Sarah,
I confess it's true I love banh mi and from what you say I guess you have no love for Vietnamese cuisine. All well and good.

In my mind, a perfect banh mi embodies Vietnamese fast food, at least as I've come to know it. A mini-baguette smeared with pork pate, pork bologna and crisped roast pork along with a full complement of pickled daikon and carrot and a generous squirt of Sriracha get my vote every time.

For some reason many full-scale Vietnamese restaurants can't seem to execute banh mi as well as the delis do. I realize that the price at 5 Ninth, is way expensive compared to delis and such , yet it remains the best banh mi I've eaten in a restaurant setting.

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$12!? holy crap. i wouldn't pay $12 for a master chef's sandwich. ok, maybe, but doubtful. you can get a nice vietnamese sandwich for about $2-$3 at best. they used to go for no more than $1 back before they got overly popular amongst mainstream culture.

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I've often had fantasies about opening a Banh Mi cart in New York. 'Cept I'm a vegetarian. I think my soy-laden sandwiches would be laughed straight out of business.

But I do love a good veggie Banh Mi.

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Yes, you are missing something. You've lumped a few important ingredients in with "other condiments"--cilantro, vietnamese pate, and (optional) chiles.

Also, you shouldn't write off the bread as a "french roll" and say it would be the same in a bowl of noodles. A sandwich on a proper bahn mi baguette is a completely different expereince than meat and noodles.

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I had these sandwiches here in Boston. Very inexpensive, indeed! I agree that the taste is not wow, but it's interesting if you want something a little different.

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We have a few shops in San Diego that specialize in banh mi. I've never been a big fan of the Lee Sandwich up north.

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Bahn Mi is one of the best fast food items out there and its cheap. For 2.75, I can get a Mi special sandwich and be satisfied. Whether it's the regular one with the ham, pate & head cheese or the bbq pork/beef sandwich, Bahn Mi is the perfect lunch time meal.

The bread is the reason it is what it is. If you'd rather have this sandwich in a bowl over some noodles then you need to find a new Bahn Mi place becuase a perfectly baked baguette with the fixin's is undeniable.

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OMG I LOVE banh mi! It's the perfect combination of flavors and textures: crunchy vietnamese-french bread...the sweet and sour pickled vegetables, the hot and spicy peppers, and the savory meat! I have half a mind to try to convert you but then again, you are entitled to your own opinion. :)

The best banh mi in the SF/Berkeley area is Saigon Sandwich in the Tenderloin of SF, imho.

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at $3 here in Columbus, OH it's the best lunch deal around. the grilled beef is the most amazingly tasty and the bread is just the right kind of crunchy. I could eat it every day!

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The #5 (Grilled Pork) at Lee's Sandwiches is fabulous! We order piles and piles of them when we have a party! Only about $2.50 each! They have a good tofu banh mi, too.

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You definitely have to find a place that does good ones because they are not plain tasting at all! In Melbourne, there are a number of places that sell banh mi but some definitely execute it better and it's worth hunting those places down.

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you were definitely exposed to the wrong vietamese sandwich shop.

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Haha, I looove bahn mi especially the pork one or the one with cha lua. :) Here, it cost 2 bucks only. Since there's a lot of Vietnamese place here. :D

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