Cali Baguette Express

Ordered a chicken Banh Mi, got what felt like 2 days old dried, re-​microwaved chicken. No good.

Had a craving for a banh mi so stopped by since I was already next door running errands. I got the banh mi ga nuong (chicken). Unfortunately the chicken seemed like it was old and overly roasted and tough. It was almost like a jerky texture. The employees are really sweet and friendly old ladies but the food is not crackin.
I may just be spoiled by holding banh mi shops to the bar set by shops in San Jose and OC.

I stopped by for a quick and cheap lunch and ordered 2 sandwiches. The meatball (Xiu Mai) and the steamed pork loaf and I added a fried egg to it, which I highly recommend! The bread here is one of my favorite in San Diego. It’s very crispy yet its still soft enough to not cut up the roof of your mouth like some other banh mi shops. The meatball sandwich was very good. The flavor of the pork was very good and it wasn’t overly salty or sweet. The consistency of the meatballs though were not like true meatballs as they were pretty mushy and broken apart. Still very good though. The other sandwich I got is my usual go to. The pork loaf with a fried egg. It came with pâté as well. For those of you unfamiliar with the steam pork (cha lua) its just ground pork mixed with spices then steamed. Its one of my favorite Viet cuts of meat. The fried egg really makes the sandwich so I highly recommend it! 2 sandwiches cost me about $ 9 so super cheap and filling. In addition to sandwiches this place also serves rice plates and has a lot of desserts as well as ready made food like spring rolls and sticky rice out in display.

This place may be slow, but it doesn’t charge any tax. Which is cool. The two most popular choices are the 1. Special and the 6. BBQ Pork. I personally love the grilled beef.

The bread and meat were old and they had horrible service. I had to coerce them into making me a sandwich with egg.

I love that this place has a drive-​thru. It’s close to work, so it’s nice to come here before or after and its fast! I always get #7-​Vegetarian. My friends seem to be bigger fans of the smoothies, but I have gotten coffee from here. I wish they had soy milk available. Since it’s sold by oz, you get a tiny portion of coffee and lots of milk. Nonetheless, I love the sandwhich and green tea :)

Came in here with a game plan to grab a quick bahn mi and coffee to give it a shot. A little thrown off by the interior and the other options they offered and seeing the beautiful photo of the spicy bun soup. I caved and went with the soup.
The seating is a little tight. The soup was pretty good. Excellent spice with sweet onions complimenting it. Some nice meat cuts in it but the noodles were lacking. Hardly any noodles and cut in length for some reason. The coffee was OK. A little too sweet and light. The only problem I have with the place is they have a fly problem. A lot of aggressive flies inside. I recommend grabbing a sandwich to go. Love that they offer a sardine bahn mi.

I love that they finally made one on University. Somewhat closer to my house, but I love that it’s closer to the freeway, so yeah it 10 times better.
I’ve tried their turkey (or chicken) pesto which I didn’t like much, but I always get the strawberry smoothie w/​o boba and it’s always delicious. The most I’ve waited for my drink is roughly 5 min.

My favorite sandwich place in city heights but they take forever to make the sandwich that’s why I took away stars…2 sandwich over 10 min wait… like really? Can you stop talking, I’m the only customer and I’m in a hurry…

I got the spicy BBQ sandwich… and let me tell you, those peppers in there were HOT. I can usually eat it okay, but I needed a gang of water! But still very good though. Make sure you take cash or pay the fee for cards. Oh and the boba, no bueno.

I needed a party tray of around 100 inexpensive spring rolls in different configurations — shrimp, shrimp and pork, and fake soy meat (which I self-​enforce a don’t ask-don’t tell policy with). These guys delivered!
Some quick thoughts on sauce: I prefer the dipping sauce at Thai restaurants (I could bathe in the stuff), but their prices are… pricier. For what I paid, Cali Baguette’s sauce is pretty good, relatively speaking. (For example A Chau’s spring roll sauce is a tasteless goo.)
I have to add that some of the rolls burst, so I happily ate them for breakfast the next morning. That and the lack of public restroom lose them one star.

