Barkly Hot Bread, Brunswick

Barkly Hot Bread, 84-86 Sydney Rd, Brunswick $3.70

Another pork roll with street cred but does not deliver its promise. Given its locale I am not surprised of its reputation amongst the trendy folk who are after a touch of culture, I must say I was not entirely disappointed. Meatball is indeed a good touch but if the other ingredients lack in quality, then your overall points are going to drop.  I have been here a number of times and the level of customer service is always the same - lousy. Now let me point out that this is a good thing. I dont want to be your friend and I dont want a fake smile, I just want a tasty, tasty pork roll. You, and your bad attitude are going to give it to me, quickly. But dont even think about skimping on ingredients. Definitely lacking in mayo and pate'.

Bread 2/5

Salad 2/5

Meat 4/5

Chilli 3/5

Overall 6/10 viet pigs with attitude 

Ingredients: Mayo, pat'e, 3 different cold sliced pork, meatball, coriander, cucumber, pickled carrot, chilli, soy sauce

Mai Lan, Preston

Mai Lan, 435 High St, Preston $3.50

I have been going to this place for years and have never had a bad pork roll. When asked for chilli I usually say "just a little bit" and end up with a small piece at the start, nothing in the middle and a huge chunk right at the end and always fire hot. This particular time I simply said "yes" to the chilli and watched her throw in quite a few pieces and it made me fairly nervous, thinking this is going to ruin my meal. For some reason unknown to me, I could taste the chilli but it had no kick at all. Nothing. Everything else rated highly but I had to deduct points for the chilli.

Bread 4/5

Salad 4/5

Meat 4/5

Chilli 2/5

Overall 7.5/10 regular customer viet pigs

Ingredients: Mayo, Pat'e, 4 different cold meats, pickled carrot w/ raddish, cucumber, coriander, spring onion, brown onion, chilli, soy sauce 

N.Lee, Collingwood

N.Lee 220 Smith St, Collingwood $4

A tasty pork roll no doubt about that, but unfortunately the street cred far outweighs the true substance of this one. I probably was not wearing enough op-shop clothes to get the nod of approval from the pork roll team at N.Lee but this visit was strictly business. It is a neat and efficient but westernised hot bread bakery that has lost its true sense of home. Bread was soft and chewy like a McDonalds bun and focused more on the mayo and pat'e as the centre of attention. Although it had excellent salad, Ho Chi Minh would be disappointed.

Bread 1/5
Salad 5/5
Meat 2/5
Chilli 2/5
Overall 5.5/10 raybanh wearing viet pigs on fixed gear bicycles

Ingredients: Mayo, Pat'e, 2 types cold sliced pork, pickled carrot, cucumber, coriander, brown onion, chilli, soy sauce

Nobel Bake house, Footscray

Nobel Bake House, Paisley St Footscray           $4

This place holds a lot of sentiment for me, as this is the place that started my love of Banh Mi nearly 20 years ago. So I hope it's with no biased opinion that I say this is one of Melbourne's BEST!.
The place looks horrible, is hardly noticeable and the ladies are not the chattiest but damn they have a fine tasting roll. I even went this time on a public holiday so I'm pretty sure the bread wasn't the freshest and it still scored high.
Although it's not advertised on their list of roll's my father and I order a "special roll" as this is what it was called when we first started going there. A special roll is simply a mixed ham style pork roll with a hot meat ball smeared inside. The trick with this place is, it seems to be absolute randomness as to wether or not you receive the meat ball or not. It just seems like if they couldn't be bothered doing the meat ball... then no meat ball it is!. For the record it's much better with the meat ball but still one of Melbs best even without it (this review was sans meat ball)
So having said all this I'm not going to describe what it tastes like but invite all (especially the Nhu Lan lovers of Footscray and N.Lee hipsters of Collingwood) to try and compare to your favourite. If you disagree with me then I will happily fight you.

Bread: 4/5
Salad: 4/5
Meat: 4/5
Chilli: 4/5

Overall:   8.75/10 sentimental Viet Piglets

Ingredients: 3 Meats, pickled carrot, sliced cucumber, chilli, coriander, mayo, special sauce (no photo of actual roll)

The Avenue S/C Bakery, Sunshine West

The Avenue Shopping Center Bakery, The Avenue Sunshine West      $3.50

Yes... that really is the uninspired name of this establishment!
Speaking of uninspired...  you can see by the photo this pork roll even looks sad :(
The only good thing I can really say about this one is, the chilli was hot but unfortunately was hardly there.
The bread made a mess but was quite soft. The cucumber was almost whole and lettuce just shouldn't have been there.
All the elements of a pork roll are there they are just pretty average.

Bread: 2/5
Salad:2/5
Meat:2/5
Chilli: 3/5

Overall: 5/10 Lethargic Viet Piglets

Ingredients: 3 meats, pickled carrot, lettuce, mayo, pat'e, coriander, spring onion, special sauce, big fat wedge of cucumber

Salina Hot Bread, Sunshine

Salina Hot Bread, Hampshire Rd Sunshine                $3.50

This is a funny little place in sunshine that does battle with an up market version only 2 doors away and despite being the ugly duckling of the 2 it is always busy (a good sign).

Very good pork roll!!

Allot of things going on in this one, i counted around 6 meats the usual pate' and mayo combo as well as special sauce made it pretty tangy and the rare shallots is a nice surprise. The bread is really good but was almost overcooked, it didn't "shatter" but was still crunchy enough to cut your gums!. The chilli in this one is by far the hottest i have come across.. awesome roll for just $3.50

Bread: 4/5 

Salad: 3.5/5

Meat:  4/5

Chilli: 5/5

Overall  8.27 /10 Viet Piglets choking on chilli

Ingredients: Lots of meat, pickled carrot, spring onion, coriander, purple onion, dried shallots, special sauce, mayo, pate', slice of cucumber, chilli