Banh Mi in East Village: Bánh Anh Em's Basement-Baked Bread

Bánh Anh Em takes no reservations, and a line often forms on Third Avenue before the 6 pm opening. The restaurant is at 99 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10003, in the East Village between 12th and 13th streets, serving dinner Tuesday to Sunday from 6 pm to 10 pm, plus lunch from noon to 4 pm Friday through Sunday. The O.G. Bánh Mì is $14.95. For banh mi near me below 14th Street, this is the sandwich Time Out ranked first in New York in 2026.

The storefront sits on Third Avenue on the block between East 12th and East 13th streets, in the space that held Cutlets for a little over two years before signage for Bánh Anh Em went up in August 2024. The quickest subway is the L to Third Avenue, whose exits are a block north at 14th Street. Riders on the 4, 5, 6, N, Q, R or W can get off at 14th Street-Union Square and walk east along 13th Street in about five minutes.

The restaurant is BYOB, so bring your own bottle if you want wine or beer with dinner, since there is no bar list to order from. The kitchen also runs a pickup counter: online orders through the official Square page are collected at the same 99 3rd Ave door, so you never need to stand in the dine-in line to get a sandwich.

Bánh Anh Em is run by chef Nhu Ton and John Nguyen. Vietnamese press reports that Ton, born in 1990 in Đắk Lắk province, studied restaurant and hotel management in Vietnam and spent 14 years working in American kitchens before this opening. The pair started with a cơm tấm broken-rice shop in the Bronx in 2018, and the restaurant's own timeline still shows photos labelled Bronx 2018 and Bronx 2019.

In 2020, as the pandemic shut restaurants across the city, they opened Bánh Vietnamese Shop House on the Upper West Side as a project built around hard-to-find Vietnamese dishes. The website explains that they chose the Chim Lạc, a mythical water bird from ancient Vietnam, as their emblem, because it stands for conquering challenges that look impossible. The lesson they took from that year, in their words, was that nothing is impossible.

The East Village sibling ran weekend pop-ups at the address in March 2025 and had its grand opening in April 2025. The name means roughly brothers and sisters, and the founders write that the restaurant is the culmination of those earlier years, a place where we are all anh em. The restaurant's Instagram announcement called it Chef Nhu's love letter to Vietnam, shaped by the countless trips she has made across the country by motorbike.

Everything here starts with the roll. Time Out reports that Ton kneads and stretches the dough in the restaurant's basement each day and bakes the football-sized loaves shortly before service. The Infatuation's Will Hartman, who gave the restaurant a 9.0 in an April 2026 review, describes each batch coming out of a basement steam oven and being paraded through the dining room. The crust is thin and shell-like, the crumb is airy, and it shatters into crumbs on the first bite.

The O.G. Bánh Mì at $14.95 is the order to begin with. Coarse house patê is spread on the bread, then layered with three house-made cold cuts: beef, pork ham and Vietnamese head cheese. Basil, cilantro and pickled carrot and daikon go on top, finished with a heap of pork floss that adds a brown-sugar sweetness. Time Out put this exact sandwich at the top of its updated list of the best sandwiches in New York in August 2026.

There are more than eight versions to work through. The pickup menu lists the School Boy Bánh Mì Ốp La with fried sunny eggs, homemade patê, sausage, soy sauce, fresh chillies and Tường An butter for $14.95, the char-fired pork belly Thịt Nướng with scallion oil and hoisin for $14.95, and Heo Quay crispy pork belly with pickled mustard greens and chili hoisin for $14.95. The grilled ribeye Bò Nướng, cooked medium rare over charcoal, and the betel-leaf Bò Lá Lốt with saté and crushed peanuts are each $15.49.

Vegetarians get a Veggie Pesto sandwich of lightly fried tofu and charred king oyster mushrooms with a basil pesto blended with peanuts, which also contains dairy, at $14.95. For a smaller bite, the Bánh Mì Pate comes as two pieces for $10.95. Hartman calls the Hải Phòng-style patê bread an adorable snack and the right vehicle for the garlicky house hot sauce, since the smaller loaf makes the crust even louder.

The dining room menu reaches well past bread. Phở Bắc, the northern-style beef noodle soup with rare steak, brisket and beef belly, is $19.95, and the Phở Đặc Biệt with ginger steak, hand-pulled brisket, tendon and tripe is $22.95. Bún Riêu with crab and pork meatballs, puffed tofu and pork cracklings in a tomato broth is also $22.95, and a crispy quẩy donut for dipping adds $3.49. The rice noodles are made in house daily.

Groups come for the Bánh Ướt Chồng, a tiered silver tray of silky rice sheets that you roll yourself around charred pork jowl, sausage, pickled mustard greens and raw mango before dipping into mắm tôm. Chả Cá Lã Vọng brings catfish that finishes cooking at the table over dill and green onion. The Michelin Guide, which lists Bánh Anh Em at the $$ price level, also singles out the bánh cuốn and the crisp golden bánh xèo crepes.

Not everything earns its place on a crowded table. Skip the Rau Muống if you ordered it hoping for something light: Hartman notes the morning glory is cooked so buttery that it does not solve that problem at all. The Patê Chaud is worth a try for its flaky pastry, but the sausage inside is the weaker half, so dunk it in hot sauce. Save the room for a second sandwich instead.

The rules are simple and strict. The restaurant's website states no reservations and walk-ins only, so dinner guests sign up for the waitlist at the door. Time Out says the line can start forming as early as 5 pm for the 6 pm opening, and Vietnamese press has reported waits of one to two hours at peak times. Bánh Anh Em sells around 2,000 bánh mì a week and often runs out of sandwiches before closing.

The Infatuation's advice for anyone who does not want to queue for dinner is to come for lunch, which runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 pm, or to order takeout. Solo diners can aim for the counter seats, where trays of pork belly and fresh baguettes pass within arm's reach. The Infatuation's own trick is to eat in and order one more sandwich to go with the check, so tomorrow's lunch is already sorted.

Do not come on Monday, when the restaurant is closed, and do not plan a weekday lunch here, because Tuesday to Thursday service starts at 6 pm. If the dinner wait is longer than an hour, or the sandwiches have sold out, walk ten minutes east to Xe Máy Sandwich Shop on St. Marks Place, a graffiti-covered basement counter that has made bánh mì on the block since 2011, or place a Square pickup order here for a later slot.

Webster Hall is a short walk south on East 11th Street, between Third and Fourth avenues. Charles Rentz designed the Queen Anne-style hall in 1886, and in the 1980s it housed The Ritz, where Prince, U2 and Guns N' Roses played. The building became a New York City landmark in 2008 and reopened on April 26, 2019, with a Jay-Z concert after a $10 million renovation. A late dinner here lines up well with an evening show.

Head west along 12th Street to Broadway and you reach the Strand, the bookstore that Benjamin Bass founded in 1927 with $300 of his own savings and $300 borrowed. It sits on the corner of Broadway and East 12th Street, two blocks south of Union Square, and still prints its 18 Miles of Books slogan on tote bags and stickers. Browsing there is a good way to wait out the dinner list on a cold night.

Bánh Anh Em, 99 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10003, between East 12th and East 13th streets in the East Village. The listed contact is banhvny@gmail.com. Hours are Monday closed, Tuesday to Thursday 6 pm to 10 pm, and Friday to Sunday noon to 4 pm and 6 pm to 10 pm. It is walk-ins only with no reservations, BYOB, and credit cards are accepted. Pickup orders and digital gift cards are sold through the official Square site.