In Vietnamese, the term bánh (Hanoi: [ɓaʲŋ̟˧˥] or Saigon: [ɓan˧˥], Chữ Nôm: 餅) translates loosely as "cake" or "bread", but refers to a wide variety of prepared foods that can easily be eaten by hands or chopsticks.

[1] With the addition of qualifying adjectives, bánh refers to a wide variety of sweet or savory, distinct cakes, buns, pastries, sandwiches, and other food items, which may be cooked by steaming, baking, frying, deep-frying, or boiling.

Foods made from wheat flour or rice flour are generally called bánh, but the term may also refer to certain varieties of noodle and fish cake dishes, such as bánh canh and bánh hỏi.

There is a nearly endless variety of named dishes with the prefix bánh.

What follows is a list of the most typical traditional varieties of bánh.