Bánh Mì @ Delicieux Bistro, Hong Kong

I can still remember eating my first bánh mì. It was almost a decade ago; hubby - who at the time was still fiancé - and I were at the end of our first trip to Sydney, and my eldest sister (who had moved to the bigger city) had bought a couple of these Vietnamese sandwiches from a tiny shop for us to take as lunch during our flight on a budget airline. It had served its purpose well: easy to take on board, filling, nutritious, and, most importantly, delicious. It was also cheap, which was great for a couple of poor university students. It was such a simple sandwich, but the delicious shredded pork filling, fresh crisp vegetables and the crusty baguette made a great and lasting impression. We haven't gotten many chances to eat bánh mì since then, and when the opportunity to have bánh mì for lunch last weekend presented itself, we seized it.

Shopfront of Delicieux Bistro:

Delicieux Bistro is a small Vietnamese café sitting on a hilly street near one end of a bustling street market in Central. Most of the Soho area is not wheel-friendly with many steps to tackle, and the combination of the busy traffic, narrow roads and crowded pedestrian paths make it quite unsafe for young children. I was glad that I had sent hubby home with the boy while I went to pick up our lunch. Delicieux Bistro is quite popular, thanks to the wide coverage by local media and travel magazines. I had purchased some Groupon vouchers for this shop a couple of months ago, and I used them to order two special combo sets, with each set including a sandwich, an appetiser and a drink.

Waiting for the food inside the shop:

The sandwiches survived the 30 minute commute between the shop and home quite well. The baguettes were still crispy, and the vegetables hadn't yet wilted. The springrolls were quite plain and really needed the sweet chili sauce to add flavour. The dried longan and lemongrass mint drinks were refreshing and thankfully not too sweet.

One of the bánh mì, with the springroll (and sauce) and drinks in the background:

Fresh Prawn Rolls (left) and Beef Rolls (right) - could do with less noodles and more vegetables and meat:

Close-up of the Lemongrass Pork Sandwich. I am not a big fan of coriander and removed some before biting into the sandwich:

Close-up of the Lemongrass Beef Sandwich, which was nicely meaty, but the fillings were not properly distributed:

Hubby and I both enjoyed lunch, although I don't think they were as nice as the one in Sydney. Still, it is good to know that we can get bánh mì quite easily in Hong Kong (compared to Tokyo, where we previously lived).

Delicieux Bistro
Shop B, Ground Fl,
41-43 Graham Street
Central
Tel. +85 2 2543 8333