Bánh Mì BáGet

Maybe they’ve enhanced their process but my experience was delightful! And I for one, being an American, am perfectly content with what I would call an American-​Vietnamese fusion food place as I don’t particularly want to try tripe and other sinewy items I’ve never heard of. I tried the Banh Mi sandwich, the classic Saigon, and it was salted perfectly with just the right ratio of bread to meat but, bonus! it came loaded with vegetables such as carrot, cucumbers, jalapenos, and cabbage and the real non-​processed ham was very tasty ham on a perfectly sized baguette. Now I cannot wait to go back and try the Phở! Also, the workers were attentive, kind, and knowledgeable.

WHAT HAPPENED?!?
Used to have pretty good phở and banh mi sandwiches. Then in December the place was inexplicably closed– it’s open again, but the website STILL says «This location is closed until further notice.» New faces behind the counter, new menu, new containers for take-​out… New owners? New chefs? New recipes?
The food has gone drastically downhill to «Just OK». Other reviews have said the bread for the sandwiches are lower quality, but the state of the phở really makes me sad– significantly smaller portions of beef, noodles, and condiments, and the broth is noticeably thinner and lighter– no where near as flavorful as it used to be. Can easily be overpowered by sriracha, whereas it used to be strong enough to cut through.
‘Meh’ is right. Very disappointed one of the only Vietnmese places near the south loop no longer cuts it.

Having experienced the real deal in Vietnam, this just doesn’t cut it. Broth had no complexity, bread was stale in comparison to the crusty exterior/​soft interior that it should exhibit. If you call it a soup and sandwich place inspired by Vietnamese flavors, maybe it’s good enough, but I wouldn’t go here for banh mi and phở.

Good Vietnamese coffee.
That’s about it. The Saigon classic was extremely disappointing. Very salty, and the there was hardly any filling in the sandwich. Normally I’d give restaurants second chances, but I think I’ll look elsewhere for my banh mi fix.

They changed their food with new management and its terrible plus they raised the prices. Last time I go.

Just as it started snowing I spotted this Vietnamese café and tucked in for a bowl of hot soup. There’s beautiful photographs on the wall and keys from different hotels… It brought me back to Vietnam :) The staff was so sweet and when Teddy walked in he was holding a tray of coffees for his employees and even offered me one. The combination of a heartwarming Phở Ga & kindness made a very cold, grey day sunnier. Thank you Teddy & staff :)

Love their soup and banh mi sandwiches — delicious. Hate their seating, so usually took it back to office. I recommend for quick lunch in the Loop.

Great banh mi. Psyched they have some clearly marked vegan options. Delicious! Cool ambience too.

Pretty average banh mi. Not super authentic, but gets the job done. My friends ordered the phở, but they don’t put beef meatballs, tripe, or tendon in the phở!

Great small place to have lunch at, good service. Love the curry chicken sandwich (I highly recommend it).

Loop Lunch Spot.
A group of 4.
I and another ordered the Rice Noodle Salad (w/​BBQ Pork & Peanut Sauce) was delicious, simple, fresh, and more than enough food for a quick lunch!
The other two ordered the bahn mi and had mediocre compliments.

Got the shredded chicken sandwich for lunch today and it was drier than the Sahara. Their hot sauce couldn’t even moisturize my sandwich. What a disappointment-​I won’t be going back there. The good thing was it was only $ 6 sandwich that I didn’t pay for

If you’re interested in poorly Americanized Vietnamese food, give it a try. Both the Phở and rice noodle bowl were terrible and not authentic at all.

I have never had a Banh Mi on a frozen par-​baked roll before (if you can call it a French roll but I would not).
The Meat Balls had no tomato sauce on them like the menu says and they leave the meat sit in the roll on a speed rack in the kitchen waiting for your order to stick it in the oven. I don’t think the Chicago Health Dept. would like that very much!
Also the chicken in the Phở looks and tastes like it came out of a can.
very disappointing!

A pretty hole-​in-​the-​wall type of establishment. I come here pretty often for lunch when I need my Asian comfort food. Lines are very reasonable for the loop. Definitely not fancy and sometimes make me wonder about their sanitary conditions… but the food is usually pretty good.
I usually order the Beef Phở here. It’s definitely nothing compared to more authentic places around Argyle, and the phở itself might be a 3 star at best. I gave it an extra star anyway though because you really can’t beat the convenience. I don’t have the luxury to travel more than an hour whenever I have a phở craving.
The sandwiches here are a much more flavorful option. Most of my friends prefer this to the phở. Unfortunately I am not a fan since I hate chewing tough bread…
The space is also pretty cramped. Even though I almost never have trouble finding a couple seats should I need to, I always feel like my giant tray of soup and vegetables might topple over the narrow counter any minute.

