Boi To Go

Sorry everybody, Boi To Go is dead. So is Boi.
Midtown East didn’t really have much going for it in the first place, but this was one of the few good places east of Grand Central. Guess I’ll have to settle for Chipotle or Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks next time I get hungry in this neighborhood… (sobbing quietly into my keyboard)…

The Banh Mi craze is sweeping the nation… well at least in NY. First it was Sushi, bubble tea, then it was Thai, now Banh Mi joints. I’ve had plenty, mostly from better tasting and probably more authentic places in NY. The sandwiches here were just not made with the same love or expertise that I’ve come to know. I was already skeptical when I heard there was a Banh Mi restaurant in east midtown and my instincts were right. If you have a craving, then go try it out, but for the veteran who wants taste and authenticity I’d make a trip south to Chinatown.
Of course, If I were in the middle of Nebraska and this was the only place that sold Banh Mi, then I’d reconsider my view, but in a city with plenty of eats and Banh Mi restaurants, I’d think they’d do a better job at creating an awesome sandwich.

Let’s start out and caveat this review tat YES Boi to Go is in Midtown and accordingly is subject to being underwhelming and overpriced.
Price point: expect to pay about $ 8 for the sandwich or lunch box. Throw in a drink and bag of chips for about $ 11 total– not horrible for a lot of food.
Run down of the menu: Standard banh mi and other variations, lunchbox (vermicelli or rice) + meat (chicken meatballs, flank steak, chicken) + veg (romaine, corn, carrots, onions, cilantro) + sauce (hoisin, plum, honey something, etc). Salad box = replace lunchbox starch with lettuce.
Banh mi: pretty standard in terms of taste– nothing to complain or rave about. They’re pretty generous with their toppings and there is just way too much bread. My ideal starch to «toppings» ratio is probably 35:65, Boi has about a 55:45). My biggest complaint would definitely be the bread– they try to toast it before preparing it but throwing it in the oven for 1 minute will hardly do the trick. But on days when you’re famished, more bread not necessarily a bad thing. Pickled daikon and carrots had a nice flavor punched up by chili and cilantro. I personally am a big fan of the chicken meatballs that are braised in some type of curry sauce as the complimenting protein although the traditional banh mi was tasty also.
Lunchbox: I find that the flank steak/​chicken tends to be on the dry side so I usually go for the chicken meatballs (yes I’m a fan) — tender and meat without too much fat content and braised nice and tender. I think the rice noodles are definitely on the dry side. Without the sauce it would be like gnawing on sandpaper, but with, it’s digestible.
Fresh rolls: I would stay away from. They hardly had any shrimp in them and were mostly just vermicelli and lettuce… and for $ 5 – 6 it wasn’t worth the money.
Note to girls on diets: they sell a «junior» sized banh mi for something like $ 4 – 5 which is also a nice option. Also, this place is tiny and there is nowhere to sit outside so don’t plan on loitering. This is more of a take to your desk and eat in front of your computer type of place.
Any way you cut it, a banh mi is a banh mi and it’ll be tasty regardless. All in, Boi offers a decently tasty and filling lunch in Midtown.

Worst. takeout. place. ever.
Three terrible experiences:
1. Had a noodle soup there where the chicken was actually so undercooked it was pink
2. Their banh mi is dull and tasteless, and the bread is soggy. Crispy baguettes MAKE the sandwich, and if you don’t have that then nothing can save it
3. They’re supposed to open at 10:30am — I went at 10:45am, and even CALLED right before to make sure they’d be open, and their lights were dark, no food or vietnamese coffee was ready, and there was one lady there looking like a deer in the headlights mumbling something about the manager being gone with some key
never again

Low-​carb wrap bahn-​mi is a great lunch. Also: any salad w/​the pomegranate dressing and tofu skins. Yum! This mid-​town joint saved me from Wendy’s and $.99 pizza.

While this is neither authentic, cheap or healthy is sure does taste good. I really enjoy the warm, crispy and soft baguette stuffed with fresh vegetables, herbs, hot sauce and big BBQ pork meatballs.

