Restaurants in New Orleans going against the grain with offbeat bánh mì.
Affectionately known as Vietnamese po-boys, bánh mì have arguably become as quintessentially New Orleans as crawfish étouffée and Bananas Foster. The infusion of Vietnamese culture into the current Crescent City gumbo happened after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. In 1975, the Archbishop of New Orleans Philip Hannan brought refugees to the area who had evacuated from South Vietnam to camps in Fort Chaffe located in Northwest Arkansas. While their emigration occurred under less than ideal circumstances, it somehow seems serendipitous.
In many ways, New Orleans and Saigon (the reputed birthplace of the bánh mì) have a lot in common. We were both colonized by the French, both heavily Catholic (again, thanks to the French), have almost identical, subtropical climates, and we’re both surrounded by rivers and canals. Both cities are subject to seasonal flooding due to our low elevation and we both possess an almost innate love of rice and seafood, including crawfish.
The Vietnamese po-boy or bánh mì is the perfect confluence of these similarities. With its light, crisp crust and air crumb, bánh mì bread (made from a mixture of wheat and rice flour) might be modeled after the French baguette, but is eerily similar to po-boy bread in both texture and flavor. Typically, the classic bánh mì will feature proteins such as chả lụa (Vietnamese sausage) chargrilled pork, or Chinese BBQ pork packed into the baguette with cilantro, pickled daikon and carrots, crisp wheels of cucumbers and sliced jalapeno, and dressed with pâté and mayo.
You can’t go wrong with a traditional bánh mì from such venerated local spots such as Pho Tau Bay, Dong Phuong in the East and Hong Kong Market across the river in Terrytown, but those familiar flavors have morphed over the years with innovative chefs offering fresh takes on a classic. Take for example Banh Mi Boys, a Metairie restaurant that launched in the spring of 2016. Owner and devout food-lover Peter Nguyen opened his novel bánh mì concept at the tender age of 26, a shop attached to his parent’s Texaco station on Airline Drive. From the very beginning he was bounding outside the box with Oyster Rockefeller “po-boys” on Dong Phuong bread, later adding bánh mì stuffed with Korean bulgogi beef and fried shrimp smothered in sriracha. If you haven’t stopped by in a while, it’s past time to taste Nguyen’s latest creation inspired by Japanese cuisine – a Yakiniku (aka wood charcoal-grilled) beef short rib bánh mì piled high with Togarashi-seasoned fried onions.
Another Nguyen in the local restaurant industry Betty Archote, the founder of Westbank eateries Thanh Thanh and Huey P’s Pizza, recently launched a third spot in Gretna dubbed Dough Nguyener’s. Specializing in baked goods such as pastries, fresh bao, and (seasonal) king cakes – this year’s version was filled with a bright green pandan crème – the Lafayette Street bakery also features a full lunch menu touting a dozen different bánh mì. You’d be remiss not to try the classically-leaning Nguyener Special with a meaty quartet of Vietnamese pork roll, xa xiu, ham and pâté, but flex your taste buds a little more with a Pho Debris bánh mì which is like the soup in sandwich form with leftover stock-seasoning meats sauteed with onions, garlic and bone marrow, and piled onto their fluffy, crispy-crusted, house made bread with all of the usual veggie suspects.
Billowing out of the ‘cue, there’s a unique take on bánh mì in the South Market District at Devil Moon BBQ, a relative newcomer born from the Washington D.C.-based Neighborhood Restaurant Group. Pitmaster Shannon Bingham, a locally-grown chef known for his contributions to Blue Oak BBQ and Emmylou’s, offers an array of smoky-styled sandwiches from pulled pork to chopped beef, but just recently they added a pastrami bánh mì. Loaded with thick, crusty, fat-laced slices of house-smoked pastrami with bánh mì herbs and veggies, this Viet-styled ‘wich kicks up the heat with a chili lime sauce slathered onto Dong Phuong bread.
Edging into the bougier bánh mì, enter the Elizabeth Street Cafe, a French bakery and Vietnamese bistro that opened adjacent to the newly-renovated Hotel Saint Vincent during the summer of 2021. While trying to decide whether to indulge in macaron, pain au chocolat or yuzo miso cookies for dessert, you can enjoy a vegan pho for lunch, featuring cloud mushrooms and organic tofu or you can eat one of several intriguing bánh mì. How can one choose between a pho-spiced roast beef with sambal mayo or Cajun fried oysters smeared with fish sauce caramel, but this writer’s hunger is piqued by the salt and pepper shrimp bánh mì and all the goodness a Chinese-styled Vietnamese po-boy like that promises.
Though it’s stepping almost completely outside the boundaries of bánh mì, Juan’s Flying Burrito, the self-described Creole taqueria with four locations across town (and one in Pensacola), offers its own interpretation of the Viet-style po-boy, only without the bread (ie. bánh mì). Other than the ubiquitous pickled vegetables, cucumber and cilantro, the only thing that qualifies Juan’s Creole chicken “bánh mì” tacos is its name.
*Article originally published in the April 2025 issue of Where Y’at Magazine
