Which Sandwich?

Banh Mi Che Cali

Restaurant | "Vietnamese Sandwiches"

Quote:

My Vietnamese heard that I like Vietnamese sandwiches, called banh mi. They sent me to Bánh Mì Chè Cali for a taste of the authentic stuff, with a warning about the service and customers. I found Bánh Mì Chè Cali housed in a building that was obviously formerly a Taco Bell restaurant on Brookhurst Street, just south of McFadden Avenue in Westminster. It’s open 24 hours, but inside dining and ordering area is closed during the night, making the exterior walk-up window the only choice at that time.As you walk up to the Bánh Mì Chè Cali, you can smell the buttery smell of fresh baked bread. Once I stepped inside the restaurant, I realized what my Vietnamese friends were talking about. Bánh Mì...Read More

My Vietnamese heard that I like Vietnamese sandwiches, called banh mi. They sent me to Bánh Mì Chè Cali for a taste of the authentic stuff, with a warning about the service and customers. I found Bánh Mì Chè Cali housed in a building that was obviously formerly a Taco Bell restaurant on Brookhurst Street, just south of McFadden Avenue in Westminster. It’s open 24 hours, but inside dining and ordering area is closed during the night, making the exterior walk-up window the only choice at that time.

As you walk up to the Bánh Mì Chè Cali, you can smell the buttery smell of fresh baked bread. Once I stepped inside the restaurant, I realized what my Vietnamese friends were talking about. Bánh Mì Chè Cali has a quirky third world ambiance about it. There are plenty of old Vietnamese women purchasing both sandwiches and the fresh baked baguettes. While not exactly rude, the atmosphere isn’t exactly friendly either, as the mood is one of busy, yet efficient commerce, sort of like a third world bazaar or marketplace. There are seemingly random displays set up with pre-packaged Asian favorites, such as mochi balls, spring rolls, and other baked goods. The menuboard features all sorts of banh mi sandwiches, from Vietnamese "bacon," to ground beef BBQ, to sardine, meatball, chicken, and more. They have a buy 2 get 1 free special, which ended up being 3 sandwiches for $5. I opted for the special and decided on the sardine, meatball, and ground beef BBQ.

After ordering, I moved off to the side to wait for my sandwiches, which were ready for pickup a few minutes later. I found myself a nice table inside and opened up the sandwiches to see what the buzz was about. All the sandwiches were made on fresh baked foot long baguettes. The fresh, crispy baguettes are cut open and slightly hollowed out and stuffed with the meat choices, then pickled carrots, radishes, and fresh cilantro are piled in. The sardine banh mi, which was recommended by all of my Vietnamese friends was not a hit at all. The chopped up sardines were covered in a tomato based sauce with a slight bit of peppery heat. It had a very fishy taste to it, which didn’t suit me at all. My Vietnamese friends grew up with lots of fish in their diet, even fish sauce, which features a fishy taste, so it didn’t surprise me that they like sardine banh mi. I decided to re-wrap the sardine banh mi and try the ground beef BBQ one. The ground beef is cooked in a nice, sweet BBQ sauce and I really liked the gooey, sugary taste of the ground beef with the accompanying tartness of the pickled veggies. The BBQ sauce used is an Asian BBQ sauce, very unlike American varieties. I also liked the meatball banh mi, which had halved meatballs made from ground pork, and have a nice meaty, yet sweet flavor to them.

I would return for both the meatball and ground beef BBQ banh mi sandwiches, plus to try out some of the meat filled pastries. The only caveat is the atmosphere can be a bit intimidating, as you can feel the pressure of all the customers behind you wishing you would order faster and get out of their way. Bánh Mì Chè Cali is worth trying, as it’s cheap, it’s good, provided you know what to order, has a wide variety of Asian flavors, and bakes a mean baguette. Read Less

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on July 11, 2010

Banh Mi Che Cali
15551 Brookhurst St.
Westminster 92683
(714) 839-8185

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Jerry's Famous Deli

Restaurant | "Los Angeles Born New York Style Deli"

Quote:

