Sunny's Bakery, Collingwood

Sunny's Bakery, Smith st, Collingwood $4

I could have sworn Smith st had around 4 Vietnamese hot bread bakeries and planned on reviewing them all in one foul swoop. Really make a day of it I suppose, but on arrival, the reality of gentrification set in. A damn shame really. Only 2 places exist on all of Smith st to get a humble pork roll. N. Lee had already been reviewed so I had to make the most the day trip and get a huxtaburger to fill the hole that had enough space for 4 pork rolls. Now the reason we are here in the first place;
I can see why so many cool folks go to N.Lee over Sunny's but having said that its not entirely shit. Plenty of good cold sliced meat to give it some snout and not much salad, but still fresh. The bread rates highly but overall it is a fairly plain offering. Chilli had room for improvement and very generous with the pepper.

Bread: 3.5/5
Salad: 2/5
Meat: 4/5
Chilli: 2.5/5
Overall: 6/10

Ingredients: Mayo, Pat'e, 3 cold sliced meats, cucumber, pickled carrot, coriander, chilli, salt and pepper, soy sauce

Braybrook Bakehouse - Braybrook Shopping Center, Braybrook

Braybrook Bakehouse - Braybrook Shopping Center, Cnr Ashley St & Ballarat Rd, Braybrook $4.50

Can't say to much for the area or the establishment but lets face it, I had one thing on my mind and one thing only. I am talking pork. The downside of this pork roll was the bread. Far to soft and chewy, almost like a hotdog roll, and the salad was not the freshest but still passable. If it was not for those simple but significant things, this squealer could be a winner. The hot BBQ pork was delicious and the chilli left my lips burning for an hour. Now thats what I want. Soy sauce and BBQ sauce soaked up the last few bites and creates a higher taste that was not at the start. A real creeper.

Bread 2/5
Salad 2.5/5
Meat 4.5/5
Chilli 4/5
Overall 7.5/10

Ingredients: mayo, pat'e, carrot, coriander, spring onion, cucumber, BBQ pork, soy sauce, BBQ sauce, chilli

Crosta D'Oro Hot Bread, Thornbury

Crosta D'Oro Hot Bread, Cnr High St & Clarendon St, Thornbury $4.80

Before eating this 1kg bohemian baguette I was nervous. I thought to myself, this could be possibly the best or worst pork roll my adventures have taken me on. I had to ponder the ingredients in silence. Does coleslaw belong in a pork roll? This very question was unfathomable until the moment those tongs clutched the creamy cabbage sabotage. It was a day of allowing unorthodox ingredients in the fill so I didn't question the pork princess's motives. I thought to myself it could be an easy mistake as she happily tonged at the ingredients with the speed only a pork roll princess could possess. I had a quick conversation about the 'gravy' she asked if I wanted. A rich tomato, stock, garlic and ginger reduction added a good zing that I was looking forward to, and the peanuts, I am always one for the peanuts. An odd combination that paid off in the end. Presentation was great with meat on top and bottom and double whammy of onion. I am a fan of this bohemian.

Bread 3/5
Salad 4/5
Meat 4/5
Chilli 3/5
Overall 8.5/10 experimental viet pigs

Ingredients: mayo, pat'e, 2 cold sliced meats, vietnamese gravy, soy sauce, coleslaw, spring onion, onion, pickled carrot, coriander, chilli, peanuts

T`s Vietnamese Classics - Preston Martket, Preston

T`s Vietamese Classics - Preston Market food court, Preston $4

Busy ass place rubbing elbows with all nationalities competing for a table, cheap meats, fruits and vegetables. Be prepared to push and shove your way around this place. It is a great market no doubt, I have always preferred this over Vic Market for its price and freshness so when I saw a Vietnamese takeaway opened up I was pretty excited. Specialising mostly in other Vietnamese cuisine like Pho or other rice and noodle dishes, I was here for one thing. A shame no cold cuts on offer but the BBQ`d pork more than suffices. I was aghast when the lady put lettuce in this shapely offering and was tempted to throw it straight at the ground and stomp on it, but everything else looked so tasty and the lettuce was only minimal. A good spooning of a sweet fish sauce sealed the deal for me, with chilli seeds and and carrot floating in the bowl, it forgave the lettuce and turned out to be a tasty number although the bread was a let down.

Bread 2.5/5
Salad 2/5
Meat 4/5
Chilli 4/5
Overall 7.5/10 Viet pigs swimming in fish sauce

Ingredients: lettuce :( pickled carrot, cucumber, coriander, spring onion, regular butter, BBQ pork, chilli, soy sauce, sweet fish sauce

Tina`s Hot Bread, Preston

Tina`s Hot Bread, High St Preston $3.50

Not bad work from young Tina but room for improvement. Soggy salads, good pat'e, good meat and bread was decent. A little to much raw onion for some but I was not complaining. Generous salt and pepper with a kick in face of chilli, this pork grenade was a real creeper. The thing with a creeper is it gets better and better towards the end, once all the sauce and juices have soaked down to the last bite of bread. Preston certainly has some Pork Roll establishments the community should be proud of.