Considering you’re eating here most likely because you work in midtown east, this might satisfy your banh mi craving. The baguette they use is much harder and bigger than the traditional single loaf banh mi.
I’d recommend trying their grilled steak with rice, with your choices of veggies, Their dressings are actually quite tasty.

Man, do I love Banh Mi. It so tasty and jam-​packed with all the kinds of foods you’d want to eat (read: avocado). It’s also a great thing for Boi To Go that this is the ONLY things that matter to me at lunch during the week because that’s the only reason I go back to this place…
Boi to Go replaced The Original Soup Man location in midtown east a little over a year ago. If you’ve seen the location, you’ll know that there is very little room to get around. Like I mentioned, the food is great (and one of the few places I can find a good Banh Mi in the 5 block radius I normally travel outside of my office) but the system for ordering is horrible:
1. Place order at back, receive pick-​up ticket, move to front to pay bill
2. Tell cashier what you got, pay bill, take receipt to back register
3. Wait for food
4. When your number is called, hand in the numerical ticket as well as the receipt
(5. About 10% of the time, cashier mis-​calculated your bill, and you need to go back and get it changed. Another 15% of the time, you accidentally throw out your receipt thinking you don’t need it, then when they ask for it, they instead need to scream to the cashier whether you paid)
There is so much back and forth, it’ll make your head spin.
I’ll give three stars, but only redeemed by the fact that I’ll deal with these inconveniences because all I want is my food at lunch. Otherwise, this is easily a 1 star locale. Only go if you can deal with the hassle, but i’ll guarantee the food is worth it.

This reminded me the CHIPOTLE process… except Vietnamese styled.
They have «lunch boxes» where you pick the main things for you dish:
step 1: choice of meat or vegetables
step 2: choice of noodles, rice bowl, vietnamese burrito, wrap, or salad
step 3: choice of sauce
They also have sandwiches and appetizers too!
I had the lemon grilled marinated chicken, soft noodles, and sesame basil sauce! it was quite filling and i was satisfied.
I also orderd a vietnamese spring roll topped with peanut sauce. It was decent, but i didn’t like how thin the roll was– it broke apart quite easily.
Boi To Go is definitely a place to go! :) Give it a try!

I had the lunch box with pork, rice, lettuce, carrots and honey sauce. I thought it was pretty good. The pork was tasty. The meal comes with a beverage (i had the tea which the cashier guy recommended and it was pretty light and refreshing) for 9 bucks.
I wouldnt say this is the best place in the world but its good enough for a quick lunch ;-)

Far from the best bahn mi you’re going to get in NYC. Actually maybe among the worst, but it’s saved by the fact that no matter how you slice it a bahn mi is a friggin’ awesome sandwich. So it’s still damn tasty.
While a bahn mi should be on a baguette, this bread is more like italian bread. It’s not crusty. It’s wide. It’s huge. It also has avocado in it, which is pretty untraditional.
But it’s good. Especially the spicy pork, one.

To get a quick fix of Vietnamese phở without heading down all the way to Chinatown, Boi To Go, hit the spot. I ordered the Chicken Phở noodle soup regular size for lunch. Though the regular size was only a small pint size at any typical Chinese take out joint… it was actually quite filling. The noodles were good and the hot broth had a good base of flavors. The chicken had no taste though. It seemed as though they just boiled the chicken and shredded it. They need to work on the chicken. They do give you hoisin sauce on the side, and hot sauce if you request it. They also give you piece of bread along with this order. Total $ 6. Was it worth it? No… when you can get a large bowl of phở in Ctown for 6 bucks… but if you just need a quick fix of phở, go for it.
I haven’t tried the sandwiches yet… will review if I do.

I’ve tried PLENTY of Vietnamese spots downtown and this one simply does not compare. The Pork in the Banh Mi sandwich is not fresh, and the taste is simply not pleasing. If you want REAL Vietnamese sandwiches for the same price please go to Kampuchea in the Lower East Side.
Also, Nicky’s Sandwiches is always great.

