Top Marks At Top Ryde Baker's House

Top Ryde Baker's House sells some of Sydney's most popular banh mis. Some people drive up to an hour to get their fix of their banh mis with signature fillings like Chinese bbq pork or char siu or crispy pork with crackling. So what are they like and are they worth a visit?

It was just before 5pm on a Thursday afternoon and we finally found ourselves in the vicinity of Top Ryde Baker's House. The problem was that it closes at 5:30pm. "We won't get there until 5:26pm," Mr NQN told me. In preparation, I looked up where it was in the Top Ryde Shopping Centre and saw that it was right next to Woolworths. I had my workout gear on and was ready to sprint towards the bakery.

Then Mr NQN missed a turn. "Arrrgh!!" I said and he shook his head in dismay. Our arrival was now 5:31pm.

"Maybe they'll have customers and they'll still be open,"I ventured as a guess, ever hopeful.

At 5:31pm we arrived. "Let me out of the car!" I said to Mr NQN and he parked. I dashed out of the car and by the time I was within metres of the bakery it was 5:34pm but there were 2 people at the counter. Breathless, I asked "Can I still get banh mi?". The woman behind the counter says, "Yes but miss, there is a line," pointing towards the carpet, bollards and line of half a dozen people who looked like they are waiting to get into a club. Oops.

About 10 minutes later they wave and I go up to the counter. At 5:45pm on a Thursday there are quite a few fillings still available even now and the only one that isn't is the crispy pork (their signature one). The woman behind the counter is friendly and tells me that no matter what time it is, if there's someone in the queue they will keep serving; even at 6pm when I leave, that queue of half a dozen people is steadily replenished. Some nights they have even served up until 7pm. "For the full experience come on the weekend. If you haven’t waited an hour then you’re not getting the full experience," she says laughing.

I later learn that her name is Him Yan and she and her husband Fenzhi Lin and nephew Kim Seng run Top Ryde Baker's House. The couple have been in the food industry for 30 years and their first store was St Clair Bread, Cakes and Pies. They were then approached by the Top Ryde leasing manager to open a shop in the shopping centre and in 2010 they opened Top Ryde Baker's House. Kim does their social media for them and explains, "Food is truly important to my aunty because our family had gone through Pol Pot Khmer rouge regime. She knows what it's like to starve and her appreciation of food comes from her past trauma. We only want to be able to share our family flavours with everyone and hopefully bring them joy & happiness when they do eat our food. Popularity is only given to us by our loving customers if it wasn't for our customers being patient with us in line and sharing the love of our food the way we also love it, we wouldn't be here today. In October 2018 a tradie named Sam did the first viral post on pork roll appreciation page on facebook." And now there are always queues.

There's no skipping of the queue but there is one way around it with some pre-planning. You can message them on Instagram after 6pm the night before if you want to order 10 or more banh mis and this is the only way to skip the queue. And then you'll have 10 banh mi which is actually not a bad situation to be in (just saying!).

Each banh mi is sliced and filled fresh to order and they take their time doing this. She laments that at this hour, the bread won't be as crisp as it is in the mornings. When she has finished she shows me the tray with four fat, filled, glistening banh mis. We take these to a nearby dog park in Croydon and unwrap them.

Part of the reason for Top Ryde Baker's House's loyal patronage (some travel for an hour for their banh mis) is because each banh mi is stuffed full of filling. All of the banh mis have the same salad and condiment mix (except the vegetarian one) i.e. pate, egg mayo, cucumber, carrot, coriander, pickled daikon radish, cooked onion, shallot and fried onion. It's mainly the meat toppings that are different. The BBQ pork and the crispy pork is one of their signature banh mis and it is good although I think diced charsiu with sauce would be even better and a bit more luscious. You can also get extra meat or salad although I think you'd be hard pressed to fit any more into one of these sandwiches.

I had read that the meatballs were a bit firm, not like those wonderfully soft melt in the mouth Vietnamese meatballs but the meatball banh mi suffers no such fate. This is the sauciest one and perhaps why I like it so much. The chilli spread is spicy and tingly but not overwhelming while the fresh salad is crunchy and it's wonderful against the soft, plump meatballs.

What I really enjoy about these rolls is how different each one is, despite the similarities in the salad mix. The lemongrass beef is aromatic with lemongrass and tender beef strips.

Likewise the teriyaki chicken is sweet and salty with a sweet soy marinade. This one is saucy too and goes so well with the salad. For me, I love the meatball roll followed by the chicken and then the beef and then the bbq pork (but realistically I'd happily devour any of them without a peep of complaint).

A few weeks later I am headed back to Top Ryde for other reasons and I am determined to try the crispy pork banh mi. I arrive at 4:10pm on a Friday afternoon. The shop is lit up with around half a dozen people in the queue.

And what greets me when I reach the front is a sight to behold. Three large pork shoulders with crispy skin sit under the heat lamps. I can see the nubbled surface of the crackling and can almost hear the crunch already.

I lift the enormous crispy pork banh mi and wish that I had a scale so that I could tell you how heavy and laden it is. This is the polar opposite of the banh mi you might get for breakfast in Vietnam that are lightly filled with pate, meat and salad. This has heft and absolutely packed with cubes of bouncy pork, salad and sauce. Every second bite has that addictive crunch of crackling. Next time I would double the crackling and chilli on this just to give it a bit more spice and just so I get that crunch on every bite. Kim explains that the crispy pork banh mi took over 2 years to get right. And I'm just planning my next visit now...

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have a favourite banh mi that you always order? Have you ever tried the banh mi here?

This food was independently paid for.

Top Ryde Baker's House

Top Ryde Shopping Centre

LG2/109 Blaxland Rd, Ryde NSW 2112

7am-5:30pm 7 days a week