Vietnam Banh Mi — Restaurant in Taichung

越南法國麵包工藝 Lò Bánh Mì Pasteur⠀ Straightforward, streamlined eatery offering casual Vietnamese cuisine & banh mi sandwiches.⠀ ⠀ Taichung tour! 台中之旅！⠀ Bumped into this shop when I was walking back to the hotel. Mainly is due to the crowd that got my attention. Small, and humble shop selling Vietnamese cuisine and banh mi sandwiches. In Vietnamese cuisine, bánh mì or banh mi is a short baguette with thin, crisp crust and soft, airy texture. It is often split lengthwise and filled with savory ingredients like a submarine sandwich and served as a meal, called bánh mì thịt. Plain banh mi is also eaten as a staple food.⠀ ⠀ You can see a crowd waiting for their orders to be completed. And more surprisingly, you will see most of the customers will order bulks of banh mi sandwiches. When I say bulk, I'm talking like 30-40 sandwiches per order. Haha. This shop only offers take-away. You can still eat outside of the shop if you really want, there's few chairs around. The entire design of the shop is very eye-catching. Entirely focused on pink color, there open kitchen concept, letting you see how they bake their bread and prepare every order.⠀ ⠀ 📝Ordered 「招牌綜合夾心麵包」 Bánh mì pate Chả thịt - Signature Banh Mi Sandwiches. What's truly awesome will be the crunchiness of the baguette. Extremely crispy and airy, and with every bite on the bread, there'll be tons of small crunchy crumbs falling around. Haha. Cucumber sliced into long thin shape, with meats (if not mistaken, chicken, salami). And the sauce uses (the way Vietnamese prepares sauces for almost all their dishes can never go wrong) is sweet and perfectly soaked the bottom layer of the baguette.⠀ ⠀ 越南法國麵包工藝 Lò Bánh Mì Pasteur⠀ FB: lobanhmypasteur⠀ ⠀ 📍No. 338號, Section 1, Taiwan Blvd, Central District, Taichung City, 400⠀ 400台中市中區台灣大道一段338號⠀ Monday till Sunday 08:00-21:00⠀ ⠀ #taichung #taichungfoodie #taichungfood #taiwan #vietnamesecuisine #vietnamesefood #vietnamesebanhmi #banhmi #lobanhmipasteur #台中 #台中美食 #越南麵包 #越南料理 #越南法國麵包工藝...

This is pure hype. With so many reviews, you expect that the wisdom of the crowd represents something true. But, in this case it does not. The key problem is the bread. Dry on the outside, dry on the inside, crumbles into a million pieces upon each bite and handle, with all hope of moisture or a fluffy inside only substituted and rescued by the condiments within. An overall dry feeling of biting into a million sharp bread knives slicing at my gums as I make my way through with each bite (a sign of over baking/over cooking). A good banh mi should have a slight crisp to the outside while maintaining its shape (not falling apart), and a somewhat flattened inside that has a dollop of moisture and chewiness, if not fluffiness. The inside ingredients of the restaurant are in general average, and like its bread, uninspired. I tried three of their most popular varients with hope, but with each one, it only destroys my hope of a savior bite by bite.

I am a faithful Banh Mi eater, and have tasted Banh Mi from Vietnam to Singapore to the United States, and it feels like Lo Banh Mi Pasteur even though it may have come from humble beginnings has been entrenched in marketing and media coverage with an over inflated score on google. Having eaten around Taichung various Vietnamese restaurants, I can confidently say that the Vietnamese food really isn't up to par in Taichung (the same goes for Thai food). South East Asian food tends to be a weakness of Taichung's rich and diverse offerings of...

I got the orginal (paté) and crispy ones. Both had good amount of meat with huge crispy bread. paté one didn't have enough paté, crispy pork one had a nice qty of meat. However, both were way too dry, and did'nt have enough veggies. With that amount of bread, it needs more cilantro, carrot and cuccmber to balance that dryness.

It was just missing those extra veggies that I returned the day after. I ordered the crispy pork one this time, and requested double amount of veggies. I offered more money, they refused. Offered double price, and they refused categorically. Felt disappointed how they refused. The crispy one was still good though compared to taiwan standard, but I confirmed: that it is too dry for that much bread.

I understand they are busy, and can't make exception, just disappointed they could make the perfect sandwich.

Original paté #1: 3/5 Crispy pork: #3: 4/5

fyi, the best bahn mi is in saigon called "Bánh Mì Huynh Hoa". I am still hunting for decent banh mi in Taiwan, lmk if...