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| - Was it me or was their buns a little dry? And I'm referring to their 'banh mi.' The expectation from every Viet shop that sells this is whether the baguette is going to be crispy, chewy and fluffy--you know, the warm out of the oven freshness!
The automatic benchmark to use when comparing little mom-n-pops to is typically Lee's Sandwich, the notorious sandwich chain known for consistent, great tasting banh mi's. If you are Asian and never heard, you clearly have been living under a rock.
I don't usually expect the little places to produce uber awesome baguettes but it needs to satisfy a few criteria as stated in the beginning of this review.
The second factor goes to, well, the filling like the meat and vegetables. I had ordered the usual special Asian ham and meat with the pickled veggie fixes--you know, the daikons, carrots, cilantro, and jalapeños. Nothing too spectacular in that department. The freshness was a little questionable, but tolerable. The paté spread was not as tasty as one would expect.
Situated in a run down shopping plaza, the store front was sufficient and attractive enough to deceit banh mi cravers like myself. BooHoo, yes, I cried myself a river. *sarcastic*
The place itself is quite small, could hold maybe 30 patrons? Being that it was a sandwich shop, it made sense that they had a big, colorful menu with pictures of their banh mi's with numbers assigned.
As I finished ordering my egg rolls, I rolled my dices and tried their mango smoothie drink. I pretty much played the 'giving you the benefit of the doubt' card. Boy, talk about ordering wrong. Being that I trust and rely solely on my taste senses, I did not detect any fresh mango of whatsoever, except sweet cream after sweet cream. Not only that, but they topped it off with whipped cream to compound the issue.
As I sat waiting for my to-go orders, I observed that it was not just a sandwich place but also a place that serves Pho and other Viet items. Maybe I should return to try their Pho? On second that, nah. Based on my disappointed experience with their sandwich, I have an itchy feeling I would expect the same fate (especially asking a good friend of mine who had it once and gave the thumbs down).
The service was fine, nothing to talk about there.
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