Bánh Cuốn Tây Hồ

Bánh Cuốn Tây Hồ
127 Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street
District 1
# 38200584

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Legend has it that this place serves the best bánh cuốn south of Hanoi …   and has for the past 50 years!!  

WELL, SOME LEGENDS ARE REAL!

So when I told Hai that I really felt like bánh cuốn for breakfast, he said he knew exactly where we should go.

Off to Bánh Cuốn Tây Hồ.

The main ingredient in the bánh cuốn (a classic northern Vietnam food item) that I’ve enjoyed during my days living in Hanoi – and now in my many years here in Saigon – is seasoned ground pork.

Here at Bánh Cuốn Tây Hồ, however, the pork filling is noticeably chunkier than any I’ve had before!  A great texture change.

Chunks of pork meat, chunks of taro, and chunks of onion, and bits of dark wood ear mushroom comprise the filling.  A truly delicious stuffing mix (particularly when doused with the sweet, sour, salty and spicy nước mắm dipping sauce in the large bottle at every table.)

Topped with crispy fried shallots, surrounded by streamed bean sprouts, and laying beside several thick slices of chả lụa (Vietnamese pork sausage), the bánh cuốn here is a nearly perfect breakfast treat – in my opinion! Of course, others show up here almost any time day or night.

But, I’ve saved the best for last.  All these great ingredients were only compliments to the main event here at Bánh Cuốn Tây Hồ.

The opaque-colored, ultra-thin noodle that was loosely draped around that yummy stuffing.

As Hai and I jumped off our motorbike, there was the “first impression” that dazzled!

With her bucket of slightly fermented rice and tapioca batter at the side of her small stool and the steaming station in full operation, the green and red clad bánh cuốn cook methodically mixed, scooped, poured, waited, and peeled the prize of the kitchen – an amazing gummy-textured rice noodle. YUM! YUM! YUM!

But wait, there’s more!

 Even though I was quite stuffed after the generous serving of bánh cuốn and chả lụa with a nice drink of sữa đậu nành (sweetened soy milk), Hai convinced me that it was “my job” as an Eating Saigon! dedicated worker to try the few other items available here.  Of course, being dedicated to my job, I succumbed.  

“Xin, cho anh bánh đậu và nem Huế.”  That semi-pathetic Vietnamese language request got me some very nice nem Huế (sour and spicy sausage) and a super-bonus treat, bánh đậu (a “turnover”, filled with rice, mung beans, and miscellaneous delicious ingredients with a crunchy, chewy, deep-fried xôi exterior skin) that was memorable!  Just excellent!

All that great food (all that work) and the bill for both of us just 100,000 vnd (about $5 USD). We’ll be back for certain.

UPDATE – January, 2018: Still excellent, YUM!!

UPDATE – February, 2019: Hate to repeat myself, BUT – still excellent!!

OPEN 5:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Bánh Cuốn Tây Hồ
127 Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street
District 1
# 38200584

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