Banh Mi Che Cali

I enjoy that this place opens so early! I was craving noodles early in the morning and ordered 72. Bánh t Tôm Chy/​Steamed Rolls with Dried Shrimp. It was extremely good! I wish I had more time here to explore the menu.

Been here many times and it is still one of my favorite Vietnamese fast food restaurant. I have been to a few different Banh Mi Che Cali to find this one is the best in food quality. I prefer food to go because customer service does not exist here.

This restaurant is so-​so.
Here’s what I like:
1) Besides a standard sandwich shop like Subway, this restaurant act like a small café/​diner style restaurant. So it has more features.
2) Because this restaurant has more features compare to ordinary sandwich shops, that means more variety in the menu. They have phở, Com Tam – those kind of dishes. Which is good, enough to compete against a standard Vietnamese Phở Restaurant.
Though, the following below are what needs to improve for this restaurant:
1) Taste of the food. Sorry, but most of the foods are kinda lacking flavor & needs more spicing. Especially your sandwiches and phở noodles. For the phở noodles, broth needs work. Egg rolls need to be more crispy & the meats need to have more spicing to it; a little bit too salty too. Your bao is a bit too sweet. Your sweet fish sauce that use for rice, bun, & salads needs to input some garlic chili besides just diluted «colored salt water” — I can tell that is NOT real fish sauce. Sandwich — baguette breads need work & meats need more spices.
The only thing acceptable about the food is your Com Tam dish. Though service time is a bit too slow. Please work on that too.
Overall, not bad for this restaurant, though could have been better. Please follow my suggestions listed above for further improvements of your restaurant.
Overall, ³⁄₅ stars from me.

Quick and fast — this review is only about the banh mi. I got 2 combo banh mis and got one free! :)
The banh mi wasn’t crunchy, which is a little disappointing. The meat and vegetables were average. They’re open late and they’re fast.

Lines are long and employees are LAZY. This place is much slower compared to the chain’s other locations.
When I ate in late on a weekday night, I waited and waited to order and then I waited even more for the food to come out even though there were a number of employees lulling around doing nothing.
When I was in line to order, there were 5+ people in line for ONE CASHIER and it was taking around 2 minutes to serve each customer, even though there were employees around to help. When I asked why they didn’t open another register («Only one?»), I got sassed by one of the young female employees.
Yes, the food is good, but this is a chain restaurant. I’d like to direct you to the location in Monterey Park, on Garvey Avenue. The employees are always polite and are always willing to help. Plus, the have more special deals than this location.

Banh Mi Che Cali serves cheap, decent but not great Vietnamese dishes. My boyfriend and I have gone here a few times for phở gà/ (chicken noodle soup) and ph bò kho (beef noodle stew). I tried one of the sandwiches here some time ago and it did not impress me.
The service is so-​so here, like most Vietnamese places.
If you want good Vietnamese food in Southern California, you need to drive down to Little Saigon in Garden Grove, Westminster, and parts of Stanton.

Why 1 star? I want to give more before like 4 or 5 but so dissapointed today! I came here often to get their phở n pork spring rolls. Today I want to eat dine in and I also wanted to try their dessert, I saw that dessert is running out so I decided to buy that one first, but the cashier asked me to go to dessert center, the person from dessert asked me to go to cashier, the cashier keep ignoring me without explanation until I asked them: «can I buy the dessert?!» And suddenly the cashier told me to buy at another cashier then I go to another cashier and she said I have to ask to dessert center. what the!!! Huff it’s make me so mad. they service never worse like today. if not because of their food was good, I’m won’t go to this place anymore!

One of my fav spots to pick up pre-​made food and drinks. I especially love that they open when real working people wake up. This is one of the only spots open at 6am in the whole city, so it makes it one my go-​to for grabbing a quick breakfast on the go.
Their prices are reasonable. $ 2.50 for an iced coffee, $ 2 for but 1 get 1 bobas, and $ 1.50 for them steamed buns.
One thing I dislike is that they have a $ 10 minimum for credit cards.
Plenty of street parking and a small private lot.

Good cheap food!!! I always come here for a quick bite. Their spring rolls are tasty. Boba drinks here are acceptable– but you can’t complain given that it only costs about $ 1.50 each for two (given their bogo offer). I really like their Vietnamese desserts here. Last time I got this green sticky rice with taro, their three bean dessert (Che) and mixed fruit with coconut/​evaporated milk and left feeling satisfied. I sometimes question the cleanliness of this place, so I had to dock a star.

I’ve been coming to this chain in Westminster since I was little. So many things under $ 5 that I just love it.
Besides their famous sandwiches, I order the beef stew to-​go with the choice of noodles or bread. The beef stew soup is good but it’s half meat and half fat which I toss the fat out. There’s some carrots and potatoes in it too. The small is 2.99 and the large bowl is 6.50. It also comes with bean sprouts, lemon, and mint leaves but once you add this then your whole soup flavor changes and starts tasting like phở.

It’s everything you would expect from $.
Service — let’s be honest its not a place for service.
Food — good amount for the price and tasty in general.
Drink — Buy one get one free milk tea w/​boba.
Bakery — the sandwiches are very good and they are very big, bread are freshly baked and very yummy.
**very typical asian «small eat» place, I think its great! Bun Bo Hue lovers’ place.

