Banh Mi 25 @ Hanoi in Vietnam

7.00 am in Hanoi and the sky was already bright. My objective for waking up so early was to walk to the above street, which appeared quiet and peaceful, departing from the scene a day earlier in the afternoon, with clusters of humans waiting for food / queuing to step into the most popular eatery.

That eatery was Banh Mi 25 and I kid you not; although it took up just half a shopfront, people waiting for their takeaways huddled in front of the building, and spilling onto the road. 

I was aware there were seatings right opposite and rushed straight to the dine-in area! Frankly, I couldn't remember if I should order from the takeaway store first or order right from the dine-in area. 

Limited seatings available and despite arriving at 7.00 am sharp, my mom and I were the last few customers to secure seats immediately as the queue started to form shortly after! My mind was calculating the massive profits to be generated since it's open from 7.00 am till 9.00 pm! 

One thing catching your attention upon entering would definitely be the hundreds, if not thousands of pentagon-shaped stickers all over the walls, the tables, the chairs, and even on decorative items like the puppets from Vietnam's Water Puppetry Show.

Those with OCD should not step in! 

Unlike Bánh Mì Phượng @ Hoi An, which had customers putting up their passport sized photographs, customers of Banh Mi 25 prefered to showcase their currency; specifically notes! 

Iced Americano - Interestingly, I am not really into iced coffee but ever since this latest Hanoi trip, I fell in love with this cold beverage, and had started spending more money on it back in Singapore! p.s. changing occasionally to the cheaper Iced Kopi O Kosong instead.

Banh Mi Mixed - the signature with pate, barbecued pork and smoked sausage. As I would be sharing (the "fats") with my mom, we requested for the Vietnamese baguette to be sliced into halves! 

So that's where the stickers came from! Pity ours were already sliced into halves. :( Oh well, the thing with food stickers; they were not that sticky to begin of, especially the freshly pressed ones. 

Anyway, here's the cross section of our banh mi! The friendly server actually asked us, upon ordering, if we can accept cucumber and coriander! Well, we can accept both; in fact, my mom and I embrace cucumber and coriander. 

Bread was toasted perfectly with a resounding crunch with every bite and the thickness was optimal; sufficiently fluffy with a high ingredients over bread ratio. Taste wise; spicy and the barbecued pork was your typical cantonese style flavour. Honestly, I am more a thit nuong (grilled pork) banh mi person, which banh mi 25 doesn't have.

Overall, still a not-bad banh mi.

And we were happy to showcase our currency.

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Address

25 P. Hàng Cá, Phố cổ Hà Nội, 

Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội 100000, Vietnam

Map

As above.

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Americano Iced - 40,000 Dong

Banh Mi Mixed - 50,000 Dong