Banh & Butter Bakery Cafe — Restaurant in Aurora

Two years ago, I had served as Associate Producer, Assistant Director, and Videographer on a documentary film about the NW Aurora community titled “America’s Hidden Gem: Northwest Aurora” (now streaming for free on Rocky Mountain PBS, heyooooo!).

Banh & Butter at this time had been open for a couple years and its owner, Thoa Nguyen, had already established herself as a bit of a celebrity in the community and as such we had sought her out to be one of our interview subjects for the film.

(Enclosed with this review are some BTS photos from the documentary. Enjoy!)

Thoa’s, and B&B’s, stellar reputation can be attributed to a few different aspects of their overall business.

First and foremost, the food: It’s outstanding. Phrases I’ve heard from people after biting into food from this bakery include “Immediately life changing!” and “I think this just changed my brain chemistry” and the probably the most common response: “Oh my GOD”. If you’ve never been here before, I think the strawberry croissants are the default thing to try first, but my personal favorite of their offerings is the Lemongrass Grilled Pork sandwich served on a croissant.

Also NW Aurora is a registered arts district, but regrettably it is a bit underserved in that category and there are few places within the community for artists to display their work. But B&B is one such place! And they allow local artists to not only display their art on their walls, but also advertise them for sale all while taking no cut of commissions from the artists. Being that my wife and I purchased a home in NW Aurora partially due to its registered arts district designation, this act of community support means a great deal to me on a personal level and I think it should be highlighted more often.

Finally, having worked with owner Thoa Nguyen as a filmmaker on our documentary, having been a repeat customer of B&B, and running into her at a few community events around town, I can say that she is a genuinely kind and caring person, and that this sensibility really permeates her entire business and team. B&B employees are clearly very happy being at B&B and take great pride in their craft.

B&B is an incredible place, and it’s done a tremendous amount of heavy lifting in raising awareness of the positive aspects of the NW Aurora community. If you’re ever visiting NW Aurora to check out our outstanding food scene it’s essential that you add it to...

This is my first visit to Banh and Butter after hearing much buzz about the shop and the owner. Needless to say, I left feeling disappointed.

I came in on a Sunday afternoon for lunch where traffic in the shop was a bit slower. Service was great, but the food was absolutely below expectation. My group ordered three Vietnamese cold cut Banh Mi, street corn, egg coffee, milk tea, and a latte. Starting with the Banh Mi, I have never had a sloppier sandwich in my life. My sandwich was so full of pate, it was literally oozing out of the sandwich and the gaminess of the liver in the pate is the only thing you could taste upon first bite. The cold cut meats were also inconsistent in size. There were thin pieces of meat and then some that were extremely thick that it made the sandwhich unappealing and hard to eat. The inside of the sandwich was also littered with black pepper. The traditional blend of flavors you'd normally expect in a banh mi were just not there. Our sandwiches were overpowered by meat, pate, and black pepper. The vegetables made no difference. I actually counted one strand of cilantro and no jalapeno. It was such an off putting experience. I don't know if they have a standard way of making banh mi, but they may need to retrain their staff.

Aside from the sandwiches, the quality of the other menu items are so-so. I would not recommend the Vietnamese street corn. It actually tasted like 2 day old leftovers. I really hope I ordered on a bad day because they really shouldn't keep this as a menu item and if isn't served fresh. The latte came lukewarm and the milk tea tasted watered down. The egg coffee is the only decent item we had.

Overall, I'm not impressed with the quality of food here. I think their process for making the sandwiches and drinks may be overlooked and need improvement. As of now, I'll stick to my local Banh Mi shop as I do not think these sandwiches are worth $11, when most traditional Vietnamese shops charge $6-7...

This place is great! Full of delicious bread and so many unique flavors. We got the apple tart and the blackberry Ube cake along with a few lattes. The apple tart was good decent flavor would have probably been even better if it was warmed up for us, but the star was the Ube cake! The blackberries, Ube cake, and cream frosting worked so well together every bite was perfect and well balanced. I also really enjoyed all the local art the was for sale and the plants they had on display (also for sale but needed some TLC). The negative i had was the gal that helped us was a bit snobby and not very welcoming. We showed up a little more than an hour before closing and we were the only customers in the shop. She tried discouraged us from ordering lattes and said they would be over 10 minutes for her to prepare them. This was odd to me since we were the only two customers in the shop. She also seemed very annoyed to answer my questions about the different baked goods and art, in her defense i did have a few more than i usually would since it was my first time. Also every single table was dirty not sure if she just had a rush, but i couldn’t see any reason for her to be so busy while i was there. I was a little confused why she didn’t ask the others in the back for help if she needed it. We weren’t in a hurry so we waited. I really wanted some coffee to go with my pastries. I looked past the crappy service since i enjoyed the baked good so much, hopefully this isn’t a regular way they do...