Restaurant in Quito, Ecuador
Andean-Vietnamese Street Format
A Vietnamese-influenced casual lunch venue in Quito's La Floresta neighbourhood, Banh Mi fills a gap in the city's dining options without competing at the special-occasion end of the market. Walk-ins are likely viable most days, making this an easy, low-commitment choice for a straightforward midday meal. For a considered dinner or celebration, look at Nuema or Casa Gangotena instead.
If you have been to Banh Mi on Andalucía once, the question on a second visit is whether the kitchen holds its standard or coasts on a loyal neighbourhood crowd. Based on what is known, this is a casual spot in Quito's La Floresta district worth considering if you want a change of pace from Ecuador's heavier traditional offerings. It is not a special-occasion destination in the way that Nuema or Casa Gangotena are, but for a direct, low-pressure lunch with Vietnamese-influenced flavours, it fills a gap in Quito's dining options that not many other venues address.
The name signals intent clearly: this is a venue oriented around Vietnamese-style sandwiches and, by extension, the sourcing logic that makes or breaks that format. A banh mi lives or dies on the quality of its bread, its proteins, and its pickled vegetables. The bread question matters here more than it might seem. Vietnam's signature sandwich inherited its baguette base from French colonial influence, and replicating that crisp, airy structure far from its source requires either importing the right flour or finding a local baker who understands the ratio. In Quito, at 2,850 metres above sea level, baking itself is a different challenge — altitude affects fermentation and crust formation in ways that bakeries lower down never have to consider. Whether Banh Mi has resolved this question locally or sources its bread externally is worth asking before you go, because it directly shapes what arrives on your plate.
The surrounding area of La Floresta, on the corner of Andalucía and Luis Cordero, is one of Quito's more walkable and café-dense neighbourhoods. This is a sensible location for a casual lunch venue: foot traffic is steady, the area attracts a mix of locals and visitors, and the streets carry the kind of ambient kitchen scent — garlic, fresh bread, grilled meat , that tells you independent food businesses are operating nearby at volume. Timing your visit for a weekday lunch, before the neighbourhood fills with the after-work crowd, is likely to give you the leading experience in terms of freshness and speed of service.
For a special occasion, Banh Mi is not the natural first call. If you are marking a milestone or planning a business dinner, Tributo or Cardó offer more considered environments. Where Banh Mi earns its place is in a different context: a solo lunch, a casual date, or an afternoon break that does not require a reservation, a dress code, or a three-course commitment. Booking is easy by Quito standards, and walk-in availability is likely for most of the week.
| Detail | Banh Mi | Nuema | Casa Gangotena |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuisine | Vietnamese-influenced | South American | Ecuadorian Fine Dining |
| Price range | Not confirmed | Higher end | Higher end |
| Booking difficulty | Easy | Moderate | Moderate |
| Leading for | Casual lunch | Special occasion | Special occasion |
| Location | La Floresta, Quito | Quito | Historic Centre, Quito |
For more dining options across the city, see our full Quito restaurants guide. If you are also planning accommodation, our Quito hotels guide covers the city's main options. For drinks before or after, our Quito bars guide is a useful reference.
See the comparison section below for how Banh Mi sits against Quito's wider dining options.
Further afield in Ecuador, consider Casa Julián in Guayaquil or Pikaia Lodge in the Galapagos Islands if your itinerary extends beyond Quito. For international reference points on what serious sourcing and technique looks like at the leading of the price range, Le Bernardin in New York City and Lazy Bear in San Francisco are the benchmarks.
Booking difficulty here is low. For most weekday visits, you likely do not need a reservation at all. If you are planning a weekend lunch or going as a group, contacting the venue a day or two in advance is a reasonable precaution, but this is not a venue where tables fill weeks out the way they do at Nuema or Casa Gangotena. Phone and website details are not currently listed in our database, so confirming directly on arrival or via a quick local search before you go is advisable.
The format is casual and the concept is Vietnamese-influenced rather than Ecuadorian, which makes it an outlier in Quito's restaurant scene. First-timers should arrive with direct expectations: this is a lunch-format venue, not a multi-course dining experience. The address on Andalucía and Luis Cordero puts it in La Floresta, one of Quito's more accessible and walkable neighbourhoods. Check our full Quito restaurants guide if you want to compare it against other options before deciding.
Seat count data is not available, which means groups larger than four should verify capacity before arriving. For a casual lunch with three or four people, the format suits that size well. If you are organising a larger group dinner and need confirmed capacity and private dining options, Casa Gangotena and Tributo are better-equipped for that conversation.
Honestly, no , not in the conventional sense. If the occasion requires a considered menu, wine service, or a formal atmosphere, look at Nuema or Casa Gangotena instead. Where Banh Mi could work for a low-key celebration is if the occasion is informal: a birthday lunch between close friends, a relaxed date where the priority is good food without ceremony. Manage expectations on the environment and it can deliver on the moment.
For Ecuadorian cooking with serious technique, Nuema is the strongest option in the city's South American category. Tributo is worth considering for dinner. Chez Jérôme covers French-influenced cooking if you want something outside the local tradition. For fine dining in a historic setting, Casa Gangotena is the obvious benchmark. If your interest is in exploring Ecuador's broader dining scene, Cardó and the venues listed in our Quito restaurants guide give you a fuller picture.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