Jerry’s Famous Deli is a Los Angeles based gourmet deli restaurant chain. We visited the location in the South Coast Plaza area off Park Center Drive, just south of Anton Blvd. You can park in Jerry’s Famous Deli’s parking lot, if this is full, you can also park in the parking structure at the corner, albeit a little bit of a walk.When we entered Jerry’s Famous Deli, we were quickly greeted and given a nice booth off to the side of the restaurant. Our waitress took our drink orders and left us to peruse the huge menu. Jerry’s menu is quite large, with a good selection of appetizers, soups, salads, hot sandwiches, cold sandwiches, signature sandwiches, burgers, wraps, Mexican food, pastas, ...Read More

Jerry’s Famous Deli is a Los Angeles based gourmet deli restaurant chain. We visited the location in the South Coast Plaza area off Park Center Drive, just south of Anton Blvd. You can park in Jerry’s Famous Deli’s parking lot, if this is full, you can also park in the parking structure at the corner, albeit a little bit of a walk.

When we entered Jerry’s Famous Deli, we were quickly greeted and given a nice booth off to the side of the restaurant. Our waitress took our drink orders and left us to peruse the huge menu. Jerry’s menu is quite large, with a good selection of appetizers, soups, salads, hot sandwiches, cold sandwiches, signature sandwiches, burgers, wraps, Mexican food, pastas, pizza, steaks and other grill entrees, traditional Jewish deli dishes, desserts, and breakfast. The drink menu was quite large too, with cocktails, wine, beer, coffee drinks, juices, and specialty coffee drinks. The menu was so large, it was a little difficult to decide what I wanted. I would decide on something, yet still wonder about some of the many different entrées I saw on the menu. My friends finally decided on the fried fish sandwich, beef brisket dip, Philadelphia cheese steak, and I had the pastrami sky high sandwich.

The décor in the restaurant was a bit much too. There is a nice bar in the front of the restaurant, with a large open restaurant area in the side, where people can see the food being prepared. The restaurant is decked out in nice medium-reddish colored woods, with matching red seat cushions. However there are a large number of multi-colored lights and spotlights around the restaurant, giving it an odd festive feeling, much like Christmas lights. There are various portraits and posters of various New York scenes, the birthplace of the modern deli. There just seemed to be an awful lot going on with the décor, especially the multi-colored lights.

After about 15 minutes, our entrees arrived. My friend’s fried fish consisted of two filets of some miscellaneous white fish, probably Pollack, served on a French roll which has been nicely toasted on the inside. It came with a side of creamy tartar sauce, fries, and small cole slaw. The fried fish sandwich was hard to keep intact, so my friend ended up eating it as a fish and chips entrée, with a side of bread. She liked her fish, as the fried batter was nice and crispy and kept the fish from getting too oily. It went well with the creamy tartar sauce. My friend’s beef brisket dip was served with a side of au jus for dipping, onion rings, and a small side of cole slaw. He enjoyed the savory saltiness of the sandwich with the dip, and the brisket was quite tender. My other friend had the Philadelphia cheese steak. It was thinly sliced rib eye steak, Swiss cheese and grilled onions on a French roll, with fries and a side of cole slaw. He said it was still quite good, if not exactly authentic Philly. I had the pastrami sky high sandwich, LA version. The NY version is a bit larger, and too much for me to stomach, so I opted for the smaller LA version. It’s nice, juicy pastrami on fresh rye bread with Swiss cheese, cole slaw on top, and Russian dressing, served with sides of baked beans and potato salad. The pastrami was one of the better ones I’ve ever had, nice and savory, with an interesting favor brought on by the cole slaw. I creamy potato salad and baked beans were nice accompaniments to the pastrami.

