Cali Baguette Express — Restaurant in San Diego

Update from 2023: Prices have increased an eye popping amount. Some items have doubled in prices, from around $3.75 a sandwich 3 years ago to now more than $7. A 100% increase is hard to justify. Inflation have been coming down recently, as we see at the gas pumps, so are they going to adjust prices back down too if that increase was due to the pandemic's temporary inflation? Otherwise the high prices would remove this reliable and healthy option for many lower income residents in the area and make this place a lot less competitive. The baguette sadly is also not as crusty as it used to be.

Review from 2019: The major competitor in Mira Mesa for banh mi sandwiches along with Bale. They're cheaper at $3.75 a sandwich. Their styles are pretty different, but both quite good. Given the price edge, I'd say this is the best banh mi in Mira Mesa. I think both are better than the famed K Sandwiches.

The sandwiches are physically much longer than Bale's. The highlight here is the bread, which has that classic baguette crustiness that I like in a banh mi.

My favorites are the BBQ pork as well as the grilled pork loaf.

Unfortunately, they've got a credit card...

Cali B.E. is part of a trio of Vietnamese cafes/ restaurants (CBE, Bun Ca Cali - BCC, Banh Mi Blvd - BMB) owned by the same owners (afaik). Which is weird because they are mostly only friendly at BMB (about 1/2 mile west).

While I really liked the bun thit nuong (grilled pork with vermicelli noodle -- dry, not soup) at CBE, the over-grill the pork strips so that they are crunchy like bacon pieces instead of slightly chewy like most Vietnamese restaurants I've eaten at in N. America. It does taste great, though, so I'm not really complaining, and the price is pretty good -- cheaper than the dozen or so Vietnamese restaurants I've visited in Mira Mesa/ San Diego.

What I was incredibly disappointed with was the pork "meatball" banh mi sandwich, which wasn't anything like meatballs in texture -- more like mediocre-tasting soggy-soft bits of ground pork. Which is crazy because their sister store, BMB has the best banh mi I've tasted in the past 30 years. BMB's banh mi is so consistently good that myself and my in-laws have mostly switched to only eating theirs. And they're actually friendly there, too. CBE, BCC, need to learn something from the...

My family and I have been going to this restaurant for about 10 years. We usually loved the service, but recently we had ordered some boba drinks from them. The boba was bad and we didn't find out til the order was already brought home, the next time my father returned to tell them about what had happened, and asked the girl working at the counter if it was possible to get drinks to make up for it, she just shook her head, and my father told her that normally in a business if someone messes up, they amend their mistakes, once again she just shrugged and said nothing. This is the worst business etiquette I would ever imagine for returning costumers that the person at the counter would recognize. We would not screw you out of your two drinks for free, they were bad. The fact is they did nothing to reconcile the situation and this is uncalled for. You lost some very loyal costumers to the baguette place across the street because of this situation and brought a bad review onto your almost flawless restaurant, this one star review does not reflect the quality of their food, but the quality of their...