Baguette City

Zero stars if I could. The sandwiches taste decent but the service and food choices are none and poor. This place is also unreliable for pre-​orders of foods for party or event. I ordered 40 egg rolls for pick up at 230. I ordered the day before and reminded them the day of. I spoke English and Vietnamese. I arrived at 300pm and they didn’t even start to fry the egg rolls. They completely forgot. Sadly they were not even busy or overwhelmed! Just poor customer service and unreliable in keeping commitments. I don’t love the food at Banh mi Cali but I return to places that are consistent and dependable.

Tried some other eats here! I will stick to eating sandwiches here!
Still cash only!
Charbroiled Pork Sandwich — $ 2.75 — Pork was seasoned well. Good sweet marinade.
Ca Ri Ga — $ 5.50 — Bread was better then the curry. Curry was lacking the coconut milk kick you get at the end. Chicken was decent. Only had like 2 – 3 pieces of vegetables.
Bo Kho — $ 6.50 — Decent beef stew. Beef was good and seasoning was decent. Same as above though, lacked vegetables.

White people would consider this a hole in the wall. But for Asians this is typical. Great bread. Curry is awesome. The sandwiches are damn good for 2.50

Decent hole in the wall spot for banh mi. The sandwich was good. Only thing keeping from 5 stars is that there wasn’t anything extraordinary about it. I’d still come here again for some cheap banh mi.

Great prices. Love the number 7 special combo sandwich here since I’m a huge fan of Vietnamese cold cuts. Tastier sandwiches than Mr. Baguette or Lee’s. I always wash down my sandwich with their Che Thai dessert drink (coconut milk with jack fruit, longan, jellies, etc.) and finish off with a cup of the creamy smooth flan (both the drink and flan are pre-​made and can be picked up from the refrigerator). They usually sell out of the shrimp rolls in rice paper so grab them if you are lucky enough to spot them.

Got the dac biet special. Quality is good /​service is fast. Bread is fresh but thin. I was still hungry after I finished the sandwich but can’t complain for it being $ 2.50. I’m a little more satisfied with lees sandwiches cuz it’s more filling but baguette city has better quality meat. I also ordered the iced coffee which was also better than lees. Coffee doesn’t give me jitters here.. Only complaint is the cup was filled to the very top with crushed ice so I finished the coffee in 5 sips. Total was $ 5 and some change. Great place for a quick snack. Would have been five stars if the portions were bit more.

Aww. it pains me to reduce the stars, but the recent 2 times I’ve gone, the meat tastes funny – like it’s been refrigerated for too long. In other words, it’s an old, stale taste. Not good. I’m disappointed because I really wanted to like this place.

I come here all the time to get my coffee & breakfast. Sometimes just a quick bite for lunch, convenience location just right off the main strip. The vietnamese bread is made to order. Must try the egg rolls and shrimp chips. The vietnamese iced coffee is very strong and that’s what I like it.

Mom and Pop shop for a quick bite. Almost no wait time. I came in on Friday around 12.
The Vegetarian Banh Mi is good. It is a little dry. Optional Chilles and either Vegetarian Chicken or Tofu.
The vegetarian spring roll (3 pc.) is pretty good, you get plenty of dipping fish sauce.
Both items was only $ 6.25

CASH ONLY!
My place to go for banh mi and quick snack when I’m on the go. I usually order their banh mi dac biet with everything.
You can call in and order in advance as well. Their breads are made fresh and their vietnamese coffee is addicting.

This is my go to banh mi place. The bread here is made fresh and just right. Crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. I usyally get the dac biet (special) banh mi and add a fried egg to it for about $ 1 extra… just delicious. Don’t forget to order an iced coffee too.

