RFK Cuisine · Vietnamese · Melbourne
Best Vietnamese Restaurants in Melbourne 2026
Vietnamese · Melbourne · 6 tables ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 27, 2026 · Updated June 27, 2026
Two suburbs do most of the work on Melbourne's Vietnamese map: Footscray in the west and Richmond's Victoria Street in the inner east, both built by post-war refugee families into dense strips of pho shops, banh mi bakeries and grocers. From that everyday base the city has grown a top end few others can match, with Vietnamese-Australian chefs taking pho, banh cuon and nuoc mam into tasting-menu territory. The range is the point here: a five-dollar banh mi and a hundred-dollar set menu are both, unmistakably, Melbourne Vietnamese. These are the six tables we send people to in 2026, ranked on the cooking, the room and what it costs, with the dish to order and who each is for.
1.Anchovy
Thi Le's Viet Kieu set menu in a 24-seat Richmond room — book it for the most thoughtful Vietnamese cooking in the city and a meal that argues a point.
Anchovy, on Bridge Road in Richmond, is chef Thi Le's small, serious room, reopened after a hiatus and back to doing what made its name: cooking the Viet Kieu experience, the food of Vietnamese people raised outside Vietnam, rather than a museum-piece menu. Le is explicit that this is not a traditional Vietnamese restaurant but an amalgam of Australian and Vietnamese ideas, and the set menu carries it — soft, fragrant crab banh cuon with fried shallots and a salty-sweet nuoc mam salad among the dishes that stop a table. Twenty-four seats, limited services, and cooking with a clear point of view. For the most intellectually ambitious Vietnamese food in Melbourne, Anchovy is the one to book.
Book ahead, the room is tiny; the crab banh cuon, the set menu, and whatever the kitchen is fermenting.
2.Sunda
Khanh Nguyen's CBD laneway room where Vietnamese roots meet obsessive technique — book it for a special-occasion dinner that rewards the spend.
Sunda, on Punch Lane in the CBD, is where Vietnamese-Australian chef Khanh Nguyen built one of Melbourne's most-talked-about modern kitchens, working across South-East Asia but anchored in Vietnamese flavour and pastry obsession. The signature is the banh mi pate en croute — chicken and pork-liver pate, pork mince and cha lua wrapped in pastry — a single dish that captures the whole approach: a street classic rebuilt with fine-dining craft. The room is a polished laneway space, the service serious, the price the highest on this list and earned. It is broader than strictly Vietnamese, which is the honest caveat, but the heart of it is. For modern, occasion-grade cooking rooted in Vietnam, Sunda is the destination.
Book ahead for evenings; the banh mi pate en croute, the roti, and the full set menu.
3.Co Thu Quan
The Victoria Street room for northern Vietnamese cooking you rarely see in Australia — go for com am phu and dishes Saigon menus skip.
Co Thu Quan, on Victoria Street in Richmond, is the pick for northern Vietnamese cooking, the regional seam that most Australian Vietnamese restaurants — built largely by southern, Saigon-rooted families — leave out. The kitchen leans into Hanoi and the north: the com am phu platter pairs rice with a spread of small sides like pickled unripe eggplant and chilli-fried baby crabs, and the menu runs to bun cha and dishes you will struggle to find elsewhere in the city. It is casual, cheap and busy, with branches across Richmond and Footscray. For the northern half of Vietnamese cooking, served honestly and at neighbourhood prices, Co Thu Quan is the one that broadens your map. Order the com am phu to understand the kitchen.
Walk in; the com am phu, the bun cha, and a Vietnamese iced coffee.
4.Pho Nom
Jerry Mai's polished CBD pho counter with everything made in-house — go for a fast, clean bowl when you're in town and short on time.
Pho Nom is chef Jerry Mai's quick-service pho shop, now running in Melbourne's CBD after its original Emporium store, and it is the cleanest, most considered version of a city-centre pho. Mai — one of Melbourne's most visible Vietnamese cooks, also behind Annam and Hello Mr Wolf — builds the bowl on family recipes, with everything except the bread made in-house, including the pate and the free-range chicken-and-egg mayo. The result is a fast counter feed that tastes home-made rather than industrial. It is not the cheapest pho in town, but for the CBD it is the one to beat. For a clean, properly made bowl between meetings or before a show, Pho Nom is the reliable city pick.
Order at the counter; the beef pho, a side of goi cuon, and a ca phe sua da.
5.N. Lee Bakery
The inner-city banh mi bakery that bakes its own baguette three times a day — go for the best-value roll on this list and a huge fillings range.
N. Lee Bakery, with shops in Collingwood and Fitzroy, is the banh mi specialist on this list, and it understands that the whole thing rests on the bread. The kitchen bakes three times a day for a baguette that is crusty outside and pillowy within, then fills it with house-made pork-liver pate and mayonnaise and a huge range of cold cuts, grilled meats and vegetarian options, with the pickled carrot and coriander doing their work. The value is extraordinary for the quality, and the queue at lunch tells you the locals know it. It is a takeaway counter, not a restaurant, which is exactly right for a banh mi. For the best roll in the inner city, baked in-house, N. Lee is the call.
Walk in at lunch; the classic pork banh mi, a grilled-chicken roll, and an iced coffee.
6.Pho Hung Vuong Saigon
Footscray's original pho institution for a huge, aromatic bowl at speed — go for the beef combination and the OG bowl people drive across town for.
