Hong Ha Bakery Mascot — Restaurant in Sydney

A pork roll banh mi is a beloved and admired dish, this store Hong Ha must clearly enjoy people suffering. Although their Bahn Mi has everything a Bahn Mi includes it forgets an ingredient. The special thing that makes Bahn Mi special.

As an avid Bahn Mi consumer I have eaten several Bahn Mi's in my lifetime, but I have never eaten a Bahn Mi that has disappointed me until now.

The Bahn Mi included the delectable mayonnaise, the flavourful pate, the succulent several layers of meat, the juicy cucumber, the fresh coriander and of course the crusty well known bread that is hard and crispy outside and soft like clouds inside.

Well that would be what the ideal Bahn Mi would represent, a scrumptious, piquant delicacy but unfortunately the one I had was disappointing, it was disheartening, it was saddening, it was most of all unsatisfactory.

The bread although warm was a little bit stale, the mayonnaise? Too salty and only took up 1/3 of the bread. The pate had a grainy texture and like the mayonnaise it was barely there. The cucumber was soft and bland signifying an old cucumber on the brink of going off. The coriander was extremely dry and had a strange aftertaste, the carrots also had a strange taste that was unfamiliar even compared to others, the meat although tasting the same as other Bahn Mi shops, they were cut in half compared to other shops where they are double the size.

When compared to other shops such as the one in Hurstville that struggles to close the bread because of how much produce there was inside. My Bahn Mi was squashed and was relatively flat which might have contributed to the not so fluffy insides of the bread.

All in all I would not recommend this to anybody unless I were to wish...

Avoid. Went there last week but they were closed 3 mins before closing time (they close at 4pm, other bread shops usually close at 5) so we went to another pork roll shop down the street. Their pork roll was pretty decent, above average so had high expectations for Hong Ha. I came back the following week, waited in a line, expectations were high, but the line moved so slowly, literally 20min wait for a line that only spanned to the next shop (ANZ) which is unheard of. I'm thinking they have a long line purely cause of how slow they work, Marrickville pork rolls would be about atleast 10x faster. Anyways I make it to the front of the line, ingredients looked so plain I couldn't believe people actually rate this shop. But I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, maybe their pate is amazing, so I'll reserve judgement until I try it. After having my first bite of the crumbly day old bread that's been reheated in the oven, so that's it's crispy the whole way through, including the white parts, it was nothing special, in fact is was really underwhelming, skimped out on ingredients and for $9, tasted way below the average pork roll, it really blows my mind how this place even got popular with good reviews, maybe I'm missing something here? Rated everything 1 star not out of hate but just an honest review, food, service and environment all 1 imo.

Tldr: go to one of the other 6 banh mi places nearby, I can guarantee they do it better and no time...

There are some reviewers claiming Hong Ha to be amazing, popular, famous, and the best. This bakery has been operating for 30+ years along botany road and yes it is very popular amongst the locals with long queues, but personally I don’t think it’s the best or amazing. Might be the best in Mascot but definitely not in Sydney. It’s personal preference and anyone can disagree with me but I think I have tried a lot of different banh mi’s to know what’s good.

Hong Ha does offer a variety of banh mi’s, wraps, in-a-bowl, in-a-box, rice paper rolls and dim sims which other bakery’s do not. You can purchase items individually or with a combo (drink for extra $2). The most ‘popular’ on the menu would be banh mi, price and portion is good, however bread roll was soft and didn’t have the crack that I normally get from other places. When you eat a good banh mi, it’s going to be messy! The ‘famous’ crispy pork roll, didn’t have much pork except pork crackling. The lemongrass chicken banh mi was nice. The rice paper rolls I thought were pretty good value, however there was some confusion on their menu boarding indicating that ‘any’ 3 rolls for $10 (you can’t choose, they’re pre-boxed).

Hong Ha definitely attracts the locals, two stores down at Saigons fresh rolls there’s absolutely nobody. I didn’t enjoy the banh mi as much as other reviewers, perhaps you might have a better experience, it’s all...