Baoguette

They closed! Which is what happens when you make the suckiest banh mi’s in city along with phở that tastes like dirty bath water (and probably was).
Looking forward to a new business coming to this spot that isn’t a horse’s ass like this place was.

This location closed 7−31−13

Went for lunch on the reccomendation of a colleague.
Had the catfish sandwhich and a ginger soda = $ 12.
Wish it was cheaper but it was good quality so its a yay in my book.

I am a Banh Mi snob and this place really makes a sub par banh mi. I ordered the number 1 spicy and there was no jalapeño peppers to be found anywhere in the sandwich. What do I have to speak Vietnamese when I say spicy!
The sandwich had no flavor bland with very little daikon and the meat was like a turkey roll with some bbq pork. Come on I can get that at the deli for Christ’s sake. And where was the cilantro, gees one small twig.
You know people should make sandwiches that you want to come back for, die for, dream about and crave for. This place makes me think eehh!
I mean the sandwich is filling and nice size, but as a Banh Mi you have to turn me on and this placed turned me off.
P. S. — Look at my profile pic now thats a friggin Banh Mi… gees get the picture!

Baoguette is my favorite place to get banh mi in the city. It’s an upgrade from whatever sketchy places in Chinatown, yet is more of a classic than num pang.
It’s really good for someone who wants an introduction to vietnamese food.
The chicken summer rolls are great too. The wrapping is soft enough so you know its fresh, but it’s not so thin as to break apart in your hands after the first bite.
The banh mi is 6.50. I wish there were one of these in midtown. I’d be there for lunch everyday.

This is my go-​to Bahn Mi place when I am too lazy to schlep it to Chinatown for the better ones. I tried all their varieties of Bahn Mi and have yet to be dissapointed.
The bread is crisp and the fillings were fresh and tasty. Bearing in mind the location, it isn’t too pricey at around $ 7 – 9 for a decent Bahn Mi.
Yes, I know the bahn mi in Chinatown are somewhat better and cheaper (we’ve had endless debate on this topic), but there are times when I want to accomplish several things in an area — such as drinking a few IPA’s at my favorite beer bar, get a hair cut on West 4^th and then get a bahn Mi — all in a few blocks radius.
Honestly, it’s a street sandwich. Unless you are the most discriminating of bahn mi eaters, this place will more than suffice for your bahn mi fix. Try it. I think you will like it.

For me, the best banh mi in Manhattan (ok…there might be a hole-​in-​the-​wall Vietnamese sandwich spot in Chinatown that boosts the authenticity quotient… but this is the best I’ve had). Baoguette (and the conjoined Phở Sure) is a small, pleasant Vietnamese café on Christopher, just a block and a half from the PATH station. The waitstaff is harried, but friendly, and the food is as cheap as it is mouthwatering. Go with the classic Baoguette, their take on a tried-​and-​true banh mi: a warm, crispy baguette with a thin spread of mayo, topped with pâté, pork belly, crumbled roast pork (mmm…triple the pork and triple the enjoyment), shredded carrots, shredded pickled daikon, and a decent sprinkling of cilantro. It’s sizable and outstanding.

Baoguette is just ok. I don’t mind going there for the occasional BBQ chicken sandwich, but it does not have amazing quality ingredients and flavors like other southeast Asian sandwich shops in the village who shall remain numpangless. I mean nameless. Sometimes the chicken is not cooked properly, there is not enough garlic aioli, and none of the flavors really jump out. It’s good, but not great. My other complaint is that the food always smells oddly pungent. to the point of smelling rotten. It doesn’t make my mouth water at all.

This is a small little spot located a couple of bloacks away from public transportation. I was recommended by a friend to try this place out as we love Vietnamese food.
As one enters there is a Banh Mi counter where one can pick up the sandwiches if looking for to go type of food. They have few tables at the back. As we walked in we were immediately seated by the server. It was weekday so it wasn’t crowded. The menu is pretty basic and carried all the usual vietnamese fare. After having a quick glance I ordered a classic Banh Mi and stick rice.
The classic baoguette had pork terine, pâté, pulled pork, fresh herbs but surprisingly it was a cold sandwich and it lacked in flavour and was very dry too. The stick rice came with chinese sausage & bbq chicken which tasted decent not exceptional though. So overall the food here is just ok but there are a lot other places where one gets Vietnamese food way more tasty than this and also at the same price.
The service was nice but when it comes food I don’t think I would be coming back here.