The portions of food at Jerry’s Famous Deli are quite large, even with the smaller LA versions. We were much too stuffed for any dessert, as much as we would have liked to try their dessert. The food at Jerry’s isn’t cheap, our total for 4 sandwiches and 4 beverages was about $61 with tax. The food was quite good, but I just thought the food could be a few bucks less. With that in mind, Jerry’s Famous Deli is worth a visit every now and then for special occasions. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 11, 2010

Jerry's Famous Deli
3210 Park Center Drive
Costa Mesa 92626
(714) 662-3354

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Zon Baguettes

Restaurant | "Great Vietnamese Sandwiches"

Quote:

I’ve developed a taste for Vietnamese style sandwiches, called banh-mi, which are made with baguettes. Most banh-mi restaurants and shops around are in the Little Saigon area of Orange County. However, I did find this little gem outside of Little Saigon and much closer to me. Zon Baguettes is located on Newport Avenue in Tustin just south of the 5 Freeway.Zon (pronounced DON) Baguettes bakes its own bread, and that’s very evident even in the parking lot, as you can smell the aroma. As you enter and approach the counter, there are various refrigerated displays of pre-packaged Vietnamese drinks and jello type desserts. The menu at Zon is quite extensive. There are the typical banh-mi sandw...Read More

I’ve developed a taste for Vietnamese style sandwiches, called banh-mi, which are made with baguettes. Most banh-mi restaurants and shops around are in the Little Saigon area of Orange County. However, I did find this little gem outside of Little Saigon and much closer to me. Zon Baguettes is located on Newport Avenue in Tustin just south of the 5 Freeway.

Zon (pronounced DON) Baguettes bakes its own bread, and that’s very evident even in the parking lot, as you can smell the aroma. As you enter and approach the counter, there are various refrigerated displays of pre-packaged Vietnamese drinks and jello type desserts. The menu at Zon is quite extensive. There are the typical banh-mi sandwiches with various meats, but also western style sandwiches, such as ham and cheese, tuna, French dip, and turkey. The menu also has other Vietnamese favorites, such as rice and noodle dishes, vermicelli (rice noodles,) stew type dishes, and pastries. I love Vietnamese pastries, they’re made with puff pastry and filled with various meats from beef to chicken to pork. There are also tapioca drinks called boba, and traditional Vietnamese blended coffee beverages with condensed milk. A lot of Vietnamese food takes some hints of influence from being a former French colony, and that’s very evident on the menuboard.

I ordered a combination meal of thit nguoi banh-mi (Vietnamese sandwich with Vietnamese "bacon") a side of fries and a soft drink for a little under $6. I got my drink and sat down to await my lunch. As I looked around, there were quite a few lunchtime diners eating a wide variety of things, all of them looking good. There were diners eating fried rice, quite a few eating banh-mi sandwiches, even one with a vermicelli noodle bowl with shrimp. There were also quite a few customers that came in just to buy the fresh baked baguettes. Zon Baguettes seems to be a favorite among the local crowd, both Vietnamese and not.

After a 7 to 8 minute wait, my combo meal was ready and the staff brought it out to my table. The presentation is quite colorful, with the golden colored bread, red-lined Vietnamese "bacon," orange carrots, and bright green pickled cucumber spears. The freshly baked baguette was quite crunchy on the outside, and soft and pillowy on the inside. The Vietnamese "bacon" seems to be a cross between some type of uncured pork belly and head cheese. The edges are dyed red with some sort of seasoning. The taste was good, but there was a thread of clear, gelatinous stuff with no flavor. The pickled radishes, cucumbers, carrots, and fresh cilantro gives the banh-mi a lot of it’s characteristic Vietnamese flavor. The fries were quite forgettable though. I’d like to return to try some of their different banh-mi sandwiches, as well as the other Vietnamese dishes.

If you want to try something different, I’d definitely try Zon Baguette. The staff is friendly and efficient, food prices are cheap, and there’s a huge menu that covers everything from breakfast to lunch to dinner and dessert. Or you could just come in for the fresh baked bread, either way, it’s good. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 10, 2010

Zon Baguettes
14081 Newport Avenue
Tustin, California 92780
(714) 731-1366

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Tommy Pastrami New York Delicatessen

Restaurant | "With Pastrami in the name, it better be good."

