Eat
NhuNgoc Bakery.
The food-court tiger roll. The street queue is a different bakery.
Location
What people get wrong
Stall 223 inside Footscray Market, closed Sunday and Monday. This is not Nhu Lan at 116 Hopkins. MapQuest still dumps you at 81 Hopkins, the market's other face. We last walked this on 2026-09-20. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Nhu Ngoc Bakery known for?
Nhu Ngoc is known for banh mi on Vietnamese tiger bread, the crackle-top loaf Phuong Phan still treats as the call, in the Footscray Market food court rather than on a Hopkins kerb. You walk in from the produce aisle with coriander already wetting the bag. The room is fluorescent, a board, a counter, stools if you wanted to sit, steam from the soup stall next door, trolleys clipping your calves if you pause in the wrong place. You are not on the pavement at 116. You have to want the hall.
Deborah Ong in The Westsider, 1 June 2024, walked this food court and called the tiger rolls phenomenal: chewier and less airy than the other bakeries in the area, longer and slightly narrower than the standard west-side baguette, mixed ham as the personal favourite. That is a bread argument, not a filling argument. Love Your West later parked the same stall as the rest-your-feet banh mi after a produce loop, in the same breath as Casita Coffee and Lutong Pinoy. The suburb uses 223 in the middle of a shop. It is not a destination queue photographed from the tram.
The market trader page names Phuong Phan and a wider bread selection behind that one loaf. Five years is their stall copy, not a tenure you should recite as live maths. Vietnamese and English both work. Point at the tiger if the name does not. Time Out and Good Food do not give this counter its own card. They sent the city to Nhu Lan. That is why people queue on Hopkins and never find stall 223, then write the hall off as a vegetable shed.
Huu Thanh sits next to the bakery in Ong's walk, bun bo hue and house drinks, two decades in the hall. That is not Huu Huu Thanh at stalls 82 to 84, the finite pho pot Good Food still names. Lutong Pinoy is the Filipino tray if you wanted carinderia instead of bread. Three jobs. One food court. Stall 223 if you came for the crust.
What should you order at Nhu Ngoc Bakery?
Order a banh mi on the tiger bread. Ask for mixed ham if you wanted Ong's plate, grilled pork or crispy pork if that is what the stall is stuffing, then the full pickle, coriander, chilli, pate. Diner notes keep repeating those pork builds, plus grilled chicken, meatballs, ham, cold cuts. Ask what is actually on. Without pickle and pate you bought a meat sandwich in a pretty crust, and you will blame the loaf for a filling you refused.
They also do a butter and pate roll. Ong priced it under $5 in 2024 and called it a grab-and-go for walking the aisles, or afternoon tea if you already spent the morning on herbs. Ask what it costs today. Taste the tiger first so you know what this stall is for. If they steer you to another loaf, that is the wider range the trader page promised. Come back for the second bread after you understand the first.
Eat it at a stool or immediately outside. A market roll sitting in a bag while you finish lychees is how the crust dies, and then you will tell someone the tiger was soft. Do not stack Huu Huu Thanh if you are already carrying two bags of herbs and the pot is gone. Do not walk to 116 after and call it a comparison if you never ate this loaf. Two bakeries. Two calendars. One of them is locked on Sunday.
Saturday before nine is when the food court still has air and the loaf is still a morning object. Noon is trolleys and a wait. If you wanted the Nhu Lan pavement theatre, that is a different walk and a different oven. Stay in the hall long enough to taste this one on its own terms.
Hours, payment and queues at Nhu Ngoc Bakery
Hours follow the hall. Footscray Market is closed Sunday and Monday. The operator clock is Tuesday and Wednesday 7am to 4pm, Thursday to Saturday 7am to 5pm. AGFG still prints stall 223 inside that envelope: Tuesday and Wednesday 7:30am to 3:45pm, Thursday to Saturday 7:30am to 4:45pm. Call 0432 315 724 if a public holiday is the plan. Love Your West still lists Friday to 6pm for the building. The operator site does not.
There is no booking widget for a market roll. Cards are increasingly normal in the hall. Cash still speeds a stall. A queue forms when the tiger loaf is coming out. That is not Nhu Lan's pavement theatre and it still means wait. Saturday before 9am is produce plus a stool. After 3pm on a Tuesday the hall is winding down and so is the bread. Last walked 2026-09-17.
How do you get to Nhu Ngoc Bakery in Footscray?
Walk into Footscray Market from Irving or the Hopkins face and find stall 223 in the food court. It is not 116 Hopkins. It is not a street shopfront you can clock from the tram. MapQuest still pins 81 Hopkins, which is the market's other number, the face some stalls use. If you are still on the pavement you have not arrived. The food court is inside the building, past produce, past the meat aisle if that was your route, into the fluorescent room where people actually eat.
Footscray station is across Irving. Tram 82 and the station buses hit the same block. If you drove, the Irving Street deck is the market park, about 800 bays, cheap if you are actually shopping. Albert Street is the plaza. Do not leave the roll in a hot car while you hunt Coles. Eat standing up like the rest of the hall, then finish the herbs.
At night the hall is locked. This stall does not do late banh mi. Hopkins street bakeries close around 6pm anyway. Plan daylight, and plan a day the building is open. A Sunday search that dumps you on Irving is a locked shutter, not a scandal.
What do people mix up about Nhu Ngoc Bakery?
They queue at Nhu Lan on Hopkins and think they have done the market stall.
- Stall 223, Footscray Market, 18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011.
- Closed Sunday and Monday with the hall.
- Not Nhu Lan at 116 Hopkins. That door is daily 5am to 6pm.
- Tiger bread is the local call. Mixed ham and a pate-butter snack exist.
- Phone 0432 315 724. MapQuest 81 Hopkins is the market face, not a street shop.
Questions people ask next
- Is Nhu Ngoc Bakery the same as Nhu Lan?
- No. Nhu Ngoc is stall 223 inside Footscray Market, tiger bread, market days only. Nhu Lan is the Hopkins street bakery at 116 that queues from 5am and trades Sunday. Same suburb, different loaf, different calendar.
- Is Nhu Ngoc Bakery open on Sunday?
- No. The hall is locked Sunday and Monday. AGFG lists Tuesday to Saturday from about 7:30am. Call 0432 315 724. Nhu Lan on Hopkins still trades those closed-hall days.
- Where is stall 223 in Footscray Market?
- Inside the food court at Footscray Market, 18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011, opposite the station. Walk in from Irving or the Hopkins face. MapQuest 81 Hopkins is the market's other number, not a street shopfront.
- Do they sell a pate and butter roll at Nhu Ngoc?
- The Westsider, June 2024, ate a butter and pate roll on the tiger loaf and priced it under $5 as a market-walk snack. Ask what the board is doing today. The full banh mi with pickle and chilli is still the plate.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Nhu Lan Bakery
The banh mi this suburb names first. The queue is the oven timer.
116 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Huu Huu Thanh
Pho from a pot that empties. The hall does not wait.
Footscray Market, 18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Lutong Pinoy
The hall tray. Sisig before the shutter.
Shop 250, Footscray Market, 18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011