Bánh Anh Em

Not gonna lie… I had higher hopes for this Bánh mi. Maybe it’s because I was comparing to the delicious, fresh sandwiches from the streets of Hanoi… but my big qualm here is the bread. It tasted too crispy without feeling super toasted? Almost stale? There was no softness to the bread. I did like the pickled veg. I liked the steak… there was no perfect bite though!! The steak was cut in too big chunks - it felt like I was eating the bread separate from the meat separate from the veg. I am overall being nitty. But it’s a cute restaurant and there are other options on the menu, but the wait to get in is quite long so I struggle to justify more than 3 stars. Seating is best for 1-2 people imo (bar seats)

At Banh Anh Em, the flavors were great and everything tasted fresh and thoughtfully made. The tower presentation was fun and the bánh mì bread was perfectly crispy, though the meat portion for the tower and bánh mì could be a bit more generous. Still a really solid spot for modern Vietnamese food in the city.

I debated back-and-forth before leaving this review. I tried leaving only positive reviews but this is a safety issue and I want the restaurant to do better. My 8yr old son and I went there on Saturday evening, Sept 5th 2026 at around 7pm. We sat at the bar since it was just me and my boy. We ordered two bun rieu and two crispy pork sandwiches. I told the waiter that one sandwich was to eat there and the other to-go. Everything went great. The soup we ordered and the sandwich we ate there tasted great. The to-go sandwich was for us to eat at the hotel. When we got to the hotel, I split the sandwich in half to share with my son and took my first bite. Then I saw a piece of what appears to be a metal tie inside the sandwich. If I have to guess, this flexible metal tie is typically what the supermarkets used to tie the cilantros together. This is only my guess. We decided to throw the entire sandwich away and I also spit out the first bite I had in my mouth. The sandwich that we ate at the restaurant a few hours earlier, I pray to god that we weren’t too hungry to swallow down everything to notice. It’s impossible to know once the food is inside your mouth. This taught me a big lesson though. From now on every time you order a sandwich, doesn’t matter where, open it and check for any foreign objects. I hope the owner look into this incident. This is food safety and this could have been catastrophic for me and my son. 💔