Bánh Mì is a signature dish of Vietnam; we have verified places to eat it in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Banh mi is Vietnam's national sandwich on a French-colonial baguette.
Bánh Mì · Hanoi
Banh mi is Vietnam's national sandwich on a French-colonial baguette. The Hanoi version is restrained: rich pork pate, cold cuts, butter and coriander, with less mayonnaise than the Saigon style.
Banh mi emerged in the French colonial era (1873-1954) when local bakeries adapted the baguette using rice flour for lower humidity tolerance. The pate-and-pork filling appeared in the 1950s and the dish became fully Vietnamese after 1954. Banh Mi 25 has run the Old Quarter's most-photographed stall on Hang Ca since 2014; the Hang Gai stall has run since 1979 from a single family.
Where to eat in Hanoi:
- Banh Mi 25
- Banh Mi Hang Gai
- Bami Bread
Where to eat Bánh Mì in Hanoi: the editor picks
Banh mi · Ho Chi Minh City
The Vietnamese sandwich, a crisp, airy baguette split and filled with pate, cold cuts or grilled meat, then loaded with pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber, coriander, chili and a slick of mayonnaise and soy or Maggi seasoning.
Banh mi is the clearest edible record of Saigon's French century. The colonists brought the baguette; Vietnamese bakers lightened it with rice flour into a thinner, crackly loaf, and by the 1950s Saigon vendors were splitting it and filling it with local pate, cha lua sausage, pickles and herbs. The result is a portable, self-contained meal sold from carts and shopfronts across the city, and its most famous purveyors, from Huynh Hoa to Bay Ho, guard their pate recipes closely. The word banh mi simply means bread; the sandwich took the name of the loaf it is built on.
Where to eat in Ho Chi Minh City:
- Banh Mi Huynh Hoa
- Banh Mi Bay Ho
- Banh Mi Hong Hoa
Where to eat Banh mi in Ho Chi Minh City: the editor picks