Three To Try: New Vietnamese Joints in Sydney for Banh Mi, Broken Rice and Fire-Roasted Seafood

I’m always stoked when it’s time for me to meet my one-a-week banh mi quota. Quick, fresh, herby and filling – an all-star lunch. Coogee Hot Rolls is my reliable local – so I was awash with jealousy when I found out the team’s just moved into the old Alex’n’Rolls spot. Lucky you, Marrickville.

Of course, the filled white rolls are just one teeny slice of Vietnam’s wide-reaching cuisine – which has powered some of Sydney’s recent newcomers. We have all the details on the new inner west banh mi spot, along with a star chef’s new charcoal-powered 290-seater in Glebe, and a husband-and-wife-run shop that’s a favourite for its generous serves of broken rice.

Saigon Things, Strathfield

Saigon is the humming Vietnamese city that birthed banh mi, and it’s where street vendors create dazzling flavours from little more than fresh herbs, crisp vegetables and a sizzling grill. That’s what’s going on here, at the dining room opened by couple Duc Le and Tina Hoang in late 2025.

The thing to order? The generous com tam, or broken rice plate. The dac biet (“special”) version sees a grilled pork chop, marinated and brushed with a delicately sweet-savoury glaze, riding on top of a bed of firm, fluffy broken rice. It’s hedged by a slice of pork and egg meatloaf, shredded pork skin, and fresh and pickled vegetables, then topped with a gooey fried egg and adorned with pork croutons and scallion oil – a Saigon trademark.

There’s also banh canh cua, a bowl of tapioca noodles in crab and pork broth, plus shareable bamboo platters, pho and more.

“We want to tell people [that] Vietnamese food isn’t just about pho,” Le says. “There’s probably like 1000 dishes which we want to show people.”

28/45-47 The Boulevarde, Strathfield
@saigonthingseastery

Viet Bling, Marrickville

Marrickville’s cult banh mi shop Alex’n’Rolls closed suddenly in late 2025. But in its place is Viet Bling, where married team Hank and Nancy Tran (previously of Coogee Hot Rolls) are in the kitchen. Expect Bling’s banh mi to stick to the Alex basics, with a few new details.

Rolls now come from Quang Thanh Hot Bread, and get a swipe of the same rich, fluffy and deeply savoury pâté the couple were known for by the beach. Then there’s mayo, pickled carrot, radish, cucumber and coriander, a scatter of pork floss and fried onions for extra texture, and your choice of protein. 

The traditional is stuffed with pork – with Nancy breaking down whole pigs in the shop – or there’s a Viet-style scrambled eggs number, barbeque pork or chicken, a roast pork and crackling, and a vegan salad option. 

Sticky rice is available with the same toppings as the banh mi, swapping bread for a mound of glutinous rice lavished with pâté. 

321 Illawarra Road, Marrickville

Lua, Glebe

Star chef Luke Nguyen just opened this 290-seat dining room at the new Sydney Fish Market – and it’s where he’s captaining a charcoal hearth. The smoke and exposed grill remind Nguyen of Vietnamese street food, the way he shops for Lua’s menu each day reminds him of his parents, and the menu’s full of odes to family.

There’s a Vietnamese take on Cambodian amok, a steamed Khmer curry, where whole snapper is marinated in galangal, garlic and lemongrass, wrapped in banana leaves, then slow-cooked on the chargrill. Live lobster is chargrilled with prawn oil and Vietnamese satay and then flambadoued with butter – in a way you’d see in Nha Trang – while scallops are served on the shell with a brown-butter fish sauce and green mango.

The menu is long, and warrants repeat visits, but there’s a strong case for finishing every meal with the Vietnamese salted coconut coffee tiramisu (served tableside) or the “corn three ways”, a sweet inspired by Nguyen’s aunty, who is a wholesale corn dealer.

Shop E1C, Sydney Fish Market, 1 Bridge Road, Glebe
@luasydney

Additional reporting by Howard Chen and Lucy Bell Bird.