Kiếm District, Hanoi
Opening hours: 3AM-7AM, Daily
Price range: VND15,000-VND25,000 (~USD0.65-USD1.08)
Image credit: Bánh Mì Hai Mập
Bánh Mì Hai Mập is an attempt to bring Saigon-style bánh mì from the southern metropolis to Hanoi, and it does a darn good job at it.
Image credit: Bánh Mì Hai Mập
The bread here is homemade using cornstarch and yogurt yeast, giving it a soft texture very distinctive from the usual crunchiness of Hanoi’s bánh mì. Meanwhile, the fillings, which come in a wide variety from pate and char siu to sausages and ham, are imported straight from Saigon for the most authentic taste.
Image credit: Bánh Mì Hai Mập
For a filling meal, try Hai Mập’s new dish bánh mì with salted egg meatballs (VND39,000, ~USD1.68). Packed with – you guessed it – salted eggs covered in a layer of meat, as well as veggies to complement the taste, it’ll keep you full for the whole day.
Address: 204 Hàng Bông Str., Hoàn Kiếm District, Hanoi
Opening hours: 8AM-10PM, Daily
Price range: VND45,000-VND60,000 (~USD1.94-USD2.59)
You simply can’t say you’ve fully experienced Vietnam’s rich food culture without trying bánh mì. And to explore all the delights that the dish has to offer, try to cross off as many of these 8 bánh mì stalls from your to-do list as possible the next time you are in Hanoi.
For more things Hanoi-related, check out:
Cover image adapted from Bánh Mì Hai Mập, @djyeri, @n.mh.96, and @huoghuong_
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