Pho Hung Vuong Saigon, on Hopkins Street along Footscray's Vietnamese strip, is the institution — the one many Melburnians name as the city's best pho and the bowl that anchors the western suburbs' claim to it. The room is plain and the service is blink-and-it's-there fast; the broth is liquid gold, deeply aromatic, ladled over generous sliced beef and brisket with the herbs, sprouts and onion on the side. The menu runs short and clean, with broken rice and pork spring rolls worth adding. There is often a line at peak, and it moves quickly. For a huge, honest, properly built bowl of pho at a great price, Pho Hung Vuong is the Footscray benchmark. Order the beef combination.
Walk in, expect a brief queue; the beef-combination pho, pork spring rolls, and a three-colour drink.
How Melbourne eats Vietnamese
Melbourne's Vietnamese scene grew from the refugee families who settled in Footscray and along Richmond's Victoria Street from the late 1970s, and those two strips still set the rhythm. They are the value-and-volume heartlands: pho shops, banh mi bakeries, grocers and rice-roll counters where you eat well for under fifteen dollars. Layered on top is a CBD and inner-north restaurant tier, and then a small but seriously accomplished top end — Anchovy and Sunda — where Vietnamese-Australian chefs cook with technique and a point of view. The through-line is that the everyday and the ambitious feed each other; the chefs at the top grew up eating the bowls at the bottom.
A few practical notes for 2026. The everyday strips run on walk-ins and fast turnover, so go hungry and don't expect to book. Cash still helps at some of the older Footscray rooms. Pho is best at lunch or early, when the broth has been on a while but the room hasn't run out, and the beef combination is the order that shows you the kitchen. Save the booking energy for Anchovy and Sunda, which run small and fill fast. For the wider city, use the full Melbourne dining guide and our best Thai in Bangkok list for a regional cross-reference.
Where not to look for it
Skip these for a serious Melbourne Vietnamese meal
The CBD food-court "pho", if you care about the broth. A good pho broth is simmered for hours with charred onion, ginger and spices; the shopping-centre versions are too often thin, over-sweet and built on stock powder. The real bowls are a short tram or train ride away in Footscray or on Victoria Street, and they cost about the same. Travel the extra fifteen minutes; the difference is the whole dish.
The "modern Asian" room that uses Vietnam as garnish. Plenty of Melbourne restaurants borrow a nuoc cham or a rice-paper roll into a pan-Asian menu without committing to the cuisine. Anchovy and Sunda earn the modern label because their cooking is rooted in real Vietnamese technique and flavour; a fusion room that treats Vietnam as one note among many is not the same thing. For modern Vietnamese, go to the kitchens that mean it.
Frequently asked
What is the best Vietnamese restaurant in Melbourne?
It depends on what you want. For modern, ambitious Vietnamese-Australian cooking, Anchovy on Bridge Road in Richmond, where chef Thi Le works the Viet Kieu idea, is the critics' pick, and Sunda in the CBD from Khanh Nguyen is the fine-dining choice. For a straight, brilliant bowl of pho, Footscray's Pho Hung Vuong Saigon is the institution, with Pho Nom from Jerry Mai the polished CBD version. Co Thu Quan covers northern Vietnamese, and N. Lee Bakery bakes the banh mi. Between them they run from a five-dollar roll to a tasting menu.
Where do you go for the best pho in Melbourne?
Footscray and Richmond's Victoria Street are the two pho heartlands, and the classic answer is Pho Hung Vuong Saigon on Hopkins Street in Footscray, a fast, no-frills institution that pours generous bowls of aromatic beef broth with sliced beef and brisket. Pho Nom, Jerry Mai's CBD shop, is the cleaner, more polished take, with the pate and mayo made in-house. Co Thu Quan in Richmond does a fine bowl too, alongside its northern specialities. For pho specifically, head west to Footscray or to Victoria Street and order the beef combination.
What's the difference between Footscray and Richmond for Vietnamese food?
They are Melbourne's two Vietnamese heartlands and they have slightly different characters. Footscray, in the west, is the older, larger and more everyday of the two, dense with pho shops, banh mi bakeries and grocers around Hopkins and Nicholson Streets, and it skews to value and volume. Richmond's Victoria Street, the inner-east strip long called Little Saigon, runs a similar mix with more restaurants and a few modern players like Anchovy on nearby Bridge Road. For a cheap, authentic feed, Footscray; for restaurants and range, Richmond and the CBD.
What Vietnamese dishes should I order in Melbourne?
Start with pho, the beef-broth noodle soup that the city does as well as anywhere outside Vietnam, ordered with the rare-beef-and-brisket combination. Then a banh mi, the baguette roll with pate, cold cuts, pickled carrot and coriander, best from a dedicated bakery like N. Lee. Add fresh rice-paper rolls, bun cha or bun bo Hue, com tam broken rice, and banh xeo, the turmeric crepe. At the modern rooms, hand the menu back and let Anchovy or Sunda run a set menu. Finish with a Vietnamese iced coffee, ca phe sua da.
Do you need to book Vietnamese restaurants in Melbourne?
Only at the top end. Anchovy runs limited services and a small room, so book ahead, and Sunda fills in the CBD, especially at weekends. The pho shops, banh mi bakeries and casual rooms like Co Thu Quan and Pho Hung Vuong run on walk-ins and fast turnover, so you turn up and may queue briefly at peak. Pho Nom is counter-service quick. As a rule, book anything with a tasting menu and treat the everyday Footscray and Victoria Street spots as walk-in. See the full Melbourne dining guide for hours and links.
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