Entry No. 82 — the New Orleans file — filed under: vietnamese
Dong Phuong Bakery
De and Huong Tran opened this bakery in New Orleans East in the early 1980s — Huong had learned pastry in her father's bakery in Vietnam — and it became the bread supply line for a startling number of the city's po-boy shops, which is why the James Beard Foundation handed it an America's Classics award in 2018 alongside Willie Mae's and Hansen's. The New York Times called eating a bánh mì here one of the signal pleasures of the American South, and there are roughly sixteen sandwich variations to argue about. The Carnival king cakes are the thing people lose their minds over: in-store pickup opens January 1, Goldbelly pre-orders start December 15, and the bakery simply closes for Mardi Gras week when the pace becomes unsurvivable. The rest of the year the case fills with steamed bao, pandan and coconut pastries, and mooncakes as Mid-Autumn approaches. It is a bakery counter and a small restaurant, not a scene, and it shuts at 5pm.
→ Three more weird eats & drinks in New Orleans — never the same twice
The story
De and Huong Tran started baking in 1982, by the bakery's own account, working out of the professional kitchen at Dong Phuong Restaurant — De's mother's place — after arriving from Vietnam with three children. Huong had learned pastry in her father's bakery back home; De mostly wanted to eat the things he remembered from being a boy. The address they settled into, 14207 Chef Menteur Highway, sits deep in eastern New Orleans, in the stretch of strip malls and church parishes that became the city's Vietnamese quarter. There is a mural on the building and a free lot out front. Neither is why anyone drives out.
The reason is the bread. Dong Phuong bakes French loaves daily and sends them to more than a hundred restaurants and groceries across greater New Orleans — including the short ones that bánh mì get built on — which makes it less a bakery than a piece of the city's sandwich infrastructure, doing for bánh mì roughly what Leidenheimer does for po-boys. In 2018 the James Beard Foundation gave it an America's Classics award, the same honor that has gone to Hansen's Sno-Bliz and Mosca's. The New York Times has called a bánh mì eaten here one of the signal pleasures of the American South, and there are roughly sixteen variations to argue about.
The king cakes started in 2008 and got away from everyone after that: Goldbelly pre-orders open December 15, in-store ordering opens January 1, and the bakery simply shuts for about a week around Fat Tuesday because nobody can hold that pace. The rest of the year the cases fill with steamed bao, crawfish pie, pandan and coconut pastries, and mooncakes as Mid-Autumn approaches. Huong Tran has put the house rule plainly: everything savory has to have a pinch of sweet, and everything sweet a pinch of savory. The bakery closes at 5 and the restaurant side at 3, and it is not trying to be anything other than a counter, a case and a dining room.
What it's like
You pull into a strip-mall lot and the first thing you register is the ovens running behind the wall. Bakery counter and restaurant are effectively one room: glass cases on one side holding bao, pastries and whatever the season is, a bánh mì board on the other. You order at the counter, pay, and wait — sandwiches are built to order, so a lunch rush means standing around while the staff move fast and talk faster. Nobody is performing hospitality at you, and that's a feature. Popular items go early, so a 4:30 arrival means picking from what survived the day. Take a pastry box even if you hadn't planned to. Everything shuts at 5, and all day Tuesday.
The move: Make it an afternoon rather than a night: get out to Chef Menteur by 3pm on any day except Tuesday, order two different bánh mì at the counter, and load a box with whatever is in the pastry case — pandan, bao, and in September, mooncakes. Eat in the car with the windows down, then drive ten minutes to the Bayou Sauvage marsh boardwalk before the light goes.
📍 Before you go Bakery 8am–5pm, restaurant 9am–3pm, closed Tuesdays — this is a daytime venue, not a dinner one. Popular items sell out early; going late in the day means picking from what's left. King cake season runs January 1 to Mardi Gras and only then, and the bakery closes for roughly a week around Fat Tuesday. Mooncakes appear around Mid-Autumn Festival (late September in 2026). It's a 20–25 minute drive east from downtown; free lot parking. Phone 504-254-0214, text 504-882-9878.
- 📍 New Orleans
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 14207 Chef Menteur Hwy, New Orleans, LA 70129
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Rocky & Carlo's — Twenty minutes south over Paris Road puts you at another immigrant family kitchen feeding a working parish off a steam table, and the clocks line up: Dong Phuong shuts at 5, Rocky & Carlo's serves until 7.
- House of Dance & Feathers — It's on the drive back toward town in the Lower Ninth — Ronald W. Lewis's backyard museum of Mardi Gras Indian suits and social aid club regalia, the handmade counterpart to a bakery that hand-decorates thousands of king cakes.
- De La Ronde Ruins — A five-minute roadside stop if you're heading down into St. Bernard anyway: 1805 brick piers stranded in the highway median, which is a very different kind of survival story from the one you just ate.
More weird in New Orleans
Good to know
How do I get there, and how far out is it?
It's 14207 Chef Menteur Hwy in New Orleans East, about a 20–25 minute drive east from downtown, with a free lot. There's no practical transit option — this is a car trip. Closed all day Tuesday.
Can I get a king cake outside Carnival?
No. In-store pickup ordering opens January 1 and Goldbelly pre-orders open December 15; the season ends at Mardi Gras, and the bakery itself closes for roughly a week around Fat Tuesday. The rest of the year it isn't made.
Do they take reservations, and is it expensive?
No reservations — it's counter service, and it's cheap: two different bánh mì and a loaded pastry box is a modest lunch. Call 504-254-0214 or text 504-882-9878 for orders ahead.
When do the mooncakes show up?
Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls in late September in 2026. They're seasonal, like the king cakes, so don't plan a July trip around them.
What are the actual hours?
Bakery 8am–5pm and restaurant 9am–3pm, Wednesday through Monday, closed Tuesday. It's a daytime venue — there is no version of this that works after 5pm.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-26