Krispy Roll, Version 2 - Vietnamese ~ Haymarket

Krispy Roll closed then changed it's mind and had a revamp,  reopening at the shop next door. While they still do pork rolls, they've ditched the bargain price and expanded the menu.

Krispy Roll opened up in 2014 with a bargain promise - one of the cheapest pork rolls in the CBD. They closed late in 2017 and their shop space was replaced by Kusuka Cafe and Warung. Not long after, the shop next door became vacant, so Krispy Roll decided to make a come back.

The store has been redeveloped as well as the menu. They're a little more hipster funky in look (totally unlike our daggy baggy selves) with a number of eat in tables, while the emphasis on cheap banh mi has gone. The wider menu goes from rice dishes, pho, sticky rice, vermicelli salads and rice paper rolls, and they've kept the traditional pork banh mi, just not at $3.50 anymore.

There's a range of com (rice) dishes. The lemongrass beef broken rice at $10.50 was a filling lunch, plenty of well marinated beef and rice and we loved the boiled egg. Nuoc mam (fish and chili sauce) is served on the side in a little plastic container (even with eat in). The bento style lunch box makes it harder to mix everything together.

Classic Pork Banh Mi - $5.50. The original store started out with just pork rolls, and they've kept these and expanded the range. There's tofu, chicken, mushroom, tuna and grilled pork options. This roll is mostly roast pork, with mayonnaise and a little pate for extra flavour. There's a little bit of salad hiding in there as well.

The special beef noodle soup (pho) $11.50. Like all the eat in dishes, it's served in a plastic bowl with plastic spoons which doesn't win it many points with us. The lemon, chili and basil is served on top of the bowl, so you have to fish them out to squeeze, strip leaves or mix. The meatballs are good and bouncy and the serve of noodles and beef was enough, but the serve itself is smaller than round on George St at Pho Pasteur.

Hoisin and sriracha on the table to blob in as you wish.

Krispy Roll is at Shop 5, Bijou Lane, Haymarket (turn left after the Rendezvous Hotel).