Five To Try: The Best New Banh Mi Shops in Melbourne’s CBD

The Melbourne CBD has long been a place to eat good banh mi. Hot Listed institution N Lee, which turns 35 this year, expanded here in 2007 and 2010, with stores on Little Collins and Collins. VB Rolls arrived in Tivoli Arcade around the same time, before relocating to the Kmart Centre. Later we scored Heartbaker Bun Me on Flinders Lane and Spring Street and two locations for Oh Banh Mi, on Equitable Place and Bourke Street.

In the past three years, though, competition has gotten really intense, with three new shops on Flinders Lane alone. “Seems like there’s a bit of a banh mi war going on,” the owner of Bammi told us this week. “Everyone wants to open a banh mi shop.” Bring it on, we say.

Bammi 

Khoa Nguyen moved from Da Lat, in the south of Vietnam, to Australia in 1989. After founding and running Collingwood restaurant Xeom for a number of years, he’s switched to banh mi, a daytime trade, to better suit his role as a father. 

The first Bammi arrived in Brighton, and these two city stores, on Lonsdale Street and Flinders Lane, followed in quick succession. Each location sells 10 kinds of banh mi, including crispy pork, lemongrass chicken, lemongrass beef, lemongrass tofu and traditional cold cuts. Almost everything is made on-site from scratch: the rolls, pâté, egg-yolk mayonnaise and a custom hoisin sauce featuring caramelised onions. The headline crispy pork alone takes two days to prepare. Each roll is spritzed with a coconut-infused oil for a fragrant finish.

There’s also grab-and-go rice paper rolls, cups of steaming pho, bun (vermicelli noodle) bowls and drinks including young coconut slushies, salted coffee and ca phe sua da (Vietnamese iced coffee).

Luke’s Banh Mi

Third-generation baker Luke Vu grew up in his family’s bakery in Vietnam, baking banh mi and delivering them by bicycle before school. He founded Luke’s in Moonee Ponds in 2019, where it quickly gained a reputation for its generous fillings. Vu’s been on a tear since then, opening stores in South Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Preston and Little Bourke Street, with more planned.

Again, almost everything is made in-house here, adapted from Vu’s mum’s recipes. There’s all the usual suspects, but Luke’s big point of difference is its range of eight innovative vegan rolls, which use soy protein, rice flour, tapioca flour and coconut to mimic the flavour and texture of duck, chicken and pork – right down to crisp crackling. Beyond meat, there are mushroom and tofu options. 

Other items include rice bowls, crisp spring rolls (including a chicken, corn and cheese version) and, of course, iced coffee.

Banh Mi Stand

While the branding is consistent across stores, this business confusingly shows on Google Maps as Banh Mi Ong Hoa in certain locations. Like Richmond’s highly recommended Ca Com, it brings a cheffy touch to its rolls, courtesy of former Seven Seeds head chef Thi Le (not to be mistaken for the other Melbourne chef Thi Le, who co-owns Anchovy and Ca Com). She and business partner Ai Huynh, a former property sales consultant, take inspiration from frequent trips back to Vietnam.

Baguettes are baked daily inside the Yves Klein blue shops, located at 547 Flinders Lane and 300 Flinders Lane. The signature Stand’s Special roll features grilled pork, sliced ham and pork loaf. The vegetarian tofu banh mi is tricked up with toasted rice and salted cabbage. And a spicy beef sausage number calls back to the cooler climate of northern Vietnam, where the food tends to be heartier.

On drinks, there’s espresso by Five Senses and a range of Vietnamese coffees including sweet black cold brew and iced milk coffee topped with salted mascarpone, a drink that’s recently gained popularity in Vietnam.

Additional reporting by Audrey Payne, Quincy Malesovas and Haymun Win.