A bánh mì queue in Hanoi does not always mean the same food, clientele or history. In a 2026 survey of four long-running shops, VnExpress documented lines of dozens around the Old Quarter and the cathedral area. At one lunchtime destination, customers waited fifteen to twenty minutes for a menu of nearly twenty sandwiches priced from 12,000 to 35,000 dong; many were foreign visitors or people drawn by online attention. A shop founded on Hàng Gai Street in 1979 served a more local morning trade between 7 and 9 a.m. Three workers handled traditional sandwiches costing 12,000 to 15,000 dong, and the business had relocated after Typhoon Yagi.
Another shop on Phố Huế had operated for almost half a century. Its 30,000-to-40,000-dong sandwiches drew queues of dozens, including customers attached to a flavour they had known for years. On Lãn Ông Street, a business established in 1989 served both residents and travellers, charging 25,000 to 30,000 dong and expanding as demand grew. Seen from a distance, the four lines appear interchangeable. Their mechanisms were not: tourism, the morning commute, inherited recipes and post-storm relocation each created a different reason to wait. A few minutes in line could contain several decades of Hanoi’s commercial life.