Ba Le

I know people are raving about Banh Mi’s for $ 2.50, but Saigon Kitchen’s were much better, they were a sit-​down restaurant, and their sandwiches were 4/​$ 7. People let this gem go out of business and then dote on the sandwiches at the market two doors down. It’s a sad world when a business of 20 + years goes out business and couldn’t have worked something out with the neighboring market to sell their sandwiches that made my friends and I fall in love with Vietnamese food.
Now my rant on the sandwich is done. I do like the market. It is older, so one might think it’s dirty, but look closer, the floors are mopped the glass is (usually) fingerprint-​free. Ba Le is a good place to get ingredients to make authentic Vietnamese soups and sandwiches at home.
I make my own peanut garlic mayo using peanut butter, mayonnaise, and garlic. It is soooo good! Their pricing is competitive for the area, so there really isn’t a reason to use the market for your Vietnamese recipe shopping.

Called twice to order a take out before I arrived. I was told they’re busy and to call back both times. When I arrived, there were no customers and the cashier was «busy» eating.

I’ve been going here for years. As long as I can remember. Always better Banh mi than any other place in my opinion. They don’t over do the pâté or the mayo spread. And not stingy on the vegetables!

Everyone here is lazy. I asked for extra meat and pâté but they wouldn’t do it. They only wanted to give me the pre-​made ones. Why? Because they were too busy playing online poker.
Seriously.
Won’t RTE.

They have a good thing going on their product but service is typical. Their sales would greatly improve if their service is good as their product. Several times, I encountered associate/​owner debate with customers and mistreatment. I abandoning going there for years and may be get a sandwich here and there once in a long long while. People like to shop where they like not just for the food.

First time here and I’m not pleased with the service. I walked in on a conversation between the owner, the Vietnamese guy wearing red sweater. You know who you are. He was arguing with an older vietnamese lady about how she was claiming that the bread sold to her was old. Instead of apologizing to her he instead lecturing her on how to bake the bread so it would taste hard. His tone was aggressive even though he didn’t feel that he was being condescending to her. I won’t be back. Word of advice. Your customers always right when it comes to something like this. Apologize and move on buddy. You are a disgrace for treating someone who is old enough to be your mother.

The Bahn Mi is excellent and the owner is a nice woman who has been in business for around 30 years. I will be back to try their other Bahn Mi sandwiches. Ask for the menu since they have other options not on the board in front of you.

Personally I like the other Banh Me place across the street much better (as flavor goes), I know that is a terrible thing to say on a Unilocal review. Sorry, not sorry? This place has decent banh me and I will go here if the other place is out of whatever I am ordering, which they almost always are. I also thought the little items that they have in the front next to the register were super expensive. Maybe I got the white girl pricing? $ 4 for a little thing is pretty high considering Bistro-B’s pricing for the little snacks in the front. That is at least 4x pricier! Conversation I had with the lady in the front was also very awkward. She asked me how I knew about this place and a bunch of other questions like it was a huge secret, I just felt very strange being interrogated about coming in and ordering, on that note, Sugar Cane drink is a must here.

If you can get past the fear of talking to the hard looking Vietnamese gangster that takes your order, then $ 3 for some banh mi isn’t bad. There are other places that are much better though.
Avoid the bubble tea though, its super below-​average and they only give you like 3 tapioca balls. C’mon man don’t be stingy with them balls

Food was good and cheap. I got a bahn mi and two spring rolls for $ 6.
There is a younger guy that obviously hates whitey, but as long as you don’t get him you’re fine. Bread was a little too chewy.

The reason the banh mi tastes so good is because it is loaded with butter :) But the sandwiches are delicious, well seasoned and with fresh veggies and pickles. The price is really really great so you get a really good value. If you are in the Garland TX area I highly recommend you try one of these sandwiches.

I was really craving some banh mi, specifically pâté. From the outside, Ba Le says it’s a French bakery, but inside it’s all Vietnamese. You will not see any English or French signage anywhere inside, and the dude behind the counter only speaks Vietnamese, so it’s quite intimidating if you’re not familiar with the language.
Buy 5 banh mi, get 1 free. Each banh mi is about $ 3. I ordered the dac biet (special with all the fixins), xiu mai (meatballs), and pâté cha (white pork sausage and pork liver). The xiu mai was delicious while the pâté cha was just ok. The bread is really good, but it’s too big for the little amount of filling that’s inside. They are very sheisty with the meat. The pickled daikons and carrots were delicious. They also have various other Vietnamese fast foods already packaged, but I didn’t get any of those except for a che dau (black eyed peas dessert) which I haven’t tried yet. I don’t think I’ll come back for the banh mi. Quoc Bao has better tasting banh mi across the street for cheaper prices. Howevver, Ba Le does have some nuoc mia (sugar cane water), so I may be back for that!
CASH ONLY!

