Bánh mì Mama — Restaurant in Hà Nội

The taste is fantastic in Hanoi, but not the best in the whole vietnam, it can be rated as an average as the bread I’d eaten in other cities. But the price is reasonable , to be honest, with so much fresh stuffings.

There’s always long lines there, one for ordering, another for picking up and paying. I went there twice. One in the early afternoon, slightly past 1:00pm, I’d been waiting for nearly one and a half hours. The second time was in the late morning, though there was not so many people in the line, it still took me an hour because there were some locals ordering a bunch of breads, and the “MaMas” prepared them one by one, it took a century for them to stuff one bread because it seemed that they were in no hurry.

Actually I am confused why there are no good banh mi in Hanoi , at least not as good as in other cities, and people have to wait in such long lines to grab a bite.

For me , a good banh mi consists of slightly freshly toasted bread, freshly shredded carrots , some meat , cilantro and most importantly , the chicken liver sauce. And as far as I know , most banh mi in Hanoi don’t have chicken liver sauce, they tend to add mayonnaise inside, which makes nothing like a traditional banh mi.

Being said so, I still recommend you go to this place to grab a bite, if you have a lot time. And if you don’t , leave it to other...

I just want to preface this: I did not eat here. Im sure the food would've been great, but the queue was so long! It was actually ridiculous and I feel like sometimes when people go places just because its famous it kind of defeats the purpose of finding good places. Now by no means I am not saying do not try this place, im sure the fame is well deserved but I was not going to wait 15+ minutes to try one banh mi which was slightly overpriced. So I literally looked to my right and there was another banh mi stand selling the EXACT SAME food with cheaper price. It was absolutely delicious! I cannot find them on google maps so I'm posting this review just to let people know that its okay to try other places too, if you want to wait long to try an expensive banh mi than go ahead but sometimes its ok to support other local businesses! So please show the other stall some love. When I walked by her stall she got so happy because she had 0 customers as everyone was just lining up for this place. Support all local businesses please, dont just blindly follow where...

Banh My Mama is an essential experience for your visit to Hanoi, but not for the reason you think.

In Hanoi you will be eating street food most of the time, and the single biggest lesson I learnt in the old town is not to trust Google and Tripadvisor reviews. One tourist posts something positive, then another and another, then maybe a place finds itself onto a food tour itinerary - and you have a viral effect. This is totally the case with Banh My Mama. I live by google reviews so this was a hard lesson for me.

Mama's banh mi is delicious and the service was more polished than in other stalls, but is it worth queueing half an hour for? Locals chuckle at the tourists waiting in endless lines here, when the banh mi stall literally a few metres away is as good and has no queue.

We had this experience over and over in Hanoi, so this was our essential lesson for eating out around here: forget the food tour reviews and the Michelin guides and set...