BAD BOI! Banh Mi craving satiated. but at what cost? Upon walking in, I saw all the ingredients laid out. This can only mean one thing. My food was going to be nuked. Confused as shit on what to order, I asked the owner, a Viet lady. She recommended #3. So be it. 4 Mexicans wait for your order then the work begins. Your meat is taken from the plastic container and placed in the microwave, just as suspected. The meat is roughly 1/​8″ thick, flat but wide. They ask if I want my sandwich spicy. I say yes. The baguette is a 6″ long x 4″ wide behemoth. It was soft so all worries of gum bleeding subsided. The health twist to this place is they add avocado in your sandwich. The pâté is also a feeble attempt at going upscale and justifying your $ 7.50 Banh Mi. They were marketing the Boi Lemongrass Chicken Noodle soup ($ 4.35) and spring roll (chicken or veggie, $ 2.50) hard. Also a food + drink combo for $ 8.75. They are closed on weekends. I don’t think I would go back. I guess they are making a killing, since I saw a sign on the wall that read ‘Coming Soon: Boi Sandwich @ 708 3^rd Ave’. Oh yeah, they tax you too.
Step 1
–Meat [Chicken ($ 7.50), Beef ($ 7.75), Pork ($ 7.75)] or
–Vegetarian [cabbage, peppers, onions, sliced carrots, avocado, shaved fennel] ($ 6.95)
Step 2
–Noodles or
–Rice (parsley-​jasmine) or
–Bread (baguette) or
–Salad (romaine w/​tofu skin) or
–Wrap (tortilla w/​parsley-​jasmine rice)
Step 3
–Sesame-​Basil Sauce or
–Lemongrass-​Plum Dressing or
–Curry-​Mint Sauce or
–Red Hot Pepper Sauce
Extras
Meat or Veggie or Salad or pâté
Sandwiches ($ 7.50)
(Base: crispy baguette, pâté, avocado, daikon/​carrot salad)
–Banh Mi — add Viet ham, cucumbers, cilantro
–Banh Mi Ga — add arugula, chicken breast, red onions, basil
–BANH MI HEO — add bbq pork, romaine, cilantro. The owner recommended #3 so I ordered this, It definitely didn’t feel heavy (~1/​3 lb) for $ 7.50, a shitload of daikon went into this, needed more cilantro, lose the romaine, some sauce was dripping upon eating it, got full off it, but this definitely wasn’t the real thing, not even close, at least my gums didn’t get scraped up
Total came out to $ 8.13 after everything
Pics:

I steered clear of the traditional Banh Ma [saving that for another time] and went with an Americanized-​Korean salad –which contained a few unknown items.
I told the man behind the counter to just put in it whatever you normally put in their salad… he just stood there, blankly staring at me [I guess he wanted me to point out exactly what I wanted] and then finally he did it up.
I walked to the end to pay and didn’t know what was in my salad [other then chicken and lettuce] until I got back to my office.
The mystery salad revealed: chicken, lettuce, cilantro, carrots, white things that looked like onions but tasted like Styrofoam [I know what this taste like], corn, possibly tofu remnants?, onions, and a curry/​basil dressing.
There was also a side of hot sauce that I doused the entire salad with – [maybe just a few sprinkles next time… eek].
The salad was pretty fantastic – all the ingredients together were A+.
I loved the fact that there was cilantro in the salad because I heart cilantro and it’s not an ingredient I find in my daily lunch.
I’d definitely come back here and try other stuff on their menu.
Although this place is mainly for takeaway, they do have a few window stools and two small tables for eat-​in.

The take-​out version of the fancier restaurant Boi, which I actually have not had the chance to go to.
This is a pretty good lunch spot. A lot of times I go to sandwich places like Pret a Manger, Cosi or Café Metro, but when I want to switch it up a bit this is the perfect place.
The portion is decent and a pretty perfect size for lunch. The sauces go well with all the ingredients, and everything is decently fresh.
I guess I can’t be too picky about lunch. Usually I get insanely hungry by 11am so my judgement is rather skewed most of the time. I will be going back to this place for sure though.

