Bun Mi Express

I'm a banh mi connoisseur, really I am. And well, this place wasn't great. The person who made the sandwiches were questionable... she had to keep asking the owner (i believe) what all to put in it. Really? Red flag...

The service was OK. The water was disgusting... it tasted like it hadn't been changed out in days.

We only went here because it was close to my friend's place.

Homey atmosphere however the food is not as flavorful as at BaLe.

The owner and her son are very nice and they explain why they think their food is better than BaLe's (they say less fat) however I have to disagree with them. Their food might be more authentic but my sandwich (Lemongrass Chicken) was dry - the shredded chicken had little flavor and the roll was too heavy compared to the light and fluffy baguette at BaLe. The shrimp roll was flavorless as well and the nuoc cham was like orange water - no heat, no flavor.

We always like to give small family run operations a chance but honestly they need to not bad mouth the competition and do a few taste tests with folks like me who mentioned they are BaLe regulars. Then maybe they will see what they need to change to get the same following BaLe has.

This was a great little place to grab a quick dinner.

I got the Saigon Special (cold) and a small wonton soup. Both were delicious, and I was SO thankful that they had little to-go cups of Sriracha for me to take home.

While we waited for our food to be packed up, I chatted with the Vietnamese woman behind the counter. She was very sweet, and excited to hear that I had been to Vietnam.

Will DEFINITELY return to try everything that I can. I also like that they had shrimp spring rolls prepared to go.