Ba Le has been in this exact spot since I first moved to Garland (over 20 years ago). They must have had a lot of time to perfect the art of banh mi, cause their sandwiches are delicioouus. Their french bread is baked fresh and they put the perfect portions of pâté and viet mayo into their sandwiches. The meats are well seasoned, and the veggies are fresh. If they have pâté chaud (pastry puff stuffed with a pâté and meat filling) for sale, GET SOME! I love banh pâté chaud, and theirs is some of the best around. Also, as others have mentioned, their nuoc mia (sugarcane drink) is delicious, but pricey. Compared to Quoc Bao, I think Quoc Bao has a few sandwiches that are good (banh mi ga), but their other sandwiches don’t compare to Ba Le.
Service here is iffy. I like it when the lady mans the counter. She’s polite and helpful. However, there’s one guy who works there that’s a bit intimidating. I don’t know if he does it on purpose, but he always looks like he’s mean-​mugging you. Also, cash only can be pretty inconvenient.

I’ve been going here since I was little. I never review Asian restaurants because they dont care lol. I usually just get sugar cane drinks and banh mis. Their banh mi is not the best in town but it’s okay… it’s so inconsistent! and they are so cheapppppp!!! Their bread and meat ratio is way off. The bread is so big and there’s not enough meat. There’s very little to no butter. HELLO??? thats the best part of the sandwich!!! Quoc bao is my go to for banh mi and this place is nothing to compare. I only come here when quoc bao is closed. It’s expensive, too. Buy 5 get one free. It’s buy 3 get one free at Quoc Bao and they have sandwiches for $ 2!

Please get with the times and start accepting credits cards. I came, I saw, and I walked out.

Their sandwiches are decent. I actually prefer the thit nguoi here over the thit nguoi at Quoc bao. Whenever I go here, I opt for a banh mi thit nguoi with a small nuoc mia.
Ba Le has THE BEST nuoc mia (sugarcane drink). I have yet to find a place in the DFW area with better nuoc mia than Ba Le. $ 4 for a regular sized cup.
Their cha lua (vietnamese ham) is pretty good too. It makes for pretty good sandwich meat.
WARNING: CASH ONLY!

I decided to give Bale a try because i was in the mood for viet subs. Upon entering, i was immediately welcomed in vietnamese. I’m 6’2 and tan. There’s no way I’m viet. I said hello and i could tell i would have a hard time ordering because the cashier barely comprehended what i said. Thankfully, i know the universal language of pointing and nodding so i ordered 3 subs. A grilled pork, grilled chicken, and ham sub. Each were good, but i was a little disappointed in the meat to bun ratio.
I usually go to Quoc Bao for my viet subs, and i sort of wished i had gone there after my purchase. Quac Bao has the crusty french baguette while Bale has an airey french loaf bun. I prefer Bale’s bun because i dont really like the roof of my mouth to feel like i was biting shards of glass. What Quoc Bao does do well is in the meat. They load their subs with the right portion for the subs. Being a guy, i love meat, but i do understand that portion is key to everything. Quoc Bao just has a better understanding of it.
Bale is cheaper than Quoc Bao and honestly was enjoyable. I’m most likely going to just switch around whenever i’m in the mood for viet subs.

Went to Ba Le to order 10 banh mi sandwiches for a road trip. You buy 5 and get one free so I got 12 sandwiches for the price of 10. I asked for the veggies to be on the side since the family will not be eating them all in one sitting. The service was quick and the sandwiches were delicious. They make their own pâté so it is fresh. Yummy!

I’m gonna give 4 stars just because a bahn mi for $ 2.50 is such an amazing little meal. Crusty baguette, pork with good grilled flavor, albeit a little fatty. The daikon radishes, carrots, some jalapeño, cilantro. It was just a perfect cheap snack for me. The fresh sugar cane drink looked great but at the time I was too full from phở across the street to want anything else other than a sandwich for later. Thx to my Unilocal crush for directing me there.
All the other selections looked great but I was too much of a Vietnamese noob to buy anything else.

Wanted to try Coco Fresh, but had to go the old standby instead. The bahn mi was really good as always, but the mean guy was there again and trying to force me to buy 2 sandwiches. Noooo
Update – fellow Unilocaler wanted to know the info about banh mi. it’s vietnamese sandwiches. crusty, fresh french bread filled with pâté (goose liver paste), various meats, asian radish (daikon), carrots, jalapeño, and cilantro. plus vietnamese mayonaise. try it!