Banh and Boba combined two of our favourite foods in a single store, and with no end to the positive reviews online, we too tried this ‘fancy’ bánh mì thit place in Chatswood.
As a point of reference, we are firm fans of Marrickville Pork Roll, and generally, also enjoy the bánh mì from the numerous ‘hot bread’ bakeries around Sydney.
This is their Traditional Pork Roll ($9.50).
This pork roll had two things going for it: 1) the generosity of the ingredients and 2) the quality of the ingredients. The latter was evident in every component of the pork roll, from the bread to the meats to the vegetables. If this was all there was to a pork roll, then its pricey premium would’ve been justified by its presence in Chatswood.
However, the quality of the ingredients did not translate to a good pork roll. First, the bread was dense (like the bake-at-home dinner rolls and not at all like the usual airy crisp baguettes) and while it was crispy in parts, it was also soggy and soft in others due to the pickled carrot, which was still wet from its pickling juice, and the pork belly, which was warm and juicy. Critically, the carrot also did not have sufficient tang or retain enough crunch, and the pate was lacking, so much of the pork roll tasted like any other roll for a Western palate. As for the lettuce? There is no place for lettuce in a pork roll.
Having decided their pork rolls were not for us, we tried to wash them down with their boba. Our first two choices were sold out, so we settled for the Pineapple Passionfruit Jasmine Tea Mojito ($8.50, large, 75% sweetness, no ice). It’s described as ‘a tropical drink bursty with summer flavours in floral, jasmine tea’.
The drink is carbonated with the tea brewed to order and topped with crushed pineapple and passionfruit pulp. Consumed chilled, notes of dewy jasmine came through but the tropical flavour was very weak as it relied exclusively on the pineapple and passionfruit fruit to ‘flavour’ the drink. The crushed pineapple pieces were too big to come up the straw and there simply wasn’t enough of either to make much of an impression on the jasmine tea base.
While bánh mì thit may be in short supply in Chatswood, the same can’t be said for boba. We simply don’t understand why this store has such great reviews.
Banh and Boba is located at Shop R04/260 Victoria Ave, Chatswood NSW 2067.