Bánh Anh Em — Restaurant in New York

After food crawling through the East Village, we (unwisely) decided to "end" with dinner at Banh Anh Em.

I wasn't super enthused, especially since I hate queuing in line for anything. Add in that it started raining and getting cold, and we were literally the first group to be bumped to the next seating hour when we reached the head of the line, and I was a pretty grumpy puppy.

However, we lucked out and were called back to the restaurant just 5 min after we were turned away. Once inside, I understood why. It's a small, dark space made up largely of two-seater tables in various configurations. There's really only one corner where a party of 5 like ours could sit comfortably, and they awarded us that corner.

Then we feasted:

Banh Mi Pate: A classic for a reason, and this one was rich with umami pate paired with a delightfully crispy baguette. I'm told they bake their own bread every day, and it shows--there's nothing store-bought about these rolls!

Red Chili Fried Chicken Bánh Mì: Probably my favorite of the many banh mis we tried. Perfectly fried, juicy chicken in a tasty sauce with perfectly crispy bread. What's not to love?

Bánh Mì Heo Quay: Good in theory, a bit too heavy in reality. I think I don't love crispy pork belly enough to want it in a sandwich, though the accompanying pickled mustard greens and chili hoisin were on point.

Bánh Cuốn Hà Nội: Delicious steamed dumplings filled with ground pork, shrimp, wood ear mushroom, fried shallots and cilantro. I'm pretty sure they make the wraps themselves, they were so soft, thin and silky. I could eat these every day and never get sick of them.

Bánh Chưng Chiên: A nice, tasty light dish of crispy rice cake with pork belly and mung bean for when you want a bit of a palate cleanser that's still favorful

Bahn Xéo: Respectably large in portion and filled with yellow sticky rice, mung bean, fried shallots, and pork floss. I don't normally gravitate to banh xeo, but this wasn't bad.

DIY Banh Uot Tower: Yes, it's sad to pay Manhattan prices for a dish like this that's about 1/4 the cost in actual Vietnam, but it's also rare to find this kind of tower in NYC, so I'll take it. The medley of flavors and textures were delightful, and if my stomach hadn't been able to leave home, I probably would've had more than one wrap.

Pandan Cold Brew: Pure crack for pandan lovers like me. Wish I could make a smoothie out of this every morning.

Service was attentive and consistent despite how busy they were right off the bat.

This is one of those rare....and I do mean RARE....restaurants that fully lives up to the current hype. Come starving and prepare to gorge--when you finally...

Dare I say, this is one of the best Vietnamese food I've had in the East Coast.

I'm extremely picky when it comes to Vietnamese restaurants, after all, I was born and raised in Sài Gòn, learning Vietnamese cooking from the real deals (my grandma and my mom). Ever since I moved away from Vietnam, I've resorted to my own home cooking after being constantly disappointed by the Vietnamese food options available from Ottawa to NYC.

But Banh Anh Em stood out.

They offer some very niche dishes from different regions of Vietnam. And I was quite impressed that they came very close to nailing the flavors that I've tasted growing up in a family that has ancestry from North, South and Central Vietnam.

We had Bánh Bèo, Rau Muống Xào, Bánh Mì Heo Quay, and Bún Bò Huế with Coconut Cream Coffee and Pandan Tea.

The Bánh Mì Heo Quay blew me away, it was as good as that one bánh mì stall I always go to in District 4 in Sài Gòn. It was sweet and tangy thanks to the sauce, with lots of crunch from the pork and fresh vegetables.

Bánh Bèo, oh boy, they really nailed the texture and the dipping sauce. Really no notes.

Rau Muống was stirred fry very well, but the seasoning was a tad bit too salty for my taste. Although I acknowledge that the saltiness was there since you're supposed to eat it with rice.

Now the Bún Bò Huế was a bit lackluster, I could tell all the elements were there. However, they could improve on how the shrimp paste is used, as it was a bit overpowering and gave the broth a murky consistency. Regardless, the dish hit so hard once you added the chili sauce they provided on the table. If you can handle the spice, do yourself a huge favor and ADD THAT CHILLI SAUCE.

Besides the food, I love the atmosphere and the decor. The service staff were the sweetest and would even give instructions on how to best enjoy the food.

Now, I will have to warn you, the wait might be unbearable for some. I lined up 30 mins before opening and there were already 7 groups ahead of me. However, I didn't mind the wait at all since I was able to get a table the moment they opened.

I can't wait to also try the OG location...

Final verdict first: great food, definitely worth the hype. As one of the most anticipated new openings in the city, I unfortunately missed their weekend popups before the grand opening, but finally paid a visit second day into the opening. We were a group of 4 and ordered many things on the menu. The Pho and Bánh Mi were definitely the highlights among the rest. They imported special machinery from Vietnam that makes all the pho and rice sheets in house, and you can totally taste it in the Pho noodles. Soup was full of flavor and finally a pho without bean sprouts lol beef in the soup was also very good, especially the hand-made beef ball and patty. We got the pork floss banh mi and the bread was baked to perfection: crispy but soft. The other items were all good but also didn’t stand out like the pho and banh mi. But they definitely put in lots of thoughts into the menu, along with the experiences and feedback they got from the popups. I’m sure there will be more fun and unique items being added to the menu in the future. They could, on the other hand, use some improvements on the service. Since it’s walk-in only, the waitlist system can be better, maybe just open the waitlist up for people to join instead of waiting in line to join the list. Also, services can get slow, for example we waited a long time for the rice sheet tower (forgot to take a pic) to come out. Another hiccup we had was that we were told very late into the lunch that the pastry item we ordered was sold out, which they should’ve been able to gauge and tell much earlier. Moreover, the servers should consider saying both the Vietnamese and English names of the dishes when they confirm the order or answer to our inquiry because without looking at the menu, we would have no idea what items they were referring to by just the Vietnamese names. Bathroom could also use more attention. Understand that they just opened and these will hopefully improve as the team gets better and more efficient. Overall, very happy about this new gem and proud of all the work the team has...