Ba Xuyen

We really wish we had a place like Ba Xuyen in our neighborhood. A no frills, hole in the wall, banh mi takeout place. It's something that's been severely lacking for the entire time we've lived in our area. We visited Ba Xuyen months ago and were supposed to post about it much earlier, but better late than never when it comes to reliving some really delicious banh mi.

A's review of his banh mi:

My go-to whenever I try a new banh mi joint is to get the classic pork and pate banh mi. I figure if you can't make the classic, standard sandwich, you probably can't make any good sandwich. Ba Xuyen, however, makes an excellent pork and pate banh mi.

It all starts with the bread. Their baguette had just the right amount of crisp/bite on the outside to go with a soft, chewy interior. The cold cuts weren't too salty or processed tasting, and the pate was balanced and full of good mineral flavor. The pickled vegetables were tart but also still crunchy. All of the flavors accented each other perfectly, and the whole sandwich was perfectly balanced.

M's review of her banh mi:

Just like A usually goes for the classic banh mi, I usually opt for the chicken the first time I try a new banh mi place (although sometimes I'm really drawn to the meatball option), so chicken was what I got at Ba Xuyen. The chicken here was different from most of the other banh mi I've had before since it was shredded chicken instead of grilled chicken like some others.

The flavors of the banh mi at Ba Xuyen were great. The chicken was good, and I really liked the refreshing cucumber, cilantro, carrot, and daikon. Just like A said, the bread here was just right, which really rounded out and improved the entire sandwich. Overall, this was just a really good banh mi.

Now that we've been thinking about Ba Xuyen, we could really go for some banh mi... It's too bad there isn't really anything around!