Eat
XuanAnh Banh Cuon.
Steamed rice rolls on the Hopkins face. Sunday you get shutters.
Location
What people get wrong
Enter from Hopkins or inside the market. Closed Sunday and Monday with the hall. Widgets print Sunday hours. Sunshine Hampshire Road is a different door. Add the pork meatloaf. We last walked this on 2026-09-20. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Xuan Anh Banh Cuon known for?
Xuan Anh is known for banh cuon steamed to order on the Hopkins face of Footscray Market: chewy rice sheets loaded with meat and wood-ear fungus, buried in fried shallots, eaten at stools with complimentary tea already on the table. You do not hunt a dining room. You hunt steam. The cashier board names the best-sellers. Hardcopy menus sit in a stack. Vietnamese is the working language at the steamer. You point if you need to.
You can walk in from Hopkins without threading the produce maze, or you can come through the Irving hall after buying herbs. Same kitchen. Gary Lee, in the Westsider in June 2025, called the room understated on purpose. Utensils ready. Tea poured. The original rolls come minced pork, finely chopped black fungus, deep-fried shallots. A pork meatloaf sits on the side. A sweet-potato prawn hash brown is the optional crunch. He also ordered banh da cua, the Hai Phong red rice noodle soup in a pork broth packed with crab paste and homemade fish cakes. Most plates arrive with chopped lettuce, bean sprouts and fresh chilli. That is the texture kit. Use it.
Good Food scored the stall 13/20 as a Critics' Pick, updated October 2025, first published August, and put this street-facing market kitchen in the suburb's all-star Vietnamese roster. Pork, prawn or chicken fillings. A mountain of shallots. Each plate takes a side: pork meatloaf, the hash brown, or fried squid cake, which the critic called the true star once it hits nuoc cham. The soups are taut noodles. Banh da rieu cua cha muc is the Northern red rice noodle bowl they call unmissable. Load it from the table sauce station with herbs and chilli-vinegar paste, then walk the produce aisle, which is the actual reason this steamer faces the hall.
Deborah Ong, Westsider, June 2024, clocked them as relative newcomers at the main entrance, a few stalls from Huu Huu Thanh. Directories and regulars treat Footscray as sister to Xuan Banh Cuon at 232 Hampshire Road, Sunshine, where Mama Xuan, from Hai Phong, has been rolling sheets since at least 2013. The Footscray menu is smaller. This sitting is a market meal, not a Hampshire Road dinner. Closed Sunday and Monday with the hall.
What should you order at Xuan Anh Banh Cuon?
You should order the original steamed rice rolls with minced pork and wood ear, then add the pork meatloaf on the side. That is the sitting this steamer exists for. The Westsider and recurring notes both tell you to do that. Dip in nuoc cham. The fish sauce is not garnish. It is the other half of the bite. Stack a roll with the lettuce and chilli if you wanted crunch against the sheet.
Add the sweet-potato prawn hash brown if you wanted a fried side. Add the fried squid cake if you trusted Good Food. Prawn or chicken fillings exist if pork was not the job. Chinese doughnut wrapped in a rice sheet is the playful order, the one Chris Hopkins photographed with pork meatloaf. Soups if you wanted taut noodles rather than another roll. The Hai Phong red rice noodle bowl is the second plot. Load it. Do not leave the chilli-vinegar sitting unused. A bowl of herbs and bean sprouts is not a salad you forgot to order. It is how this food is eaten.
This is a light market meal, not a banquet. Two people can clear rolls and a side. Four people should not each order a private tasting and then complain about the steamer. Pair it with a bag of herbs. Pair it with Huu Huu Thanh only if you arrived before that pho sold out. Pair it with Nhu Lan at 116 Hopkins only on a day this hall is open, or you will be eating a street roll and staring at shutters. Do not recite a score to the person holding the sheet. They already know how this food is eaten.