New place just opened.
Pros: always clean, friendly service and all of their sandwiches are fresh. You get a bang for your buck here as its around 3 bucks for a loaded sandwich. Must try their fresh baked items and the lumpia is very crispy with no oily residue.
Cons: only that their some English throws them off but nothing you can’t get by with

I was going to give this place 4 *s, but after the atrocity I experienced, I’m bringin’ it down to 3! Let me explain…
The sandwiches are pretty good. The #1 was pretty skimpy on the cold cuts and pâté’, but the flavors were there and the veggies were cold and crisp! Bread was good ol’ standard bahn mi bread.
#6, the BBQ pork, was strange. The pork was bright fuchsia and had an odd soft texture. The husband and I agreed to stick to the #1, extra meat next time.
Eggrolls were… forgettable. I imagine they would be a lot better if they were fresher, but I think they fry a bunch in the morning, so come lunch time they are a few hours under the heat lamp old. :/​
The Thai iced coffee was surprisingly good! Not as good as K’s, but it comes in #2. You can taste the strong coffee, which I like, and it doesn’t taste artificially sweet like so many other places.
Now, the atrocity I will only speak of once then never again… One of the worst Thai tea bobas I have ever had. It tasted like milk… orange milk. I… hate…orange…MILK!!! The boba was bland, no hint of sweetness what so ever. I actually ended up dumping it out. And for those of you who know me, I love my bobas and would never hurt them. But these– these bobas were caca!
Verdict — Coffee yes, sandwiches sometimes, boba… NO!

Very good banh mi spot. The grilled beef is delicious and marinated in some kind of sauce and cooked just right (medium). The shrimp is also really good, and the sardine sandwich. The milk tea is awesome, I get mine with very light ice because they will fill it ¾ of the way and skimp you on the milk tea. Oh and try the sticky rice with sausage.

I love this place. I always get the #6 BBQ Pork and a Vietnamese Iced Milk Coffee. The bread is usually soft and fresh. I have never gotten any F.P. from eating here and I go at least once a week.

My boyfriend eats here at least once a week so I end up eating it quite a bit too! Friendly staff, quick service and delicious food. Always fresh bread too!
One star off because they have been randomly closed during regular business hours for some reason.

I’ve been to all the CAli baguettes locations except for the Chula Vista location and to me, this is the worst one. I think maybe because this location is slower than the others the food and bread is not as fresh. My bread always take stale and hard and today my banh teo is hard like a rock. (My jaw was literally hurting from chewing it) I think I may need to drive a lil further to the El Cajon location from now on when I’m craving for a banh mi. Oh, employees at this location and Mira Mesa locations are the best!

Not as good as the other Cali Baguette’s I’ve been to, the coffee taste kinda weird. It’s also very slow service compared to the one off 52^nd street.

We found out more about the food poisoning. It was a virulent kind, not a toxin-​reaction kind, so it required hospitalization.
The reason I’m giving this terrible review is because with shrimp, bacterial food poisoning is NOT a risk (as with shellfish) and purely has to do with bad practices in the kitchen or poor hygiene by the staff.
DON’T GO HERE.

Terrible experience here, complete garbage and a waste of money.
Pro’s:
–The slightly warm counter kept shrimp and pork spring rolls were actually decent, only good thing of the meal.
–Price…it was ok, not cheap, not super pricy if I had gotten what I was promised it would have been even better.
Yup that’s its… no more Pro’s
Cons:
— Biggest offense by far was that I didn’t get what I was supposed to be ordering. I pointed out to the mixed porridge, #16 I think, the picture posted in the dang place shows a creamy broth with big plump shrimp and bbq pork and chicken and beef and what I got was a faux meat goopy disaster of stinky soup. There were slimy onions with black pepper on top of it and fake meats in it… fake fish, fake crab, or KRAB meat, these white squid like pieces but they weren’t squid, it was mixed faux seafood that is formed from soy and flavored with some kind of fish seasoning salt and slivers of disgusting beef liver mixed in and a bunch of overcooked mushy rice. One smell and some digging through it and I tossed it in the garbage. Who does that?! Thats like going to Burger King and ordering a whopper and a tofu patty comes in it.
— No one spoke English, it was like ordering with an infant or an animal, its alive, its making noise and kinda interacting with you by acknowledging youre there but that’s about it… Two employees and neither of them could speak English except for mimicking my words like a parrot as I ordered and then a lot of smiling and nodding. All my questions were answered by smiles and nodding. ANNOYING!
— The Peanut sauce was not peanut sauce… it looked kinda like peanut sauce because it was brown and had chopped peanuts on it out of a bag im sure but it tasted like chili and Caramel, no peanut sauce flavor whatsoever, terrible watery nonsense.
–The order counter is covered with cluttered knick knack baloney, some food items (that should be refrigerated) a bunch of weird animé animal goofy characters, there’s no register, theres no official order spot, its a cluttered eye sore and its confusing.
–Place was filthy, Dining room was just gross, food bits like rice and mixed small pieces of vegetables on the tables and on the floor, and exposed countertops, door was open and flies were buzzing about. Definitely not a dine in atmosphere!
With the abundance of Vietnamese food places in City Heights there is no way im going back to this dump that misadvertises their food and serves you faux meat hog slop.