Banh Mese - Sydney

I thought I had finally found a place in the CBD that did authentic style Vietnamese rolls but I was wrong. Despite the owners being from the Southwest of Sydney (aka pork roll capital), what Banh Mese offers up is a very far cry from their roots. I know and understand that operational costs are much higher in the city, but that doesn't excuse the things at play here. Simply put, you get half the ingredients and half the taste for double the price and by all accounts that isn't a piece of math that adds up. Their pork crackling offering in particular was scant on every ingredient and realistically speaking not worthy of the money paid for it.

Once again, I found myself in need of a quick lunch. This time, I didn't even make it to World Square, and instead settled on Banh Mese, having enjoyed banh mi rolls in the past at other restaurants. I arrived at a peak time when the line was almost out the door. Despite this busyness, however, the production line system worked effectively, and I had my crackling pork roll within 5-10 minutes of joining the queue. As for the roll itself - it was pretty tasty - nothing amazing, but quite good, and better than many other similar sandwich-type dishes you could buy in the city. The baguette roll was fresh, as was the salad filling (cucumber, carrots, coriander and shallots). The hoisin sauce and chilli provided a good salty and lightly spiced flavour. The pork was also tender, and indeed, had a crispy, crackling skin, however, it would have been nice if a bit more was included! Overall, Banh Mese isn't life changing, but it will give you a tasty, fast, and reasonably priced lunch.

I'm Vietnamese and so I'm extra picky about Viet food. I am happy to say that this place is legit. Yum!! Pros: very friendly, fast, and great customer service. We had the Duck Banh Mi sandwich and it was sooooooo good!!!!!! Just perfect flavors. Duck was juicy and perfectly cooked and not fatty :-) yum!! They put a large portion of duck in the sandwich too which I appreciated. Ingredients were all fresh, carrots had a nice crunch, and all flavors well balanced. Banh mi Prices were average/inexpensive. The restaurant interior was new, clean, casual vibe, very cute, decorated with lots of colorful beautiful lanterns and decor was modern. Cons: the pork crackling banh mi was too fatty. I prefer my pork crackling to have a lot of meat and little fat. For this reason, I subtracted half of a star on my rating. Overall flavors of pork crackling sandwich was good though. Unsure: I had my sandwich to go ("take away") so I can't tell if they bread was toasted. Next time I eat here, I will have to ask for "toasted" cuz I like my bread hot and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I can't rate them on the bread cuz I took it home and by then, my bread was not crunchy so it might have been my fault. Bread had great flavors though! We will definitely come back for the duck sandwich and look forward to trying their other meats. I plan to bring my friends too!! I found this spot on a Groupon and they honored my voucher with friendliness :-)

I'm Vietnamese and so I'm extra picky about Viet food. I am happy to say that this place is legit. Yum!! Pros: very friendly, fast, and great customer service. We had the Duck Banh Mi sandwich and it was sooooooo good!!!!!! Just perfect flavors. Duck was juicy and perfectly cooked and not fatty :-) yum!! They put a large portion of duck in the sandwich too which I appreciated. Ingredients were all fresh, carrots had a nice crunch, and all flavors well balanced. Banh mi Prices were average/inexpensive. The restaurant interior was new, clean, casual vibe, very cute, decorated with lots of colorful beautiful lanterns and decor was modern. Cons: the pork crackling banh mi was too fatty. I prefer my pork crackling to have a lot of meat and little fat. For this reason, I subtracted half of a star on my rating. Overall flavors of pork crackling sandwich was good though. Unsure: I had my sandwich to go ("take away") so I can't tell if they bread... read more

Awful. I ordered the chicken rice paper rolls - full of gluggy chicken skin, dirt and to top it all off? A WORM - clearly you don't wash your lettuce. Very disappointing, I won't be back!