Bun Bun Bakery, Springvale by Big Fil

Being from the wilds of Minnesota and then Arizona, Tucson Trevor had only ever tried bahn mi once. More surprisingly despite spending the best part of three decades as a Melbourne girl Snooze had never tried them before at all. To remedy these deficiencies, the three of us plus surprise special guest Mr H headed off to Springvale to indulge in one of Vietnams finest exports.

There are a number of bakeries selling these Vietnamese rolls scattered around the shopping centre and without sampling each it's hard to be certain which is best. There is a place nearer to the train station where I normally head, dragged in by their very generous way with the crispy pork rolls. But I'd been interested in trying Bun Bun Bakery for a while, mainly because of the write-ups pasted on the window where The Age named it one of Melbourne's best 10 sandwiches.


So what is a bahn mi? Well, Vietnam was once a French colony so some of its food shows this cultural mix. Think of a fresh baguette, sliced lengthways and filled with a mix of European salad (sliced carrot, cucumber...), Asian style herbs (coriander and chilli) and meats (sliced pork, lemon grass or grilled chicken...). The result is a punchy flavoured sandwich, filling but not something which will weigh you down and these days generally priced at around $4 a roll.


Bun Bun bakery offers a variety of rolls including sliced and crispy pork, lemon grass chicken and the chicken kebab. My choice de jour was the lemon grass chicken, just for a change from my normal pork. So what was a sandwich classified as one of Melbourne's 10 best like? Well, as you'd expect it's a pretty good sandwich. Nice crispy crusted but softly fleshed bread, fresh salad and herbs and much better quality meat than you'd expect for a generic $4 sandwich. I'd have liked it to be a bit more generous with the meat though, as it felt like it was at least 80% salad.


I didn't get to try any of the others choices, whether the pork or the chicken kebab, but we were all impressed by Mr H's ability to deal with a large amount of the fairly fiery chilli he asked for with his roll.


Overall
It's good, but I don't think it's the best Bahn Mi I've had in Springvale. It did seem to be pretty popular though, even more so than the place I prefer. And that moral of that is I think that its good we don't all love the same places, otherwise we'd never be able to get a seat!

Verdict
Food - 7.5
Service - 7
Ambience - 6
Price - 8

Address
288 Springvale Road
Springvale VIC 3171
Tel: (03) 9547 8289