Photo by Sherman Chong. Licensed under Press. Official Lunch Lady Toronto press table for the 2026 Michelin Bib announcement; resized for web.
She Died Flying In to Open Toronto. Her Lunch Room Just Got a Michelin Bib.
Michelin named the Ossington shop a Bib Gourmand last week. Nguyen Thi Thanh’s Saigon stall changed soups by the day. She never saw the Toronto doors open.
September 27, 2026
Michelin’s Toronto guide named five new Bib Gourmands on September 22, and one of them is The Lunch Lady of Saigon, at 93 Ossington Avenue in Trinity-Bellwoods. A Bib Gourmand means the inspectors liked the cooking and the check stayed reasonable. The room opened last June. Nguyen Thi Thanh, 58, died of a cardiac arrest at Pearson the month before, on her way into town to open it.
Thanh started a sidewalk stall in Saigon in 1995 and cooked a different noodle soup each day. You showed up and ate what she had made that morning. Anthony Bourdain filmed her there in 2009, on No Reservations, and called her the Lunch Lady. He said eating there was like discovering new neighborhoods every few mouthfuls. People came back to see what day it was.
By 2020 she had a dining room on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Chef Benedict Lim built the menu with her, and he is in the Toronto kitchen now. Michelin has kept a Bib on the Vancouver room since that city’s guide began in 2022. Toronto opened on June 26.
You can still eat her weekday soups on Ossington. Wednesday is bún riêu, crab and pork in a tomato broth. Friday is bún bò, short rib and pork hock in a lemongrass broth. Dinner adds steaks and garlic noodles.
The stall in Ho Chi Minh City is still open, run by her family. Toronto is serving at 93 Ossington Avenue.