Lily's Banh Mi Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

ATTENTION ADVANCED BÁNH MÌ RESEARCHERS:

I was in the area and curious to try the roast pork bánh mì at Lily’s Bánh Mì Café. The establishment has a nice, homely vibe, and the people who run it seem lovely.

Onto the bánh mì: I ordered the roast pork with crackling, and at $10 it's still good value considering most bánh mìs these days are $11 and up. One thing I did note when I bit into the roll was a sugary sweetness—reminiscent of the kind you get from icing sugar on sweet treats from the bakery. This has happened a couple of times during my bánh mì research career, and personally, I’m not a fan.

I wouldn’t say it was awful—just that, if the owners happen to read this, I personally don’t think a sweetened roll complements a savoury sandwich like bánh mì. For me, it’s a pretty important detail to have that classic, savoury, French-influenced Vietnamese white crispy roll. I also found the main sauce to be far too sweet as well.

Overall, the roll was satisfying as I was hungry, and if they addressed the issue of the sweet bread, I would definitely consider returning—because it’s certainly not a bad bánh mì, just not in my top five in Australia. And for me, it’s nowhere near as good as a breakfast bánh mì at BunBun in Springvale, where it's so fresh and every bite, flavour and texture is perfection

That said, if you're in the area, it’s not a bad option—just don’t expect it to live up to the hype of being Australia’s best-reviewed bánh mì. No offence to the establishment, but it’s definitely not that, or even close. Their phở did look amazing, though, so I am curious to go back and try it.

For me, it's slightly better than Allegra Bakery, which is a couple of doors down—but if they removed the sweetness from the bread roll, it would go up another level and I would probably give them 5 stars in kind, but atm, that's the main reason for removing one star and give a clear expectation on the level of to expect as a...

One of the worst Banh Mi's I've had. Dry/ chewy bread, no egg mayonnaise only pate. The whole experience left me confused. I'm not one to write bad reviews unless I find something really bad. After 5 days I'm still thinking about the dry banh mi haha

First time trying Lily's. It was peak hour Saturday lunch. I got Crispy pork, Grilled Chicken & Cold Meat banh mi. I chose them over their fellow neighbour due to their lines. I was excited to finally find a good banh mi place without having to go to Springvale. Judging by the lines for take away, dine in customers, and even watching them make my banh mi, I was convinced it was going to be good. First bite, dry bread ends with no mayonnaise or pate. Continued on to the centre, realised no mayonnaise at all, only pate. Filling is generous but bread (between tiger roll/half normal roll) is dry and chewy, there was not enough sauce to counteract the dryness. It was the same experience with all three banh Mi's as I was sharing and wanted to sample a variety. The 'look' of the banh mi is fine, bread, filling, sauce but the overall taste/experience is disappointing. Yes, we ate the banh mi within half hour so it was not the reason why it was dry.

Service is good, atmosphere is good but food?

Verdict, left confused with the queues and good reviews as this is undoubtedly one of the worst Banh Mi's I've had. Was everyone in line trying the bakery like me and...

Best Banh Mi in Melbourne in our opinion. We visited because of all the hype and we’d say they definitely delivered.

The baguette was the highlight of the Banh Mi. It was crumbly crunchy instead of brittle crunchy like the other average Banh Mis. If I would compare it to something, it was texturally similar to the top of an almond cookie, crunchy, yet it didn’t scratch my gums. The fillings were very generous and we loved how the pate didn’t get covered by the other ingredients, overall outstanding Banh Mis. I personally don’t like the overwhelming spiciness from fresh chilies, so I would recommending using Sriracha for the spiciness.

We also got the Bun Bo Hue, it’s a tad spicier than the others, but that didn’t bother us. The noodles were slightly over cooked though and it didn’t have much bounciness anymore.

There were plenty of customers when we got there but the line moved along very fast. Staff was very friendly. They might need one more staff to help clean the tables up if there was a bigger crowd, but now they were managing. There are tons of parking at the front.

Overall, again, best Banh Mi in Melbourne, highly recommended heading in and...