The lemongrass tofu banh mi is good, even if it’s not the best bahn mi in the city.
The black mushroom vegetarian soup with tofu added is a tasty and healthy lunch option in the Loop, and although it didn’t fill me up for very long, I’d go back.

So, I wanted to meet my sister for lunch for her birthday, and since we both work in the loop, she chose this place. I’d done my homework, and had seen mention of the past health violations, but she said she’d eaten there and liked it, so off we went. We shared an order of spring rolls and the phở ga (chicken soup with noodles). The rolls were pretty good, but the soup was nothing special at all. [very bland] Thing is, they were extremely stingy with the bean sprouts, lime and Thai basil that one traditionally adds to the soup. There were like 4 basil leaves on the platter! That bummed me out, cause the basil is probably the least expensive ingredient in the soup! Given the cost vs. quality, I was unimpressed. Someday I’ll have to take my sis out for something a bit more authentic.

this is how you kill people. from the city health inspection dated 2014÷12÷15:
refrigerated food storage facilities at improper temperatures. noted reach in cooler at 52.7 degrees f … critical citation issued
potentially hazardous foods noted at improper temperatures. noted approximately 13lbs of cooked chicken at 78.8 degrees f, 2lbs of ground pork at 58.8 degrees f, 4lbs of ham at 58 degrees f, and 35lbs of fresh rice stick noodles at 58 – 60 degrees f… critical citation issued
source of cross contamination. noted raw beef stored above ready to eat lettuce, jalapeño peppers and cucumbers. noted the raw beef actively dripping blood onto the lettuce (6lbs), jalapeño peppers (4lbs) and cucumbers (4lbs) stored below … critical citation issued

My friends lives across from this place so we went and grabbed a quick dinner. I got a sandwich and my friends got Phở. I wasn’t that impressed. The sandwich was dry for me and the pickled vegetables wasn’t that sour (what I love in food). My friends’ Phở didn’t look that good either. It looked like it was missing a couple of things, like the slice beef and vegetables. The inside was cute but the place is more of an eat-​and-​go experience.

I’ve was here two to three times in the past and the sandwiches were ok, nothing special but not bad. I was downtown about 2 – 3 weeks ago, passed by and saw a closed by health dept sign. I looked it up and they were closed for allowing RAW BEEF BLOOd to drip into their vegetables. Also their storage temps were closer to room temp than refrigerated.
It makes me sick I ever ate here, and never will again… Look it up yourself…

This is realistically more of a 3 star place in Chicago (and about 1.5 in any city with better Vietnamese food than here) but I knocked off half a star for them forgetting to make half our order and another half for the uncomfortably racialized décor. (Why are there straw hats and a Chinese calendar in a place that markets itself as Vietnamese food? That’s like putting up pictures of the Eiffel tower in an Italian restaurant.)
Anyway, the food here was at best a mediocre attempt at imitating Vietnamese food. The phở came with «beef» in the form of what was essentially a bland pulled brisket. Not only is that not even close to acceptable variations of beef in traditional phở, but the people working there clearly weren’t even aware that phở should contain rare sliced beef (we got completely blank stares when we asked for our beef «on the side so it’s rare»). The soup was also bland but could be made barely edible with copious amounts of hoisin.
The «Saigon classic» banh mi was not a classic banh mi in any sense of the word. It was the wrong type of ham, the pâté was completely flavourless, and I didn’t even see any daikon. The rest of the ingredients were okay but the flavours just didn’t come together. I probably wouldn’t have found the subpar food so offensive if they hadn’t had signs all over the place trying to «educate» people on what Vietnamese food is.
tl;dr: don’t come here if you want actual Vietnamese food. Do come here if you’re a yuppie who thinks all Asian food is basically one genre and consider places like Panda Express to resemble Asian food.

You know I’ve been here a couple of times since my first trip now. So the sandwich is still good, though I’m no longer blown away like I was the first time around. :-) That’s understandable.
I did end up trying the seitan sandwich once and I still think the lemongrass tofu one wins in the end.
What I’m somewhat disappointed with though is that the service is really slow. I don’t know why it takes so long to make the sandwiches.

Pretty good food, but definitely not the best I’ve had. I like that they offer seitan! Their seitan was sweeter than I’m used to, so again, it wasn’t the best I’ve had, but it certainly wasn’t bad by any means.

Smells great! Can’t say it’s the best Vietnamese food but seems like they’re trying.
Pros:
Good portions
acceptable broth
Cons:
skimpy sriracha servings in the to-​go bag
Given the repetition of Potbelly and Freshii-​Pret-​ProteinBar in the Loop, Bánh Mì offers a nice alternative. Mexican Coca-​Cola glass bottles, Jarritos, and plenty of sriracha bottles on the counters.
Saigon classic Bánh Mì sandwich:
thick cuts of meat, large sandwich, veggies taste fresh
Chicken & Rice Noodles soup:
broth is mild for the Loop crowd, chicken seemed dry due to being slightly overcooked, noodles were good, to-​go bag has a disposable Asian soup ladle spoon.
I’m hesitating on the 4^th star but I would come here again.