Some of the best Banh Mi in NY, and definitely the best option around this neighborhood.
The Spicy Catfish and the BBQ Chicken are my favorite, and are my usual go-​to sandwiches to order here. The Pork & Fried Egg is also awesome, but is just a little heavier if you are in the mood for that.
The rest of the food is all excellent too. I have tried almost everything on the menu and I have never been disappointed. The Chicken Summer Rolls with peanut sauce are the best way to start the meal here. The Phở and Bu’n dishes are all pretty good too, as are the Clay Hot Pots, but the best dish here is definitely the Special Sticky Rice — this is an amazingly satisfying and very generous portion of sticky rice with peanuts, chicken and Chinese sausage.
The service is really good too and the food is cheap. The place itself is also a step above the normal dingy Vietnamese sandwich shop you might find in Chinatown.

Obsessed with their Bu‘n Pork Chop & Shrimp Vermicelli Noodle dish. I saw a co-​worker eating it during lunch one day, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I know variety is the spice of life, but what can I say, when I find something I love, I don’t really deviate.
One day I’ll go in-​person. For now I’ll stick to delivery.

I would give this 3.5 stars.
Craving banh mi and phở in the West Village? Unfortunately, Baoguette/​Phở Sure is your only real option. Fortunately, it is decent enough although a little overpriced and not as good as a lot of the places in Chinatown.
My go-​to items are:
–Classic Banh Mi sandwich
–Pork Chop & Fried Egg rice or sandwich
Their phở is good, but there is better and they only offer «safe» ingredients (i.e. no tripe, tendon, etc.).
I can’t speak much for the service as I mostly do takeout. However, they have not one, but TWO tip jars in the front: one for the cashier and one for the person making the sandwiches. I can somewhat understand having one for the sandwich maker, but the cashier? Seriously?

I’ve been going to this place longer than my last startup lasted (about a year or so ^_​^) Id say about 15 — 19 times already. This place has yet to let me down Food wise.
Every time i go i order the chicken vermicelli (its some kinda noodle /​chicken salad)… its friggen awesome! Good food without the food coma. Perfect for lunches when you know you gotta get back to the office to get work done.
Best Vietnamese place in the city so far for me… I just wish the place was bigger. ^_^

Ordered a few bahn-​mi sandwiches from here. They were good, but I would stay away from the veggie options. I had the regular veggie, and my friend had a «house special» — both had this weird meat-​ish soy protien type thing in them that was just… how can I say this… not a great thing to put in your mouth? I mean, it tasted okay, and its texture was okay, but somehow overall, you just didn’t want to be eating it. The sandwich would’ve been better without it, just loaded up with the diakon and the carrot and the whatever else.
(I’m not vegetarian, so I’m not used to the fake-​meat stuff. But my friend is a long-​term hard-​core vegetarian and she didn’t like it either. So it wasn’t just me.)

The Good: Baoguette has hands-​down the best Vietnamese sandwiches I have ever eaten (the classic Banh Mi is spectacular, the Sloppy Bao a close second).
The Not So Good: I was not a fan of their bun. We ordered the chicken one afternoon, which came out with little flavor. The chicken had some taste, but it was presented in huge chunks that were fatty, so I barely ate any of it. Our waitress had no personality and made us feel like every request was an inconvenience.
My recommendation: Order the sandwiches and some appetizers to go and make a picnic out of it somewhere with better company and more scenery.