Hours, payment and queues at Xuan Anh Banh Cuon
Quoted hours follow the hall: Tuesday and Wednesday 7am to 4pm, Thursday to Saturday 7am to 5pm, closed Sunday and Monday. Restaurant Guru, Wanderlog and Uber Eats still print Sunday and Monday 9am to 6pm, and Tuesday to Saturday 8am to 6pm. We are citing the market clock, not the widget. Glance at the stall. Public holidays can kill a Tuesday. Directories print 0478 065 768. We are not treating that mobile as a booking line.
Walk-in. Cash is still common at market counters. Cards are a maybe. Breakfast and late morning are the sittings. Arrive at 4pm on a Saturday and you may still eat. Arrive Sunday and you will review a locked building. There is no booking widget for a steamer. The queue behaves like a market queue. Move.
The Hopkins fascia does not make this a standalone restaurant with Sunday hours. It is the street face of a market kitchen. If the shutter is down, that is the answer. Sunshine on Hampshire Road can still feed you those days. This stall cannot.
How do you get to Xuan Anh Banh Cuon in Footscray?
You get to Xuan Anh by walking out of Footscray station, crossing Irving, and either entering the hall or walking the Hopkins face until you see the steamer. Directories list 194/81 Hopkins Street. That is the street face of the same market kitchen, not a second shop. Tram 82 and the station buses dump you on the same block. You do not need a car for these rolls. You need to read a market day.
If you did drive, the Irving Street deck is the market park. The operator lists about 800 undercover spaces. Albert Street is the plaza. Wrong deck, wrong building, same suburb. Little Saigon at 80 Hopkins is a grocer complex, not this steamer. Stay on Irving back to the station rather than inventing a mall shortcut with a wet bag of herbs.
Nhu Lan at 116 Hopkins is the street bakery if the hall is shut. Huu Huu Thanh is inside, stalls 82 to 84, a finite pho pot. Do not stand on Irving on a Sunday waiting for rice rolls that cannot exist.
What do people mix up about Xuan Anh Banh Cuon?
They treat the Hopkins fascia as a standalone restaurant that trades Sunday, or they ride to Hampshire Road and review a different sitting.
- Footscray Market, 18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011. Hopkins-facing side is 194/81 Hopkins, same kitchen, not a second shop.
- Closed Sunday and Monday with the hall. Widgets print Sun-Mon 9am-6pm.
- Sister to Xuan Banh Cuon at 232 Hampshire Road, Sunshine. Mama Xuan, Hai Phong sheets since at least 2013. Not this door.
- Add pork meatloaf, hash brown or fried squid cake.
- Nhu Lan is 116 Hopkins, a street bakery, open when this stall is not.
Questions people ask next
- Where is Xuan Anh Banh Cuon?
- Xuan Anh Banh Cuon is at Footscray Market, 18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011. The steamer faces Hopkins as Shop 194, also listed as 194/81 Hopkins. Footscray station is across Irving. Same kitchen, two doors.
- Does Xuan Anh Banh Cuon open on Sunday?
- No. The stall follows the hall: closed Sunday and Monday. Widgets that print 9am-6pm those days are fighting the market clock. Last checked 2026-09-20. Public holidays can kill a Tuesday too.
- Is Xuan Anh Banh Cuon the same as Xuan Banh Cuon in Sunshine?
- No. Directories call Footscray the sister door. Xuan Banh Cuon at 232 Hampshire Road, Sunshine, is the older Hai Phong shop and can run into the evening. Different suburb, different sitting.
- What should I order if I only have one plate?
- Original pork and wood-ear banh cuon with pork meatloaf on the side. Fried squid cake if you wanted the Good Food extra. Northern red rice noodle soup if broth was the job instead of another roll.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Huu Huu Thanh
Pho from a pot that empties. The hall does not wait.
Footscray Market, 18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Footscray Market
Irving produce hall. Closed Sunday Monday. Park Irving.
18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Nhu Lan Bakery
The banh mi this suburb names first. The queue is the oven timer.
116 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011