What can I say about Banh Mi Che Cali that hasn’t already been said? It’s cheap (almost surprisingly cheap), tasty, and fast. Honestly, the last time I went I looked at the health code rating and it was an «A,» which surprised me. Most places like Banh Mi Che Cali are like a «B» rating, but I’m glad this place takes their cleanliness seriously.
You can get buy one get one bobas, and their honeycomb cakes (the green bread) are just so good. My roommate told me the honeycomb cakes are made from pandan, which is a tropical plant from Southeast Asia. The honeycomb cake is a must here, so make sure to grab a couple packages when you come.
The chicken curry and the pre-​packaged chicken and rice are like $ 4-​$ 5 and good enough for a full meal too. So for the price and the amount of food you get, Banh Mi Che Cali is a steal. It’s not going to be the absolute best gourmet food you’ve ever had, but it’s hard to beat food that tastes good at this price!

Came here for a quick meal during lunch recently. I usually order the bun bo hue lunch special, it’s such a good deal. ordered spring rolls on the side, that was good too. Buy one get one free thai tea special is kind of lame. $ 6 for Thai tea? I don’t think so. They also charge for water too…

So these people in the San Gabriel Valley know about this little hole in the wall known as Banh mi Che Cali. In Alhambra, this is the area I visit because it’s incredibly authentic and reasonably priced. I always tip fat here because you wouldn’t expect a bomb phở or grilled chicken sandwich for under 10 dollars. This is an awesome hookup.
Also, they offer boba milk tea (BOGO) for around $ 3. I like to pair the Thai iced tea with boba with either the phở or Chinese fried rice and fried Cornish hen. I get an excellent feeling eating here because the staff all are working hard in the kitchen to produce a delicious food at a cheap price.
There are so many times that I’ve been here. Throughout the past 3 years or so it has stayed consistently busy and delicious. The interesting thing is over the many years, I haven’t had time to give this place a review. It’s always so delicious so fast for a good price, that I don’t have time to reflect on it. It’s only the pictures of the phở that reminded me; I need to spread the word!

Buy 2, get 1 free! That’s what keeps me coming back for the french bread banh mi sandwiches.
Buy 1, get 1 free on the boba, pudding, and jelly teas. Choose from milk tea, thai tea, and others.
This place is no secret, so count on a crowd from morning to night. They are just as popular for dine in as they are for takeout.
I will definitely be back as I’m always here before or after a round of golf on the Eastside.

Came here for lunch during my training at LAC-​USC. Opted to get the Bun Bo Hue which so happened to be ‘today’s special. $ 4.50 for a bowl of soup. Score!!!
That is until they brought out the bowl. This vaguely resembles a Bun Bo Hue. There’s no ham hock and the broth isn’t a flavorful as a normal Bun Bo Hue should be. Eh.
I should have opted for their Banh Mi’s. My advice is skip the items on their menu and stick to their 2 for 1 Banh Mi or their Baguettes.
I decided to come back here again on my last day of training to pick up some Banh Mi for the wife but it was somewhat disappointing. It was around 11pm before the lunch rush and things were a bit unorganized. It took a while for the Banh Mis to come out and even though I ordered 5 with veggies on the side and 1 with veggies inside. All 6 came with veggies on the side. Eh…

I really like this place for their really affordable cheap food and drinks! But the quality is not as good of course and the service is meh… You get what you pay for.
Buy one get one free milk teas! I love that! Their milk teas are so creamy. I like to get honey milk green tea with boba or sometimes with pudding.
I love phở! When we do come here I always order their special noodle soup. My BF always order the curry chicken with rice. The vermicelli is not as good as other places so I don’t recommend you getting that.
Their banh mi sandwiches are not that good as I have heard. Lack flavor and meat. I have never tried it but by looking at how they make it and heard from others its not good. But it is cheap! Buy 2 get one free! Great Deal!

This is a small, unassuming restaurant. Upon entering, the staff was friendly enough but rushed. Apparently lunch time is quite busy here.
We ordered 3 BBQ pork sandwiches to go. They have a ‘buy 2 get 1 free’ deal everyday. Each sandwich normally costs $ 3.25, but it was only $ 6.50 for 3 — a great deal. The sandwiches were sizeable and meaty. The pork was a bit fatty and they forgot to put cilantro on any of the sandwiches. They were not the best banh mi I’ve had, but for the price, they were adequate.
parking — free lot

The best way to describe this place is that it’s like the McDonald’s of Vietnamese restaurants. It’s a chain restaurant with cheap food and addicting. Not the best quality or the best flavor but it hits the right note when you need it. I always come here before the beach to grab a bunch of sandwiches and trays for the beach. They have food deals like buy 2 get one free sandwiches and buy one drink get another free.
I usually order the banh cuon bc they make them fresh on the spot. I also order ca ri ga (chicken curry). It’s actually pretty darn good here.
The phở, chao long (porridge) and bun Bo hue is not great but it’ll do if you’re craving it. It use to be really cheap but I think they increased the prices. Although it’s still pretty cheap.
The spring roll and eggrolls are worth it. I usually order party trays here too when I have birthdays and gatherings. All in all the place is my McDonald’s and I’ll keep coming back as long the price is right and the food is up to par.
Highly recommended the party trays of spring roll and eggrolls. Those things go fast at my parties.

You must be out of your mind!
I call this review:
THE TRUTH BEHIND ICE IN DRINKS
I ordered Vietnamese coffee without ice.
What do I get?
A cup with ¹⁄₃ of coffee! I basically got an empty cup for $ 2,45. That’s it for me. No more coffee here.