Mommy's Banh Mi — Restaurant in San Jose

I stumbled across this small restaurant while looking to satisfy my craving of cà phê sữa đá aka Vietnamese iced coffee, which I did and gosh was it plenty potent. My partner had the Thai tea and we thought it was enjoyably creamy but a tad on the sweeter side. Since it was around lunch time, we decided to dine in and try one of their vermicelli noodle bowls, especially because they use bánh hỏi 💖 over bún.

The BBQ lemongrass chicken vermicelli bowl was delicious! There was a good combo of properly grilled and marinated chicken, pickled carrots and daikon, salad, cucumber, and so on paired with a - I could hardly believe this - vegan "fish" sauce that tasted on par to the real thing but lighter. Not to mention, we always set a low bar with chicken since most restaurants tend to overcook BUT not here! We were soOoooOoo grateful to be blessed with cuts of juicy, flavorful chicken thigh. Their signature sauce aka cilantro aioli was also a nice touch and I'm not a huge fan of cilantro either so I appreciated that it was in the form of a sauce (on the side) rather than a heaping garnish of the herb.

Service was great too! The guy noticed we planned on sharing the meal and offered grabbing a bowl for me. I declined but thought it was attentive of him to at least think of it since he could've easily dropped off the order and called it a day (coming from an even lower bar for service nowadays 😅).

I would recommend stopping by given the portion was decent and delectable and if you're a fan of bánh hỏi over bún. For the price of the food and drinks, you...

This is a very good lunch spot to go to! This is unusual Vietnamese restaurant to go to, because they don’t normally serve Vietnamese ingredients in rice bowls or vermicelli. However, they also serve bahn mi.

So basically, they listed all the meats and other main ingredients, but you can either put them in a sandwich or a rice bowl. I decided to get a rice bowl since I usually their ingredients in a sandwich. They’re really big though and can fill you up. I actually eat those circle green things (don’t know what they’re called) and it’s so spicy that I couldn’t really eat for 10 minutes. Good thing that it went away though.

The lemongrass chicken is very tasty especially with the sauces that come with it. The ingredients they use to make rice bowls is how you usually get a rice plate from a typical Vietnamese restaurant. It’s like they to smush everything into a bowl rather than making space for the ingredients. Also, the Vietnamese iced coffee was very sweet!

They also have a patio outside, but it’s very small though. Perhaps in my opinion that it’s better to stay indoors unless the temperature is very bad compared to outside.

If you decide to pay with cash, you get a very slight discount! The bahn mis here is very expensive ($12.95) compared to most Vietnamese sandwiches (usually under $9), but I would still try the next time...

I don't usually go for Bahn Mi, and almost got a bowl instead. But heck, the place is named "Bahn Mi" so let's give it a try.

I'm glad I did! I got the pork belly (Porchetta). Wow. Best Bahn Mi! Cold veggies and hot meat on a super crispy baguette with very little "bread" compared to the sandwich. I saw that they charged extra for more green sauce, and I learned why: The sauce is AMAZING. They give you enough for a sandwich but i think I'll grab an extra one next time anyway. 30 cents well spent.

The bread was so good that I asked if they made it in house. The person I asked almost exploded with pride when they said "yes!" and the folks around them smiled, too. It seems like the people working here care about the product and the quality and are proud of it.

I also got a Vietnamese coffee. Very good. I may not sleep tonight, but sleep is overrated anyway.

The seating area is small, but cozy. They have a tiny patio butted up into the parking lot, but the high walls make it comfortable and shady, even mid afternoon. It's not fancy, but it is...