Banh and Mee Kirkgate Market: I found one of Leeds' best sandwiches - and it only cost me six pounds
This is a love letter to the kind of lunch that makes you abandon the Tupperware and embrace the best place to spend an afternoon in Leeds - Kirkgate Market.
At the heart of this often-overlooked Victorian marvel, past the haberdashers, the fishmongers, and the newsagents, lies a food court that punches hard and fast above its weight. One standout among the sizzling grills and bubbling fryers is Banh & Mee, a Vietnamese street kitchen that serves one of the best sandwiches in the city.
The stall itself is unmissable, decked out in eye-catching red and yellow signage with playful typography that leans slightly askew and a forthright ‘ORDER HERE’ sign dangling above the counter. It’s flanked by a colourful sea of plastic chairs and communal wooden tables where families and office workers converge for a midday pick-me-up.
There are three options for the banh mi - BBQ pork, tofu, and lemongrass chicken. My appetite zeroed in on the chicken - golden, glistening, and generously portioned. The baguette arrives warm, crusty on the outside with just the right chew.
Inside, it’s full of textures and colours: zingy pickled carrot, crisp cucumber, fresh coriander, and, of course, the chicken, which was charred in all the right places and deliciously tender. The sandwich was fiery, fragrant, and deeply savoury. And here’s the best bit - it was just six quid.
As if that wasn’t enough, I added on a summer roll for £2 - a light, translucent rice paper parcel filled with vermicelli noodles, herbs, salad, and king prawns, served with a side of peanut dipping sauce. It was fresh and subtly fragrant, a soft counterpoint to the banh mi’s assertive crunch and spice.
Kirkgate Market itself, the grand building in the centre of town that’s steeped in history (M&S was born here in 1884), somehow manages to feel both timeless and constantly reinvented. While parts of it are wonderfully stuck in time, the food court is where it’s quietly having a bit of a renaissance.
Banh & Mee sits just a few steps away from Fat Annie’s, the plant-based burger joint known for turning fast food into something surprisingly sophisticated. Their ‘Supreme’ burger - a vegan take on the McDonald's Big Mac - has become something of a cult hit, a fact that would have seemed implausible just a decade ago when ‘vegan’ at a market stall usually meant ‘chips, hold the gravy’.
Elsewhere, Manjit’s Kitchen, one of Leeds’ great culinary success stories, dishes out vegetarian Indian food packed with a huge amount of colour and personality.
Put simply, Kirkgate Market is one of the best places in Leeds to eat lunch - and people don’t seems to talk about it enough. There’s no pretence. Just excellent, affordable dishes made with care and served by people who know exactly what they’re doing.
So, next time you’re in Leeds, do yourself a favour: skip the chains and the predictable lunch spots. Head into the market, follow the scent of lemongrass and sizzling soy, and order yourself something delicious.
Factfile
- Address: Leeds Kirkgate Market, 31 New York Street, Leeds, LS2 7DT16
- Opening hours: Mon-Sat, 11am-5pm
- Website: instagram.com/banhandmee
Scores
- Food: 8/10
- Value: 10/10
- Atmosphere: 8/10
- Service: 9/10