OK. This is not about a restaurant called Battle of the Banh Mi. This is about sampling two banh mi joints in HCMC, Huynh Hoa (address: 26 Đ. Lê Thị Riêng, Phường Phạm Ngũ Lão, Quận 1) and Hồng Hoa (address: 54 Nguyễn Văn Tráng, Phường Phạm Ngũ Lão, Quận 1). They are located very close to each other and I think they might be rivals. We went to HCMC one weekend in August 2022 during our visit to Vietnam. I tried Huynh Hoa the first night and Hong Hoa the second night. Both were walking distance from our hotel.
Huynh Hoa: Located on the main road. Extremely busy, takeaway only. I wasn’t able to converse with any of the staff, but I got the impression they only make one sandwich with ‘everything’ in it and they are all pre-prepared. They just take your money (59k Dong) and hand you one straightaway in a branded paper bag. No options at all apparently. At least for non-Vietnamese speakers. I took the sandwich back to the hotel. It was big but not very well constructed, quite sloppy. I’m not a fan of mayonnaise - this seemed to have a bit, not a lot. If I remember correctly the cut chillies were in a separate plastic bag (I can’t remember accurately). There was roast pork, pork roll and the sort of fatty pork cold cut (cha lua?) all together. And the usual carrots, coriander, etc. It tasted fine but I’ve had better.
Hong Hoa: Down a side road, much less busy, also takeaway only. The real advantage to this place is they make your sandwich to order. So I could choose my preferred filling (roast pork, pate) and direct the placement of cut chillies, etc. It was considerably cheaper (35k Dong) than Huynh Hoa. I took the sandwich back to the hotel. It held together well, nicely constructed, not sloppy, very tasty.
I was so eager to dig into the banh mi that I forgot to take photos. So I just have one of the Hong Hoa shop front (because I was tickled that options for sandwich fillings included ‘Mayonaraise’ and ‘Hotdot’)
Verdict: Hong Hoa set-up, service and sandwich are all superior to Huynh Hoa. And cheaper!
