I don't care if this place has been shut down in the past for rodent violations. Anyone who thinks any restaurant in Chinatown is cleaner than the next is really fooling themselves.
Banh mi is a very cheap and traditional Vietnamese sub that was brought to Vietnam by the French, arguably the good legacy they left in that country.
All this being said, Ba Le is a nice alternative to the other banh mi shops around the corner on Spadina. Starting with the bread. The bread here is more true to the baguette style -- longer and crisper than the more common shorter, stubbier, chewier versions found at most Vietnamese bread shops. The long subs are better fresh, but don't toast as well as the others, so if you are looking at eating it later, you may want to walk around the corner.
A standard sub is $2.25, but is bigger than the ones around the corner that go for $1.75. This gets 3.5 stars for me but I rounded down to 3 because 4 just didn't seem right.
A TOONIE & A LOONIE RECOMMENDATION: banh mi ($2.25)