Good Days Hot Bread

Good Days Hot Bread is a banh mi shop rolling next-level interpretations of the classic French-Vietnamese rolls. Owner Nam Nguyen (also behind Good Days) has taken plenty of inspiration from the exceptional banh mis found in Hoi An.

While staying true to the core tenets of the rolls – pate, mayo, coriander, pickled carrot, cucumber and a protein in a crusty baguette – Nyugen’s versions dial the flavours up a notch. It’s hard to go past the crunchy porchetta, which comes with a generous helping of five-spice rubbed and roasted pork belly, crackling, xo mince, coriander gremolata and all the usual trimmings.

The vegan version is equally delicious. Replicating the texture of the roast pork, tofu is rubbed with five-spice and pressed (making it more crisp and robust), then layered with rice cake in between to mimic the fatty mouthfeel of pork. It’s then heaped over mushroom pate.

Other fillings include a classic cold-cuts option (shaved pork belly layered over house-made pig’s head terrine); char siu duck with smoked yoghurt and fried shallots; xiu mai (pork meatballs) in red sauce; chargrilled lemongrass chicken with crispy skin and green sauce; and turmeric fish (crisp, fried flathead with perilla, mint and dill mayo – there’s also a vegan version of this with fried cauliflower).

Like at Good Days, the meat is free-range, and largely Victorian, including Macedon Ranges duck and Bannockburn chicken. They’re also getting flathead from Lakes Entrance and pork from Murray Valley in New South Wales. It’s all loaded into fresh bread rolls supplied by Collingwood favourite N Lee.

Banh mi aside, there’s a choice of pillowy bao filled with char siu duck or vegetables, and pastries inspired by old-school hot bread bakeries, like pate chaud (Vietnamese meat pies with flaky puff pastry); pandan-cream eclairs, and a thick and wobbly coconut-cream slice. To drink, there’s Vietnamese iced coffee, nitro tea and tepache (a Mexican fermented pineapple drink, levelled up with fermented custard apple and Asian spices).

The space keeps it simple, with a sky-blue communal table and a handful of bar seats to perch at. But otherwise it’s largely geared towards takeaway.