Quote:

Tommy Pastrami New York Delicatessen is a fast service deli-style restaurant. It’s part of a small Orange County chain with locations in Huntington Beach, Irvine, La Habra, and more. I went to the Santa Ana location off Harbor Blvd. and Sunflower Avenue, just north of the 405 Freeway.We went inside Tommy Pastrami New York Delicatessen, where there were about 12-15 people ahead of us in line, but the staff was pretty quick in taking people’s orders. The menuboard had all sorts of sandwiches, including turkey, tuna, ham, egg salad, brisket, corned beef, cheese steak, Reuben, Italian sandwiches, and of course, pastrami. When it was our turn to order, I ordered the blackened pastrami with a...Read More

Tommy Pastrami New York Delicatessen is a fast service deli-style restaurant. It’s part of a small Orange County chain with locations in Huntington Beach, Irvine, La Habra, and more. I went to the Santa Ana location off Harbor Blvd. and Sunflower Avenue, just north of the 405 Freeway.

We went inside Tommy Pastrami New York Delicatessen, where there were about 12-15 people ahead of us in line, but the staff was pretty quick in taking people’s orders. The menuboard had all sorts of sandwiches, including turkey, tuna, ham, egg salad, brisket, corned beef, cheese steak, Reuben, Italian sandwiches, and of course, pastrami. When it was our turn to order, I ordered the blackened pastrami with a soft drink and my friend ordered the brisket with soft drink. Our total was $14.

We filled up our drink cups and sat down to wait. The dining area is decked out in wood veneer paneling, not so much like rustic cabin type, but more Euro-modern type. The dining room was quite full of lunchtime diners, and so were the half-dozen or so tables on the patio next to the restaurant.

About 10 minutes later, our number was called and I retrieved our sandwiches. As our sandwiches were already cut in half, we exchanged halves so we can try each other’s sandwiches. My friend liked his oven roasted brisket on Italian roll. It comes with a small bowl of au jus dip, and pickle spears. The Italian roll is very good for sopping up the au jus dip. I chose rye bread for my blackened pastrami, which also comes with a side of potato salad and pickle spears. I think the main difference between the pastrami and blackened pastrami is a lot more pepper smashed into the sides of the blackened pastrami. The rye bread was very fresh and soft. The pastrami was good and peppery, not the best pastrami I’ve had, but still quite good. My only complaint was that the sandwich was a slight bit dry and required a little mayo and mustard to help it go down. The potato salad was quite average though. But the roast brisket sandwich stole the show. I was quite impressed by the good flavor and tenderness of the brisket.

If the name of the restaurant has "Pastrami" in it, I’ll eventually find it. I like Tommy Pastrami New York Delicatessen and would readily return to it. While there are some better places for pastrami, this fills the void quite nicely. The cost is a slight bit higher than I would like given the size of the sandwich, but it’s still cheaper than a regular sit-down restaurant, and about as good. I do wonder about the other sandwiches and will return to try them out. Read Less

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on July 10, 2010

Tommy Pastrami New York Delicatessen
3751 S. Harbor Blvd.
Santa Ana, California 92704
(714) 540-2700

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Lee's Sandwiches

Restaurant | "Lee's Sandwiches - A Great Banh Mi Starter"

Quote:

Lee’s Sandwiches is a small, but quickly expanding chain of Vietnamese sandwich shops. There are Lee’s Sandwiches locations in Garden Grove, Westminster, Irvine near UCI, Fullerton, Lake Forest, Santa Ana, as well as other cities. Lee’s Sandwiches is credited with making Vietnamese sandwiches popular among non-Vietnamese by also serving other sandwiches and having photos on their menus, and English speaking staff.Vietnamese sandwiches are called Banh Mi. Banh Mi is basically a baguette sandwich, usually filled with meat, as well as shards of pickled carrots and daikon, fresh cilantro, sometimes jalapeno slices and cucumbers. The French culinary influence is definitely seen in the nice cris...Read More

Lee’s Sandwiches is a small, but quickly expanding chain of Vietnamese sandwich shops. There are Lee’s Sandwiches locations in Garden Grove, Westminster, Irvine near UCI, Fullerton, Lake Forest, Santa Ana, as well as other cities. Lee’s Sandwiches is credited with making Vietnamese sandwiches popular among non-Vietnamese by also serving other sandwiches and having photos on their menus, and English speaking staff.