In search of the best banh mi sandwich in the 626, I tried South El Monte’s Baguette City. A very small and unlikely contender which is the 2^nd lowest seed (based on Unilocal reviews) in the 2015 #battleofbanhmi tournament. This is a small mom and pop shop within a strip mall along a gritty stretch of Garvey Avenue. The shop is small and unassuming with a few small tables for dine in customers.
The bread was soft and flavorful but on the thin side. The spice level was just right, enough to permeate your entire mouth but not enough to mute all other flavors. The weakest area is their meat. For example the pork banh mi did not have enough flavor to satisfy me. For the amazing price of $ 2.75, it’s hard to complain. Don’t get me wrong, Baguette City makes a decent sandwich but not as good as many others.

tip: closes early at 5:30pm. cash only.
No buy 2 get one free offers here. Everything is done in baguette so it’s more expensive, though no sandwich is over 2.75. The sandwiches are on the small side.
saigon sandwiches are better, more meat, better value.

Not sure what all the rave is about. Just bought 2 grilled pork sandwiches (after tax came out to $ 6.02). So that’s about $ 3.00 a sandwich. If I was at BMCC, I would have got an extra sandwich for free.
I was looking forward to my first bite with a nice crispy bread, the pâté and the butter mayo. None of these were present in my sandwich.
The pork was a little dry and reheated. The bread felt stale. Soft inside AND soft outside, no crunch to it.
Total let down for me. And what vietnamese place doesn’t serve boba mil tea? It’s the most basic item on every menu.
I would not recommend this place.

Parking: tough since they share the lot with a laundromat
Service: great! Even though we’re not Vietnamese they were nice to us and even helped to explain what unfamiliar items were.
Drinks: Vietnamese iced coffee is yum. They cup they give is full of ice though, so you barely get any coffee.
Sandwiches: good! Fresh bread that isn’t so hard that you have to worry about hurting yourself when taking a bite.
In a nutshell, it’s the mom and pop alternative to Lee’s. I felt better coming here knowing I was supporting a small business.
When I go back I want to try their curry!

I love a good baguette. For less than $ 3, you get a banh mi that is pretty darn tasty. I tried the special, beef and pork and all of it was excellent. Soft crunchy bread, not too heavy on the mayo and just enough deli to quench the rumbling belly.
Famous for: banh mi

CA$H ONLY
I wanted some road trip banh mi and this place definitely fulfilled those early hunger pangs getting the hell out of LaLa land. Thanks to my fellow elite Unilocal buddies for the reassuring reviews.
I’ve tried Banh Mi Che Cali and Banh Mi My Tho several times — and those popular duos just aren’t worth repeat visits for us non-​626 people. Baguette City made me remember what a good tasting reasonably priced banh mi was all about.
It’s a small operation, so sandwich assembly maybe slow. And the cashier maybe a bit hard to understand if you’re not Vietnamese. The coffee wasn’t that great though.

The #7 which is the special combination banh mi was just Ok. The bread was acceptable. But the meat and the pâté were just Ok.
The pork and shrimp spring rolls were better than expected. The rice wrap wasn’t dry and it had mint in it which I like.
The iced coffee with condensed milk was good. It wasn’t bitter, but had a strong taste but also was creamy and sweet.
All this for $ 7.25.
It’s located in a strip mall with a laundromat.

I saw good review and tried this place; it did not impress me at all. The quality of Banh Mi is on par the cheap Banh Mi Che Cali. After all, it is similar price, and you get what you paid for. When here on Sunday and it was empty. I’ll was still hungry after eating the beef banh mi and ended when to McDonald nearby. That usually do not happened…
I do not know why all the hype reviews about this place, clearly, I was missing something. The bread was not fresh and the meat was tiny portion. Quality and quantity is not there, except the price. The worst was wrong order but I do not wanna bother go back then.

I am thrilled when the staff eagerly respond to my request for the «most popular» item on the menu, or «whatever everyone gets.» Especially if the cuisine is foreign to me. If I pick something familiar, well, might as well have a hamburger. Today’s intriguing selection, made for me by the delightful staff, was the simple sandwich, Banh Mi Thit Ram.
The bread was not your typical flour-​water stuff. It was chewy, soft, had a taste that held up to the ingredients, and smelled like bread! The nice gentleman at the counter told me it comes with pork belly. Whatever it was, the combination was meaty, flavorful, and the fresh herbs (if that’s what they were) aalmost stole the show. Baguette City is a destination, but also a state of mind, and I dig it.