Critic's Review
I'm not sure why this place caught my interest but it did. Probably the menu. $4 for a sandwich. Traffic is light on Black Friday everywhere except at the mall, but of course I had to hit a drawbridge on the way.
The shopping center is on the corner of Davie Road and Stirling; I took 595 to Davie and it put me right there. The shopping center strangely had 4 Asian Restaurants; Top Pan, A Thai Restaurant, Pho 79 and this place.
"Banh Mi" are vietnamese sandwiches with French and Asian influences. The Bread is derived from the Baguette, which is baked at, you guessed it, 545 Degrees.
It was pretty late; a bit after 3pm, and the place was empty. Your order by the numbers; I wasn't doing head cheese or pate; there were quite a few items crossed off the menu. I went with #5, #11 and #24.
This is not just a take out place; they have tables. I'm assuming it's fast casual.
I'd ordered ca phe, or iced coffee, which came out before the sandwiches.
The unusual cover on the cup concerned me at first; I'm going to have to rip that off and drink it uncovered in the car? But one end of the straw is sharpened, so you can just punch it through. It does a pretty good job; at least as good as plastic caps. This won't pop off accidentally.
My take-out bag was delivered, and as I was getting up one of the guys asked "How is the Coffee". "Better than Starbucks", I said. I asked how many calories it had, and he said he wasn't sure, but that there was no ice cream or cream in it; just some condensed milk. It was very sweet; not unlike my favored Cappuccino Blast from Baskin' Robbins.
When I got home, I unpacked the bag. The sandwiches are wrapped with a rubber band in paper made to look like a newspaper (not a real newspaper); this is supposed to be Vietnamese Street Food.
I was surprised at the size of the sandwiches; for $4 I expected them to be smaller. One of these is enough for lunch with a drink.
The first one was #5, Korean BBQ Beef.
The meat was good; I think they should trim the stems on the Cilantro as I can't imagine that anyone likes chomping on a thick stem. The bread was nice and soft on this sandwich, and it had a bit of a kick.
The second sandwich was #11, Pork meatballs.
The bread on this sandwich was stiffer than the other; not stale but not completely fresh either. A decent sandwich, but the port wasn't as flavorful as the beef.
Conclusion
Where can you get a sandwich for $4 these days? This is the place that I thought Temple Street Eatery was going to be; they get $9 for a Bahn Mi at Temple Street. Considering that a sandwich is $4, it seems that the drinks are disproportionately priced, with the least expensive coming in at $2.75 and $4.75 for an iced coffee. Too bad it's not really on the way to anywhere.