Eat
BanhXeo Tay Do.
The crepe hiding in a Nicholson arcade. Wrap it or waste the trip.
Location
What people get wrong
Inside a Nicholson arcade, not a Hopkins shopfront. Cash is common. Closed Tuesday. Wrap the crepe. Some widgets print 11:30am-7:30pm. We last walked this on 2026-09-20. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Banh Xeo Tay Do known for?
Tay Do is known for banh xeo mien trung, the Central Vietnamese turmeric and rice-flour pancake, cooked to order by an elderly couple in a ghost mall off Nicholson rather than on a Hopkins shopfront. You walk Nicholson hunting an awning and walk past 62 twice. Unit 4 sits inside the arcade: a diminutive diner, a decommissioned escalator, two ways in if you keep looking. Minh works the tables. He can seem gruff until you realise the briefing is the hospitality. Listen. He is telling you how to eat.
Khanh Nguyen of Sunda named this door his favourite local in May 2021: a humble husband-and-wife team in a location like an arcade, and the best banh xeo he had ever had, crisp, with dipping sauces he said he could not match in his own kitchen. Shop 4, 62 Nicholson. Same pin. Time Out, May 2024, put the same couple at number two on a Footscray eat-and-drink list and let Vietnamese expats call it the best in Melbourne.
Good Food, updated October 2025, scored the pancakes 13/20 and still called them the thing that put the kitchen on the map. The plate is three palm-size prawn-studded pieces. You take one, wrap it in lettuce with mustard leaf and mint, then dredge it in nuoc cham. That is the method. Skipping the herbs is how visitors eat a lonely pancake. Banh beo come with shallots, pork floss and pork rind. Bun thit is vermicelli, greens and grilled pork. Banh khot is the other pancake people name once the first plate is gone.
Vietnamese is the working language. You point, you nod, you wrap. After the crepes, take a pot of green tea or a coconut, then walk back into the light. This is not a Hopkins crawl unless you walked here on purpose. The arcade is the plot. Miss the unit number and you will review a corridor.
What should you order at Banh Xeo Tay Do?
You should order the banh xeo, wrap it, dip it, and repeat. That is the dish this arcade exists for. The turmeric batter hits the pan while you wait, which is why friends tell you not to arrive in a rush. Three small crepes to a plate is a table sport, not a snack you eat with a fork. Pick up a piece. Wrap it in the lettuce, the mustard leaf, the mint. Dredge it. Eat it. The nuoc cham is not optional garnish. It is the other half of the bite.
Add banh beo if you wanted a steamed rice cake with a lot of pork texture: shallots, floss, rind, more of that fish sauce. Add banh khot if the table was greedy for the button-size shrimp pancakes. Bun thit is the noodle plate if someone at the table refused a crepe. It is still this kitchen. It is not pho. If you wanted pho you walked the wrong street and should keep walking to Hopkins or Leeds. Time Out also flags dumplings and noodle soups, plus caramel flan if you still had a sweet tooth after the herbs. Green tea or fresh coconut juice if you wanted a drink that belongs in this room.
Share. Two people can clear the pancake and a side. Four people should not each order a private banquet and then complain about the wait. One couple is cooking. Everything is made to order. Recurring notes put that wait around twenty minutes. Treat it as quality control, not a slight. Do not recite a review to Minh. He already knows how you are supposed to wrap it. He will tell you anyway. That is the sitting.
Eat here, then walk. This is not a late booking and it is not a tasting. Takeaway exists on the Good Food card if you wanted the crepes for a table that is not this one. If the herbs on the table look like a salad you did not order, that is the wrap kit. Use it.
Hours, payment and queues at Banh Xeo Tay Do
Quoted hours from Good Food, updated October 2025: Wednesday to Monday 12pm to 7pm, closed Tuesday. Call 0409 288 999. There is no official site in this directory. Some widgets still print 11:30am to 7:30pm. We are citing the review card. Holidays shuffle. Glance at the arcade. If the shutter is down, that is the publisher.
Good Food tags the room cash only. Directories still mark cash only. Bring notes. Cards are a rumour you should not bet the sitting on. Walk-in. There is no booking widget for a couple at a pan. Lunch and early dinner are the sittings. This is not a late-night room. Tuesday is the wasted trip.
The queue is the pancake timer. Arrive hungry. Arrive as a committee of eight at 6:45 and you will be eating against the close. Public holidays can kill a Monday as easily as a Tuesday.
How do you get to Banh Xeo Tay Do in Footscray?
You get to Banh Xeo Tay Do by walking out of Footscray station, taking Nicholson, and hunting 62 until you see Unit 4 inside the arcade, not a high-street fascia. Little Saigon grocers and Ethiopian rooms share the wider strip. It is not Hopkins and it is not Paisley. After dark, leave via Barkly or Hopkins rather than inventing a mall shortcut through a dead escalator well.
Albert Street plaza parking is the nearby deck if you drove. Irving is the market. You can walk from the station in minutes if you actually look for 62 instead of the banh mi strip. Tram 82 and the station buses dump you on the same block. You do not need a car for this pancake. You need to read a unit number.
Slice Shop at 101A Nicholson is the cheap foldable pizza if the crepe sitting ended and someone still wanted salt. Mr West at 106 is the bar and bottle shop with no kitchen, closed Monday. Footscray Plaza at 18 Albert is Coles and Kmart if the arcade sitting was only the start of an errand. Different jobs. Same few minutes of walking. Do not walk Ballarat Road looking for a different pancake house.
What do people mix up about Banh Xeo Tay Do?
They hunt a Hopkins shopfront, miss Unit 4 in the arcade, then eat the pancake like a lonely crepe without wrapping it.
- Unit 4/62 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011. Arcade, not a shopfront.
- Closed Tuesday. Wed-Mon 12pm-7pm on Good Food. Some widgets print 11:30am-7:30pm.
- Cash is common. Bring notes.
- Wrap the crepe in lettuce, mustard leaf and mint. Dip in nuoc cham.
- Banh Xeo Co Ba is 4/203 Ballarat Road. Different kitchen. Same suburb word.
Questions people ask next
- Where is Banh Xeo Tay Do?
- Banh Xeo Tay Do is at Unit 4/62 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011, inside an arcade. Footscray station is the nearest train. It is not on Hopkins, and it is not Banh Xeo Co Ba on Ballarat Road.
- What are Banh Xeo Tay Do hours?
- Wednesday to Monday 12pm-7pm, closed Tuesday, on the Good Food card updated October 2025. Some widgets print 11:30am-7:30pm. Call 0409 288 999. Last checked 2026-09-20. Hours move on holidays.
- Is Banh Xeo Tay Do cash only?
- Good Food tags it cash only. Directories still mark cash only. Bring notes. Cards are a hope, not a plan. There is no official site in this directory.
- How do you eat banh xeo at Tay Do?
- Take a palm-size piece of banh xeo mien trung, wrap it in lettuce with mustard leaf and mint, then dredge it in nuoc cham. Skipping the herbs is how you waste the trip. Banh beo and banh khot if the table wanted more.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Slice Shop
Fold the slice. The cabinet is the menu.
101A Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Mr West
Nicholson bar. Bottle shop opens first. Closed Monday.
106 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Footscray Plaza
Albert deck. Coles and Kmart. Sunday when Irving dies.
18 Albert Street, Footscray VIC 3011