Mom's Pho & Banh Mi — Restaurant in Oakland

Came here cause ba Le was closed today! It’s a little different than your average banh mi. Bread is more ciabatta like than French bread like in that it’s dense and heavier. They might be going for a higher quality sandwich since it is smaller but I found the cuts of meat to be good quality.

I read on yelp some people complained it was bland and I can definitely see that. The pickled carrots and radish don’t have that sweet crunchy refreshing taste and seems to have been sitting in a sauce instead of vinegar. In fact I don’t think there was any radish. The carrots are sliced into think layers instead of little juLienned sticks so that might have impacted the crunch level too. The pate layer is almost undetectable - I’m not even sure if it’s in there even though it’s supposed to be on each sandwich. Bread might have overpowered I.t?

All in all - I wouldn’t come here for a banh mi fix since I.t didn’t quite do I.t for me (I need those crunch pickles!!) and I’m still a little hungry after a sandwich. But it is good though! Maybe if ba Le weren’t an option I’d come here.

Should out to the Vietnamese coffee for being ridiculous strong without...

The prices are higher and the sandwiches look smaller compare to Ba Le. I would’ve gone there instead, but it was 5:30pm and Ba Le had already closed. I like their bread compared to the traditional crispy French bread. It doesn’t cut your mouth when biting into the sandwich. I ordered the combo with ham and head cheese and the lemon grass beef. Those are numbers 11 and 9, respectively. However, after getting my order to go, and upon eating it, I realized they gave me chicken instead. And also realized that there was a number “5” on the wrap- I didn’t order no. 5. I was disappointed because I wanted to try the beef. Oh well. So I ate half of that one. Then went to try the other thinking it was no. 11. Nope. It was no. 9 instead. So they got my order wrong. I liked that I could hear them giving the meats a heat stir fry so I understand why it took longer than usual being the only customer at the time. I also like the bread. The flavor was fine, but I was surprised by the prices. For me, Ba Le...

This is the best banh mi I ever had, hands down. I ordered their #1, banh mi dac Biet, which is their combination sandwich with pork belly, jambon and fancy pork along with pate and all the fixings like cucumber, carrots, jalapeno, etc. The bread is toasted, and the thinly sliced pork belly was warm with melt in your mouth texture. The portion of meat was very generous. It is a bargain at $5. I want to try their other sandwiches but I don't know if anything can beat this. I recommend you eat it while it's warm, or you won't get the same effect. So why the 4 stars and not 5? Unfortunately, they have the slowest service, ever. It took about 30 minute to get my sandwich. They need to work on having more kitchen staff and work more efficiently. Still, I plan to go back as it is worth the wait. I'll take a photo of the...