Banoi CBD

Rice paper rolls were about at least 85% vermicelli, so couldn't get much if any flavor and crunch from the other components. Lemon grass beef was a let down, disintegrated meat and the lemon grass taste didn't come through. Also would have been helpful if taught how to best enjoy the dish as we didn't know what to do with the fish sauce it came with. Not really a fan of sweet fish sauce so I put a little amount, though I would guess even if I put more it wouldn't make much of a difference to the whole food experience. We went on a Thursday night and it seemed a lot more customers were there for the drinks.

Good food and service, you even get to sit on seats with bicycle pedals.

I have been desperately trying to find good (or any) cao lau in Melbourne since around 2010 when I first fell in love with the dish. I have probably eaten over a hundred bowls of cao lau over my numerous trips to Hoi An and had my favourite places and versions there. I had only been able to find cao lau at three local restaurants (two on Victoria St, one in Prahran on a delivery app) prior to finding it at Banoi and none of the others were great and two had closed by the time I went to order a second time. The cao lau at Banoi was by far the most authentic tasting (despite the addition of non-traditional extra ingredients) I've had in Melbourne and I've been back three times just for that. I may see whether they mind me being an annoying customer and ask to customise it (remove prawns and coleslaw-like-salad and hopefully swap for more asian herbs and lettuce), so it is closer to my favourite cao lau. If I could get that, I would genuinely order it most (possibly all) days I was buying lunch in the city.

Rudest service ever. These guys can’t handle a big table. The restaurant offers nice food but when it comes to service, this is the worst. We were celebrating our colleague‘s birthday so we were told to book and preorder in advance, so we did it the day before. Enough time to cook for 10 people right? We get in at 1.00 pm as per booking and the 3 of our colleagues including out birthday girl were served at 1.50 pm. Such a bad time for her birthday celebration. She had to take it away and ended up eating it at her desk.

Amazing food, awesome prices, friendly staff

Food was lovely though we arrived a bit late after lunch so they had run out of stuff. Had the sriracha chicken, beef pho roll and waygu salad. Was mostly happy with the food but the beef pho rolls were not as flavourful as expected, all in all a good feed

Rudest service when approaching the restaurant side of the business! (There’s a small takeaway counter inside the building, same building and the girls are lovely!) Small group of us wanted to try the Friday crispy pork special. Arrived 10 min before scheduled opening; restaurant doors were open, music loudly playing, we slightly poked our head in and saw a tall young guy blonde hair, we made eye contact - he then stuck his index finger up at us? We assumed as if to wait? How rude. Not a chance we would step foot inside this place after being greeted like that! Could have easily just said oh hey guys won’t be a second? We aren’t unreasonable or pompous people but getting a finger stuck up at you as if you’re a 3 year old child? No shortage of good places to eat at!

Delicious food, and happy hour prices were great. Loved sitting on the sidewalk late at night

Really delicious and massive soup, and tools and everything.

Yum yum yum! Friday is the best day to go to this place for the Friday Specials - the pork belly bao is out of this world!! Don’t get there too late though - they had sold out of 3 dishes by 1.40pm which was disappointing but that couldn’t take away from the quality of the food! Staff were accommodating and were good at providing recommendations! We will definitely be back!!