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| - I never expect much from banh mi stores that aren't Nguyen Huong. I grew up on those and those are still the cheapest and most legit banh mi's I've had. When people say Banh Mi Boys and other places like it are cheap, I do an internal eye-roll. They're tasty, but they aren't $3-$4. I still go though.
My friend and I did a Queen West food crawl the other day. My job is to find all the spots to go to. This means a lot of Yelp research, most of the time. I stumbled upon Nam. It's rather affordable. Not super cheap, but definitely wallet-friendly. I put it on the list just in case we wanted to go. I've done a thing before where I load up on sweet places and not enough savory places because sweets are usually smaller and more affordable. This time, I tried to be careful, so Nam became one of our savory spots.
My friend and I ordered a lavong banh mi ($7) - baked tumeric catfish, sauteed scallion, dill) and a grilled beef steamed bao ($4). I didn't have the bao, but I heard it was good. The banh mi was tasty too. Mild, but tasty. The catfish was juicy, the dill was definitely there, and the scallion added a nice refreshing bite. My friend said it was even better with sriracha, but sriracha isn't my kind of hot sauce, for the most part. What I really liked was that their buns are long, rather than fat, which means more crusty exterior, and less fluffy interior. It does have the downside of being unable to contain as much filling though.
After our crawl ended, I was trying to figure out my dinner plans before an event I was attending nearby, so I ended up coming again. Yeah. Twice in one day. I got the coconut meatball banh mi ($5.50). The meatballs were juicy and delicious. I actually liked it more than the lavong, although both were good.
When I crave banh mi, I'm still going to go to Nguyen Huong, but if I'm in the area, I wouldn't mind stopping for another meatball banh mi.
Oh. Washroom story! The stairs to their washroom were locked when I wanted to go. They unlocked it for me. The stairs and the slight hallway to the washroom were quite dark. I was sorely tempted to turn on my phone flashlight. The washroom was clean, but I'm not one for terror/horror, so going down dark hallways isn't my jam. Adventure in the dark before you can do your business. You have been warned.
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