Banh by Lauren

Cuisine	Dessert, Café / Bakery, Vietnamese
Price	$$ (16-30)
Rating	5/10
Last Visit	April 24, 2025
Location	New York: Lower East Side

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General Notes

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Vietnamese bakery featured on NYT, opened by ex-Gramercy Tavern pastry chef Lauren Tran. I think I actually got a glimpse of her in the back when I was there! They have a LOT of pandan-flavored desserts, so if you're a pandan fiend this is the place for you. While the pastries were good, I did find them a little bit underwhelming and pricey, worth a try but I probably wouldn't go back.

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Negatives

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> They don't have any decaffeinated coffee options. In retrospect, I really needed something bitter to contrast all the sweet pastries I got, and to not have that contrast was ... suboptimal.

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Dishes Tasted

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• ★★★☆ pandan coconut chiffon cake -- pandan coconut with coconut mousse filling, topped with whipped cream. I like how strong the pandan flavor is!
• ★★☆☆ cassava cake -- baked cassava cake with condensed coconut milk. It's pretty good, not super special though. It has a taste that's kind of similar to butter mochi, with a slightly distinct yammy flavor.
• ★☆☆☆ honeycomb cake -- pandan and coconut flavored, tapioca and rice flour cake. The texture is interesting but the flavor just doesn't really work, there are delicate flavors on the inside but it's overwhelmed by the caramelization on the outside, and it just doesn't work that well
• ★★☆☆ black sesame latte -- I had to get this without the espresso, so it ended up tasting somewhat one-dimensional and bland