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| - Farewell Bambu, hello Urbanh! This spot that used to only sell drinks as Bambu now offers banh mi, spring rolls, smoothies and che. What a welcome upgrade!
I had the #1 special and a pork belly banh mi and couldn't resist getting the #1 special che. It did take some time for the food to come out and it seemed like they were understaffed today as the cashier had to the back and disappeared for some time after I placed my order.
The banh mi were a hefty size, filled with meat, cucumber, daikon, carrot, and sauce (I requested no cilantro). The bread was super crispy and crunchy, perhaps a tad too hard for my tastes but I'll take more hard than super soft bread with my banh mi. Of the two, I preferred the #1 special which included cold cuts and meat such as pate and ham(?). It was a more refreshing and cool taste and the flavors were more balanced. With the pork belly, I was actually expecting long pieces of pork belly instead of the chopped up bits. It was smothered heavily in a sauce reminiscent of Chinese style BBQ which tasted good, but overshadowed the actual taste of the pork. It was more of a hot sandwich as well.
The one thing about the banh mi menu that I would like to see would be a vegetarian option. At the other banh mi shops I've been to they've offered a delicious meat-free sandwich. But, I would rather have a limited menu of greatest hits than an item that doesn't live up to its expectations.
As for the che, it was filled with a lot of longan, basil seeds, pandan jelly, cubed red and green sweet crunchy bits (Not sure what ingredient that was), shaved coconut meat, topped with a mound of shaved ice and surrounded with coconut juice. It was perfect way to counteract the hot summer day. I liked all the ingredients in the che except for the longan. Whatever the longan were steeped in, I absolutely despised lol. It had a weird medicinal aftertaste to it. I actually picked out every single piece out of my dessert because I disliked it that much.
It's great that we have another banh mi resource here in the East Valley! I'd definitely come here over Lee's Sandwiches across the street any day.
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