Bread 3/5
Salad 3/5
Meat 4/5
Chilli 4.5/5
Overall 7.8/10 hard to find a car park viet pigs

Ingredients: Mayo, Pat'e, 3 cold sliced porks, pickled carrot, cucumber, coriander, raw onion, chilli, soy sauce, salt and pepper

Barkly Hot Bread, Brunswick

Barkly Hot Bread, 84-86 Sydney Rd, Brunswick $3.70

Another pork roll with street cred but does not deliver its promise. Given its locale I am not surprised of its reputation amongst the trendy folk who are after a touch of culture, I must say I was not entirely disappointed. Meatball is indeed a good touch but if the other ingredients lack in quality, then your overall points are going to drop.  I have been here a number of times and the level of customer service is always the same - lousy. Now let me point out that this is a good thing. I dont want to be your friend and I dont want a fake smile, I just want a tasty, tasty pork roll. You, and your bad attitude are going to give it to me, quickly. But dont even think about skimping on ingredients. Definitely lacking in mayo and pate'.

Bread 2/5

Salad 2/5

Meat 4/5

Chilli 3/5

Overall 6/10 viet pigs with attitude 

Ingredients: Mayo, pat'e, 3 different cold sliced pork, meatball, coriander, cucumber, pickled carrot, chilli, soy sauce

Mai Lan, Preston

Mai Lan, 435 High St, Preston $3.50

I have been going to this place for years and have never had a bad pork roll. When asked for chilli I usually say "just a little bit" and end up with a small piece at the start, nothing in the middle and a huge chunk right at the end and always fire hot. This particular time I simply said "yes" to the chilli and watched her throw in quite a few pieces and it made me fairly nervous, thinking this is going to ruin my meal. For some reason unknown to me, I could taste the chilli but it had no kick at all. Nothing. Everything else rated highly but I had to deduct points for the chilli.

Bread 4/5

Salad 4/5

Meat 4/5

Chilli 2/5

Overall 7.5/10 regular customer viet pigs

Ingredients: Mayo, Pat'e, 4 different cold meats, pickled carrot w/ raddish, cucumber, coriander, spring onion, brown onion, chilli, soy sauce 

N.Lee, Collingwood

N.Lee 220 Smith St, Collingwood $4

A tasty pork roll no doubt about that, but unfortunately the street cred far outweighs the true substance of this one. I probably was not wearing enough op-shop clothes to get the nod of approval from the pork roll team at N.Lee but this visit was strictly business. It is a neat and efficient but westernised hot bread bakery that has lost its true sense of home. Bread was soft and chewy like a McDonalds bun and focused more on the mayo and pat'e as the centre of attention. Although it had excellent salad, Ho Chi Minh would be disappointed.

Bread 1/5
Salad 5/5
Meat 2/5
Chilli 2/5
Overall 5.5/10 raybanh wearing viet pigs on fixed gear bicycles

Ingredients: Mayo, Pat'e, 2 types cold sliced pork, pickled carrot, cucumber, coriander, brown onion, chilli, soy sauce

Nobel Bake house, Footscray

Nobel Bake House, Paisley St Footscray           $4

This place holds a lot of sentiment for me, as this is the place that started my love of Banh Mi nearly 20 years ago. So I hope it's with no biased opinion that I say this is one of Melbourne's BEST!.
The place looks horrible, is hardly noticeable and the ladies are not the chattiest but damn they have a fine tasting roll. I even went this time on a public holiday so I'm pretty sure the bread wasn't the freshest and it still scored high.
Although it's not advertised on their list of roll's my father and I order a "special roll" as this is what it was called when we first started going there. A special roll is simply a mixed ham style pork roll with a hot meat ball smeared inside. The trick with this place is, it seems to be absolute randomness as to wether or not you receive the meat ball or not. It just seems like if they couldn't be bothered doing the meat ball... then no meat ball it is!. For the record it's much better with the meat ball but still one of Melbs best even without it (this review was sans meat ball)
So having said all this I'm not going to describe what it tastes like but invite all (especially the Nhu Lan lovers of Footscray and N.Lee hipsters of Collingwood) to try and compare to your favourite. If you disagree with me then I will happily fight you.