Vietnamese sandwiches are called Banh Mi. Banh Mi is basically a baguette sandwich, usually filled with meat, as well as shards of pickled carrots and daikon, fresh cilantro, sometimes jalapeno slices and cucumbers. The French culinary influence is definitely seen in the nice crispy baguette. All these flavors, fresh and pickled veggies, come together to make a very new and interesting taste I really love.

Lee’s Sandwiches is a fast service restaurant, where you order and pick up your food at the counter. It’s a very interesting place, as there is a huge menu board with dozens of different types of sandwiches, as well as accompanying pictures for purposes of identification. The fillings available include juicy pork meat ball (xiu mai), barbeque (thit nuong), shredded (bi) and pork roll (cha lua). There are also cold cut combinations (pork roll, ham, and/or head cheese), grilled chicken (ga nuong), sardine (ca moi), scrambled egg (trung chien) and vegetarian (chay.) In addition, Lee’s Sandwiches also has "European" sandwiches served on either croissants or 10 inch baguettes, mostly with more traditional fillings such as ham, cheese, salami, turkey, and the like.

The front counter has a huge selection of other items, from pre-packaged meals of rice and spring rolls, meat filled pastries, potato and corn chips, fresh baked breads and croissants. There are refrigerated displays for different drinks from easily recognizable colas and bottled waters to wheatgrass, dessert items such as individual servings of ice cream, jellos, agar, jellied fruits, and yogurts. Lee’s Sandwiches also has a fountain section that will make fresh Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk. They will also whip you up a fresh smoothie, with traditional flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and banana, to more exotic flavors like durian, coconut, avocado, or green bean. Hmm…green been smoothie, maybe next time.

Let me warn you now, all these displays will serve to overwhelm your senses, I’d just stick with something easy first. I ordered the grilled pork sandwich, Vietnamese style, naturally, and a pate chaud pork pastry. I really wanted a Vietnamese coffee, but they’re brewed quite strong, and it was too late in the day for me to enjoy one. I’d never fall asleep. The food is quite cheap here, my total for the sandwich and pastry was $3.64. And here’s a warning too, Lee’s Sandwiches only takes cash, no credit cards, no checks. Fortunately there is an ATM located near the door.

You know the bread is definitely fresh, as you can see 3 huge rotating bread ovens behind the counter, with trays upon trays of hundreds of little baguettes and pastries baking away. Sometimes I come here just to buy fresh loaves of baguettes. They do sucker you in, as I usually find an excuse to buy a sandwich.

After a few minutes, my number was called and I picked up my order at the counter. I bit into my crispy, crusty baguette and was rewarded with a nice tangy taste from the bits of pickled carrots and daikon, as well as the fresh cilantro. My next bite hit the barbecued pork, and the nice, rich pork taste marries well with the rest of the sandwich. The pate chaud pork pastry is a fluffy pastry (made with lots of shortening) filled with a meatball of Vietnamese pork pate. The pork pate has a nice peppery taste, although the pork does shrink a bit and the pastry expands and separates from the pork during baking.

I love these Banh Mi sandwiches, it’s a refreshing alternative to the same stuff you get at the chain places like Subway. While most of these sandwiches aren’t as filling, they are quite cheap, and for the same price of a $5 sub sandwich, you can usually get 2 Banh Mi sandwiches, perhaps even different types to sample. If you want to try these sandwiches out, I suggest you start at Lee’s Sandwiches. Skip the drive thru (most locations have a drive thru) and walk inside to see all they have to offer. Lee’s Sandwiches serves a wide variety of tasty sandwiches, it’s cheap, clean, and very accommodating to non-Vietnamese. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on November 5, 2008

Lee's Sandwiches
12905 Harbor Blvd.
Garden Grove, CA 92840
(714) 638-4268

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Orange County Journals

Which Sandwich?

Banh Mi Che Cali

Jerry's Famous Deli

Zon Baguettes

Tommy Pastrami New York Delicatessen

Lee's Sandwiches

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