Ba Le Sandwiches — Restaurant in Rockville

I really love a good Bahn Mi and I was very excited to have Ba Le opening up close to my home.

If anybody is wondering this sandwich shop has no connection to the former Ba Le, which was across the street in Rockville they are completely different places.

The current Ba Le is very obviously a franchise and has prepackaged meats, spring rolls, and other fixings available for purchase in their refrigerators. The store is very clean and polished, and has electronic ordering menus, although that system isn't currently working.

I ordered a steak Bahn Mi and asked for extra pickled vegetables and jalapeño. As you can see from the picture, the pickled vegetables were cut in an unusual way, in big chunks and it was very difficult to tell whether they had been pickled at all. The steak also was very bland. I'm used to Vietnamese sandwich shops generally having a good deal a flavor which I did not find with the sandwich I received. They didn't put the pate, pork roll etc. on my sandwich despite asking for everything. The bread, which, is made in house was very good.

Ba le has an unusually large number of vegan options, and some nontraditional sandwich options, which look very good. They also have some soups available, but the only place you find them in the menu is under a combo section not as individual selections. They also have a large selection of smoothies, macrons and other items for purchase.

I'm hoping that these missed steps are simply from opening a new shop, and that they are quality control will improve and start delivering a better product. I believe they have the ability to put out a good product and perhaps that will happen. My concern is with it being a franchise, it may not have the genuine feel and taste of other Vietnamese...

The long awaited grand opening day! The place is nicely designed and spacious. Super clean and the staff was polite and friendly. No indoor tables but just a row of about 4-5 counter height seats along the windows. You can order at the counter or via kiosk. Service was within a reasonable amount of time. I waited about 10 minutes for a couple of sandwiches and drinks. There are a few standing frig stocked with cooked ‘deli’ meats, pork floss and in house made ‘Vietnamese’ butter mayo to make your own sandwiches. There were also hot and cold desserts and other savory hot items available for purchase as well. Now onto the food. My review is just solely on the items I had. The sandwiches for me were just ok. The bread had a nice crispy outer and soft inner. But the pate, mayo, jampon, headcheese and steamed pork slices were subpar as far as flavor. I ate half of it and was done. The vietnamese iced coffee was again just ok. I also ordered an avocado smoothie which was a disappointment. It was very water down and lacking in flavor. Honestly, could have been better with more avocado and a tad more condensed milk. On top of that ice was added and that further diluted it. I also purchased all the side meats to make my own sandwiches at home. Judging from the sandwich I had, I would guess the meats are going be mediocre as well. Spent about $85 for everything. There are better banh mi places in the DMV areas. Would I frequent this establishment again? I came. I tried....

Vietnamese person here - highly disappointing and anticlimactic that a viet place would open up here and just be subpar. Banh mi was pricy at ~$10 and they were short 6-8 inches, and too skinny to hold any meat - had the banh mi đặc biệt and thịt nướng, banh day was also disappointing too much bột and got too tough/stiff and the chả was off. Maybe nguoi mi trang might like this spot but I’d contemplate a 40 min drive to Eden then to go to this place that’s next door. The pandan soy milk was also $5 - similar to the one at thành son tofu but even that wasn’t good. I hope management can be more involved with how they make their food to make it up to standard with Vietnamese food quality that is present in NOVA/DMV.

P.s. they also forgot...