Bread: 4/5
Salad: 4/5
Meat: 4/5
Chilli: 4/5

Overall:   8.75/10 sentimental Viet Piglets

Ingredients: 3 Meats, pickled carrot, sliced cucumber, chilli, coriander, mayo, special sauce (no photo of actual roll)

The Avenue S/C Bakery, Sunshine West

The Avenue Shopping Center Bakery, The Avenue Sunshine West      $3.50

Yes... that really is the uninspired name of this establishment!
Speaking of uninspired...  you can see by the photo this pork roll even looks sad :(
The only good thing I can really say about this one is, the chilli was hot but unfortunately was hardly there.
The bread made a mess but was quite soft. The cucumber was almost whole and lettuce just shouldn't have been there.
All the elements of a pork roll are there they are just pretty average.

Bread: 2/5
Salad:2/5
Meat:2/5
Chilli: 3/5

Overall: 5/10 Lethargic Viet Piglets

Ingredients: 3 meats, pickled carrot, lettuce, mayo, pat'e, coriander, spring onion, special sauce, big fat wedge of cucumber

Salina Hot Bread, Sunshine

Salina Hot Bread, Hampshire Rd Sunshine                $3.50

This is a funny little place in sunshine that does battle with an up market version only 2 doors away and despite being the ugly duckling of the 2 it is always busy (a good sign).

Very good pork roll!!

Allot of things going on in this one, i counted around 6 meats the usual pate' and mayo combo as well as special sauce made it pretty tangy and the rare shallots is a nice surprise. The bread is really good but was almost overcooked, it didn't "shatter" but was still crunchy enough to cut your gums!. The chilli in this one is by far the hottest i have come across.. awesome roll for just $3.50

Bread: 4/5 

Salad: 3.5/5

Meat:  4/5

Chilli: 5/5

Overall  8.27 /10 Viet Piglets choking on chilli

Ingredients: Lots of meat, pickled carrot, spring onion, coriander, purple onion, dried shallots, special sauce, mayo, pate', slice of cucumber, chilli

Nhu Lan Bakery, Footscray

Nhu Lan Bakery, 116 Hopkins St Footscray           $3.80

Disputed heavy weight champion of Melbourne's Banh Mi 'Vets'.
This son of a squeeeler is definitely going to make the finals but it's too early in the game to throw around terms like "Melbourne's best".
The team of 5 pork roll ladies is a spectacle un to itself, the soup nazi style way in which this establishment operates means they churn out fast, efficient, tasty treats at lightnin quick speed.
All elements of this roll are excellent, fresh salad, crunchy bread, hot chilli, tasty meats and well constructed ie: you don't have to take a bite from both sides to get meat and salad!.

We tried two of their best..

Meatball: 
Bread: 4/5
Salad: 3/5
Meat: 4/5
Chilli: 3/5

Overall: 8/10
Ingredients: Meatball, cucumber, coriander, pickled carrot w/ Radish, Vietnamese mayo, Pate'

BBQ Pork: 
Bread: 4/5
Salad: 3/5
Meat: 3/5
Chilli: 3/5

Overall 6/10

Ingredients:  BBQ Pork, cucumber, spring onion, coriander, pickled carrot w/ Radish, Vietnamese mayo, chilli

Also pictured Taro Moon Cake is a nice treat for dessert

Newport Bakery Cafe, Newport

Newport Bakery Cafe, Hall St Newport                 $3.80

Generous coriander and chilli but below average everything else!!! Aussie BBQ sauce was a shame, might be OK as a beginners Pork Roll but not for the seasoned Vet.

Bread: 2/5
Salad: 2/5
Meat: 2/5
Chilli 3/5

Overall: 4/10 disappointed Viet piglets

Ingredients: Margarine, pate', x2 ham style pork, pickled carrot, coriander, cucumber, chilli, aussie bbq sauce, soy sauce

N'Joy Cafe, Pascoe Vale

N'Joy Cafe, 86 Cumberland Rd Pascoe Vale       $5

Neat little friendly cafe, well rounded tasty pork roll with meat balls as an added deliciousness (special Vietnamese sauce was a nice touch as well) salad was packed with coriander which created a very fresh taste but unfortunately the chilli didn't pack much punch and the price is on the high side!

Bread: 2/5
Salad: 3/5
Meat: 3/5
Chilli: 2/5

Overall 6/10 Viet Pigglets

Ingredients: Vietnamese style mayo, Pate', x2 ham style pork, Meatball, Coriander, pickled carrot, cucumber, special sauce, chilli

T&D Hot Bread, Glenroy

T&D Hot Bread, 814 Pascoe Vale Road, Glenroy


Excellent crunchy bread that shatters when bitten. Fried shallots where good touch with soy sauce and Vietnamese BBQ sauce combo a bonus. Unfortunately the BBQ pork was microwaved and the spring onion not so fresh. A bit shy on the chilli for my liking also. Nevertheless an all round tasty pork roll.
For a side dish or extra try out the 'Vietnamese sausage roll' a small round pastry filled with pork mince.

BREAD: 4/5
SALAD: 2/5
MEAT: 2/5

OVERALL 6/10