I’ve only had the banh mi (my current reigning favorite sandwich) here, not the phở — if I’m getting phở, it’d better have tripe, tendon, spongy meat balls; all the classics. Luckily, the banh mi here is pretty great.
You’ve got three other main banh mi choices in the Loop.
1) Banh Mi Express — bread is way too crusty. Cuts the roof of my mouth.
2) Saigon Sisters — diluted down and overpriced. Man I am not a fan of this place.
3) Ba Le — Still my reigning favorite because they have a huge array of choices and use actual headcheese in their sandwich.
While Banh Mi & Co doesn’t have the headcheese, they’ve got a lot of other things going for them. While most Loop restaurants don’t really strive for any kind of aesthetic, BM&Co goes all out with their decorations and pictures hanging everywhere. It really makes it stand out.
The sandwiches themselves taste pretty great and are huge compared to the other choices. The bread is soft but sturdy, the pâté is nice and creamy and the ham is thick-​cut. It’s also not too spicy, as sometimes Ba Le will blow out my palette with the peppers they use.
This place is a great addition to the southern part of the Loop and I hope the traders around that area help keep this place going.

Whenever my coworkers want to go here, I always protest, but I end up not having a bad time.
The décor annoys me. It’s like a Vegas hotel or something. LIke the designer is like, «What other crap can we put on the walls to let people know we are a Vietnamese restaurant? Like, in case they don’t know?»
The space is tiny. There’s nowhere to sit where people won’t bump into you or spill their phở down your arm. Go really late or just get it to go.
I always get the lemongrass chicken bahn mi. You’ve gotta double up on the meat, otherwise there’s not enough there, and really the sandwich isn’t that big. My coworker loves the phở. The spring rolls are OK, but in general spring rolls aren’t really my thing. The Vietnamese coffee is really great, but I just wish for $ 3 it wasn’t mostly filled with crushed ice. After 5 sips, it’s about gone.
I feel like you have to spend at least $ 12 to here to have a decent meal. I hate paying so much for a small glass bottle of Coke. There’s plenty of places I’d rather go for lunch in the Loop.

Hip-​hip, hooray! Quality banh mi, phở & most importantly, Vietnamese coffee in the loop for a reasonable price!
Located on Van Buren & Financial, Banh Mi & Co is a cute little restaurant tucked away in the financial district of the loop, so the store hours are typical, Monday through Friday, mid morning til late afternoon. Super cute setup insideed.
Phở is made fresh daily as their Banh Mi sandwiches. A little pricier than what I’m used to back at home in California (Banh MI Che Cali, Lee’s, Mr Baguette) but certainly good priced.
Loved everything on the menu & especially the coffee! Makes me feel right at home :)

It was a cold day and all I craved for was phở. My previous go-​to place for phở in the loop was the Green Apple in the food court on Lake, it’s no Argyle but gets the job done.
A coworker’ suggested this new place to try instead, she’s Vietnamese so I trusted her opinion. Slightly skeptical from the mediocre Unilocal reviews, I decided to give it a shot anyways.
Boy was I disappointed. The soup broth was boring and lacked real depth in flavor, the brisket was ok, I prefer the typical thin sliced eye round in my beef phở, and lastly, there were barely any noodles! I left still hungry and unsatisfied.
I wanted to like this place, it’s cute and the owner was really nice. It seemed to be bustling and really busy during lunch hour, but the food unfortunately will not bring me back anytime soon.

Banh Mi & Co. recently opened a downtown location to serve up their Phở, Vietnamese Sandwiches (Banh Mi), Salads, and Vegan entrees. Although new, this cute little restaurant is manned by an expert and helpful staff so there are few if any kinks to iron out!
Crowded at lunch time, the line moved quickly, and gave me a chance to smell steaming hot bowls of Phở with side garnishes of basil, sprouts and jalapenoes, and the helpful staff bringing more sides to dine-​in customers, taking away trays, and offering follow-​up! This place does dine-​in, delivery and carry out.
Saving the Phở for allergy season, I got the BBQ Pork sandwich. The baguette was perfectly crispy on the outside, and pork seasoned well, with the carrots, cucumber, heaping serving of cilantro, and other toppings rounding it out nicely. This was a tasty sandwich that wasn’t heavy at all. I washed it down with their Lychee Lemonade and had a great lunch for just under $ 10! Loop Worker Bee approved!