rev:text
| - I don't get it. I love Vietnamese food, I'm passionate about fresh baguettes, and after reading the glowing reviews here I made my way to Le's Sandwich Shop anticipating a real treat.
First of all, the semi-abandoned, shady-looking mall smells faintly of urine and stale fish sauce, and has dodgy-looking men standing in dark corners. If you enter and exit the center entrance, you'll at least miss most of that experience. Careful you don't lose a wheel in the war-torn parking lot (which is easily as bad as the worst parking lot in which you've ever driven).
Then the bread everyone raves about, and refers to as a baguette. It's not a baguette except by the most Sarah Lee white-bread pre-frozen definition of a sandwich roll. This is NOT a French baguette by any stretch of the imagination, and it doesn't resemble any mini-baguette you'll find at a good Vietnamese French bakery. It's soft, no-crust white bread and almost tasteless.
The Vietnamese sandwich ingredients aren't bad, and the sandwiches are cheap, but that's the best I can say for the experience. The bread rolls were 75 cents. Bread is half the experience (at least) of a good sandwich, and this bread isn't worth the wheat.
Makes me wonder about you Charlotteans and your French bread experience. Is there any place in Charlotte to buy a good baguette or bátard that's actually fresh-baked, rather than frozen and thawed? I want sourdough and crunchy crust, people.
|