Thi Thi Vietnamese Submarine — Restaurant in Calgary

I've been a customer of Thi's for a very long time. The owners are husband and wife and both their names are Thi, hence the name of the shop. Banh Mi means sandwich in Vietnamese.

Our old office was close by so my colleagues and I were able to go for subs once or twice a week. My go to was always the club sub. It has a mix of sate beef with assorted cold cuts and pate. If that's not to your liking you can go for an all sate chicken or all sate beef. Both equally good. Regardless of the sub, they come with assorted veggies (cucumber, marinated carrots, cilantro, onions and chili peppers). I usually skip the chili peppers, but ask for extra sate sauce. In the past, I've tried many different Vietnamese sub shops in town, but Thi's is still the best. Truth be told, I don't order subs from other places anymore as I've been sorely disappointed. They are flavourless compared to Thi's.

Unfortunately my office has relocated several times over the years. Each time further away. It got too far that there wasn't enough time to go to Thi's for lunch anymore. At our current location it was a struggle to go even once or twice a year. And now that I've been working from home during the pandemic, I haven't had a Vietnamese sub in over 4 years. However I had to play chauffeur last month and found myself in Chinatown. So I decided to make a stop at Thi's. Usually there's a very long queue of people outside the shop. It's across the street from the Harry Hays building and as a consequence a lot of government workers go to Thi's for lunch. But it was mid afternoon and there was only one person ahead of me. Since the pandemic, the quality of food at restaurants has gone downhill and prices have gone up. Yes the price of Thi's subs has increased, but the club sub was still awesome! I didn't know when I would be back so I had ordered 4 subs. 3 for later consumption. They toasted 1 sub for me to be eaten right away. The remaining subs they wrapped in saran wrap (untoasted). The veggies were wrapped separately. Thi told me its better I toast the sub first and then add the veggies afterwards. I was eating subs for days and each one was fantastic. If you're in the vicinity I definitely recommend making time for a sub from Thi's. Just avoid going at noon as there's always a line up. Although service is fast, you can expect to queue outside for 20 to 30 minutes. The line up usually goes to the sidewalk. But...

The Subs are good here .But the reliability of the place being open makes me want to choose to go elsewhere like around the corner . Please update hours .There has been many times where I have shown up and the closed sign is up during opening hours .Skip the dishes picking up but doors closed sign up illuminated sign off during regular hrs . I am very positive that they have a certain quantity of subs and when they sell out and once they reach their quota for the day of how many they want to sell they close the doors . I remember going there later on in the day one time and they said they had one sub left and me and my girlfriend each wanted one . We could have shared but after letting him know we came along ways paid for parking he decided to give us the Sub from tomorrows stock . I have gone there many times and have seen the sign say close around 1530pm-1600pm despite it saying they are open until 5pm .I decided to start calling before coming down. One week they said it was sooo busy we sold out over the phone ,another week same thing , another week …we are out of subs before coming down .I guess this seems to be a sales tactic sell a certain amount and than when they reach the number close early cause it seems this happens more than a handle of times .Please update hrs than online . I use to go there after work many times as I don’t work in downtown area . It gets a bit annoying after awhile when they don’t have enough Subs and run out come late afternoon time . I guess they are very confident in the business they do . I won’t be going back no more chances .I have found some other Vietnamese subs Banh Mi shops Downtown that are well priced have more meat on Beef sate ,Chicken sate sandwich (assorted) with a variety of meats not just...

New owners need to work on quality control cause the sandwiches are just not the same. Gave them 3 chance, each time a disappointment.

Put this in perspective, I've been going to this place over 20 years and now I'm considering never going again.

Update July 20 2024: went back again july 18, just terrible. Let's break this down....

The experience:

What's going on with the ordering? Just chaos, people walking in ahead of people, I even witnessed the cashier have the gaul to tell a lady she didn't pay even though eveyone said she 100% did. They're taking way more orders then they can handle clearly at lunch. Quantity over quality ain't a good feature.

The Food:

My wife got the assorted, just wierd flavor overall. We had to add soy sauce when we got home. The worst part was I noticed that there wasn't enough pate, they said it cost extra for more pate very rudly from the cashier lady again... Keeping it classy. Clearly, they're cutting costs with ingredients after talking with other patrons about they're lastest experience.

Beef sate I got has turned into a mess of to much sauce and not enough of the veggies and meat.

I don't know if there is much chance of redemption but frankly I ready to move on unless something drastic happens again.

To the owner: I told your staff as kindly as possible about my past experience but they didn't care. Why should Calgary care about your business that your driving into the ground. Great lesson in loosing a generation of good faith in a...