I don’t fancy their Phở but their hot soup was a perfect food for a cold night. Our waiter suggested to try new items. He pointed out claypot.
«Perfect for this cold night!» so he said.
Those two items were what our waiter recommended.
.
Spicy Pork — had a Japanese flavor, Sukiyaki. Eating with white rice (Jasmin) worked perfectly for me. It wasn’t spicy enough for me though. I wish I asked for very spicy.
Chicken Ginger — soy, sugar and ginger worked well in a sauce. It’s the same sauce from Pork dish but had ginger in it.
Those items were not cooked in a claypot unfortunately. I wish they were cooked in a pot. Then, hot pot keeps warm the dish for a long time but then, heat may overcook the meat???

The service is mediocre. The multiple times that we have been here, the servers were so rude and impatient when taking orders and delivering checks!
The banh mi is delicious though! I love the baguette that it comes on it is so crispy and they put just enough of all the ingredients! The vegetarian one is actually very good as well but definitely not on part with the original. I’m not sure what type of replacement meat they use (tasted like gluten?) but it was overly sweet as mentioned in some of the previous reviews.
Easy place to grab something to go or come in for a quick bite.

On my first visit to Baoguette, my reason for ordering the Sloppy Bao (spicy red curry beef, green mango, basil, and jalapenos) was two-​fold:
1) It was listed as a signature sandwich and when I’m at somewhere new’s mercy, I’m gonna go with their specialty.
2) I’m a slob of an eater to begin with, so I figure — why not order something sloppy from the get-​go to save myself the embarrassment?
That being said, the Sloppy Bao is like Sloppy Joe’s hot mess Vietnamese cousin. She’s not the most classically attractive thing out there, but, man, is she a good time. The meat is so finely minced and pretty spicy to boot, offset nicely by the shredded green mango. It’s not the biggest banh mi (if it can even be considered such) I’ve taken down, but it certainly packs a punch.
For the table, we also ordered the Special Sticky Rice (bbq chicken, chinese sausage, scallion oil, and crushed peanuts). It came out in a giant ramen bowl of sorts with a presentation that looked more delicious than it actually was. Again, the meat was the stand-​out here, but the rice was super-​sticky and a little on the bland side. Regardless, it’s certainly recommended alongside that hot bitch Bao. That girl’s a firecracker.

Looks like the classic Bahn Mi has crept up from $ 5 to $ 6. I like how the bread is hollowed out to accommodate more Bahn Mi goodness within while maintaining the crunchy crust of a toasted baguette (akin to enjoying the muffin top without having to deal with the extraneous muffin stem). The ham mixture (sorry — «pork terrine») had slightly sweet sickly tang to it, but was redeemed by the standard pickled radishes, mayo, and other usual suspects.
The phở is also a satisfactory showing, demonstrating respectable flavour in the broth before any potential dousing in sriracha or hoisin sauce. But honestly, it is REALLY hard to screw up phở. Plus, it just pains me to pay $ 8 for a regular bowl of phở when you can get comparable (if not more complex and interesting) offerings for dollars cheaper elsewhere.
A quick sneak off my friends’ plates gave a hint of succulent wonderment to be had with the hanger steak, but a bit of a salty mess in the curried ground beef of the sloppy bao. Granted, perhaps it needed to be consumed in conjunction with the other components for balance, but I’ll have to give it another go before the final verdict.
So if you just happen to be walking down Christopher Street and have an insatiable craving for Phở or Bahn Mi that must be immediately satisfied, this is not such a bad place to satisfy said craving. But if you are actually planning ahead or can keep your urges at bay for just a smidgen longer, just head over to Chinatown and knock yourself out for dollars less.

Not too shabby. Not too shabby indeed.
I was not in the best of spirits as I crawled into the restaurant as my buddy dragged us 20 blocks north only to find a restaurant wasn’t open and only to come back down to the LWS after a long day of kayaking when I performed a self rescue. I quickly decided on what to eat. Steak. Can’t go wrong with skirt steak on vermicilli. Also ordered a sandwich and spring rolls.
All the food was top notch and the waiter was very knowledgable. Décor and plating is nice as well. Only reason why it doesn’t deserve another star was that they didn’t take credit card, so I had to spot my friend a 20. Not cool having just 3 bucks in my wallet after. =(
Next time, maybe I’ll try the peen. heh