Vietnamese street food in Birmingham

The clue is in the name. Bao buns, summer rolls, bun cha and pho — the street food of Hanoi, cooked by a family that grew up on it. Two restaurants: Bullring in the city, Resorts World by the NEC.

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A sharing spread of Vietnamese street food at Vietnamese Street Kitchen Birmingham — bao buns, summer rolls and pho

The idea

What Vietnamese street food actually is

On a Hanoi street corner you don't order a plate and wait — you pull up a low stool, and food keeps arriving: a bowl of broth, a plate of herbs, grilled pork off the coals, rolls you dip and pass on. It's fresh, fragrant and built for sharing — lime, chilli, mint and fish sauce doing the work, not heavy sauces. That's Vietnamese street food, and it's the food we grew up eating.

Vietnamese Street Kitchen brings it to Birmingham as a proper sit-down restaurant — my grandmother's recipes, passed to my mother, cooked by the family. Same small-plate, share-it-round rhythm; a roof, a bar and a table to do it at.

The spread

The street-food dishes we cook

Start with the snacks made for sharing — summer rolls wrapped to order, crispy spring rolls, and sweet-soy chicken wings. Then the bao buns, proved in house and served in pairs, four fillings. Bun cha — char-grilled pork patties with vermicelli and nuoc cham on the side — is the Hanoi capital dish, on the menu every day. And pho in several bowls on a broth simmered 25 hours: beef, chicken, king prawn and a vegan tofu. Big Bowls — lemongrass beef curry, salt & chilli prawns, char-grilled lemongrass chicken — round out the table for a proper feed.

Steamed bao buns at Vietnamese Street Kitchen Birmingham — a Vietnamese street food classic
Bao buns, proved in house and served in pairs — the street-food snack everyone reaches for first.

Where we fit

Street food, sat down

Birmingham does street food well — Digbeth Dining Club, the food halls, the market stalls and lunchtime vans are brilliant for a quick bite on your feet. What they're not built for is a long, sit-down version of it: a two-hour table where the plates keep coming, with a bar, a booking and somewhere warm to put your coat.

That's the gap we fill. Asian street food in Birmingham often means a counter and a queue; we serve the Vietnamese end of it as a restaurant — the full repertoire, not the pho-first shortlist — cooked by the family that owns it. Street-food flavours, restaurant service.

Two restaurants

Where to find it

Bullring is the flagship — St Martin's Square, opposite Selfridges, with the Hippodrome a short walk down Hurst Street. Twenty tables, a long centre row for big groups, and Birmingham's first Vietnamese bottomless brunch (Sun–Thu, £32.99 pp). Resorts World is by the NEC with parking on the door — handy before a show at bp pulse LIVE or a day at the exhibition halls.

Bookings

How to eat here

Most bookings come through the book page — we use Stampede, so confirmation is instant by email. Walk-ins are welcome midweek; book ahead for Friday and Saturday evenings or a Sunday brunch slot. Big group? A long table at Bullring (12–40) or whole-room hire at Resorts World (40–90) goes through the celebrations enquiry. Every dish carries its diet flags — veg, vegan, GF — on the menu page, with halal options at both restaurants.