Lee's Sandwiches — Restaurant in San Diego

Been going to the L.A. locations for years. Lee's sandwiches are well-known and loved in my family. Excited to have a location in my hometown!

Came on a Thursday with Mom for a late dine-in lunch around 3pm. No one in line to order but there were ppl waiting who already ordered. Ordered a #6 BBQ Pork Asian sandwich $6.49 with extra meat $1.25 and a Thai iced tea with boba $3.99. Decided to go with extra meat after reading the bad skimpy protein reviews.

Everything tasted amazing, but read on for my only complaints:

Mom and I paid separately for our orders, each with a sandwich and drink. Our sandwiches were ready together in good time, but were both still waiting on our drinks, which were then made one at a time (took awhile) and given one after the other (we were already eating our sandwiches so I had to get up twice mid-meal to grab them when our numbers were called). Each order should be complete before called.

The Thai tea cup was over filled with creamer and spewed everywhere when I inserted my straw into the lid. I also felt it was too much creamer, which lost the Thai tea flavor.

A manager or employee came to our table, asked if we were satisfied, I said yes, he asked us to review to help due to their recent bad reviews. I asked if my sandwich did indeed include the extra meat that I ordered. He only looked at my receipt and said yes. I said the reason why I ordered the extra meat was due to the bad reviews and I didn't want to be disappointed. He then stated that they had already increased the amount of protein per sandwich since their grand opening, as well as the portion of extra meat. Considering this and that we had ordered extra meat, my mother and weren't overwhelmed by the amount of meat in our sandwiches, but it was an acceptable amount. We aren't big meat eaters, though.

And if I'm getting really picky, they also didn't have bottles of Huy Fong brand sriracha sauce, but rather packets of generic sriracha sauce which were annoying to have to tear open and squeeze out one at a time (I use quite a lot of hot sauce).

But overall we were very pleased, the staff were very friendly and we...

**Ask for extra pate and mayo! You’ll thank me later!

I’m familiar with Lee’s all too well from its existence in OC my entire life and I’m not a fan. There are way better places for Banh mi than Lee’s in terms of price, quality and taste. I’m also not a fan of baguettes and prefer French bread.

My bf is from OC and neither of us have had Lee’s in decades so we decided to try it now that it’s in San Diego.

Expensive? Yes. About $1-$1.50 more than other places. They also don’t have a large selection of baked goods like they do in OC. There’s a tiny shelf for hot items. I came at 3pm with my mom and saw a full shelf. Came back at 6pm with my bf, and all sold out except for the wings.

Besides banh mi, they are known for their coffee. It’s like Starbucks. You can purchase the bottle, coffee beans, and pour overs. You can buy fresh baguettes for $1.75 each and pastries.

We got the pork meatball ($6.49) and the combination ($6.49) with extra pate and Mayo. The pork meatball was average. It wasn’t in tomato sauce, it was just a steamed pork meatball and the proportion was not enough compared to bread and veggies.

The combination came with one type of ham. If you want the three different ham then get the special which would cost $0.50 more.

We took it home and the pork meatball sandwich was already warm due to the meatball. The combination sandwich was getting hard and that’s why I don’t like baguettes. I popped it in the toaster oven for a few minutes to warm up for that extra crunch and it tasted delicious.

The key is to eat it when it’s hot and get extra pate and mayo to keep it from drying out. We also got chicken wings. Basically $1 each because it was 5 for $4.99. We got 10. Wasn’t thrilled to actually see the guy grab the frozen bag of wings and popping it in the fryer. They were tiny. $0.50 wing would be more like it and it tasted like original KFC. Which I thought was pretty good.

Overall, there’s nothing special about Lee’s. You can get the same thing elsewhere cheaper. But if you gotta eat, then...

update 2023/09

After giving this place another try. i have yo say it was much better than my first experience. The meats actually had salts this time and I actually had pate in my sandwich this time.

This place actually is much cheaper than it competition around now so I'll give its lack luster bread a pass. basically it doesn't have much taste and the bread had no crunch as if it needed more time in the toaster. The time around i grabbed a mango smoothie and i can just say their smoothies are pretty good.

i try it again sometime in the future to see its consistency. Hopefully jt continues to improve.

-- original review --

Im very disappointed. things looks right but are just off...

the sandwich is huge...but taste bland like no salt and there was the smallest sliver of pate. the Vietnamese coffee tastes good, but is 90% ice.

if this place wants to stay in business...it better step its game up. there are like a bunch of other shops that way better in terms of taste and costs less. You might as well go to Cali Baguette Express if you're in this area. they don't have pate,but their sandwichs taste...