Can’t hate this place since it brings Banh Mi uptown, but you can subtract a star for the kind of boringness of the sandwiches compared to their counterparts in Chinatown. You can also subtract a star for the crappy, slow, ESL service which should be better in midtown at these prices. I doubt I will go back to this place but it did remind my tastebuds of the idea of Banh Mi so you will find me in Chinatown in all the usual places.

I love a good banh mi ga. This is Midtown East fancy Vietnamese restaurant Boi’s lunchtime take-​out branch, and a regular spot for local workers in need of a crusty, shattering French-​bread and lemongrass chicken fix.
I’ve only ever gotten the banh mi ga because it is SO DELICIOUS, with pickled julienned veggies, perfectly thin/​grilled/​marinated chicken, some greens, a little pâté, you can’t beat it. Subway’s 6″ subs can eat Boi To Go’s dust in the volume and taste department. They have a great selection of fun chips (shrimp chips, taste of my childhood, I love you and your MSG), bottled teas from Teany and various kinds of green tea. The menu also lists Vietnamese coffee and tea – the staff is not very well versed in making them, obviously, because it took them half an hour to make and bring out my Vietnamese coffee the other day.
The service is a little lacking, allow a little leeway for them to get details of your order wrong, but they’re still working out the kinks. A crazy blonde woman with fourteen shopping bags was in there absolutely screaming at the poor line cook who was trying to make her a salad, I guess it was just too much corn for her. There is no communication between the line cooks and the register, so they’ll keep asking you what you ordered and maybe ¹⁄₅ times get it wrong.
Still, variety is the spice of life, right? Boi To Go’s formula is simple, choose a salad, sandwich, or noodles and your toppings. The pre-​established combinations of deliciousness are listed up on the board, with cheaper specials for a combo with a drink or chips. If you do go for a banh mi ga and you are easily defeated by spicy food, MAKE SURE to ask for NO SPICY SAUCE. I must not have been vociferous enough on this point the other day, because my sandwich definitely had spicy sauce and I cried. Hot, stinging tears of spiciness. I think I’ll go try their noodle bowl tomorrow.

I agree with everyone else’s review so far. It might be seem a bit pricey (of course it is in midtown), but as mentioned the ingredients are so very fresh it makes up for it.
The first time I went I had the rice bowl version of the chicken with all the vegetables and the plum sauce. The plum sauce and the veggy’s freshness made the dish. It was sweet and offset by crunchy greens, corn tomatoes, and the jasmine in the rice. I tend to like spice and sweet and was happy to find they had sriracha hot sauce in little take home cups of it at the register!
Definitely try the Banh mi (pork)or the Banh mi ga (chicken). It is a great example of the flavor balance this place has to offer.
I have been told by co-​workers the wraps are quite nice, but have yet to order one because I always end up getting the Banh mi ga.
This place makes me curious about their parent dinner restaurant.

This place has been open for a month, and for a month, I have been walking by, looking in the window and cursing myself for having eaten somewhere else. Until today.
I went in and tried the Banh Mi wrap, which has jasmine rice with a choice of meat, veggies and sauce on a flour pancake. Other offerings include rice bowls, salads, traditional Banh Mi and Banh Mi Ga (chicken). Meaty choices for the wrap are lemongrass chicken, char-​broiled, marinated pork, and shredded honey glazed grilled beef. The sauces are sesame-​basil, curry-​mint and red hot pepper sauce. I chose the lemongrass chicken with sesame-​basil sauce and veggies.
The wrap was good, although a bit too much starch for my taste. The ingredients were very fresh, which cut the starch a little. But I don’t like to eat food I can feel lurking in the pit of my stomach for hours afterwards. Maybe next time I will ask that they either cut down on the rice, for there is at least a cup and a half crammed in there, or omit the rice altogether. The wrap was a good size. Not a fork and knife affair, like Momofuku Ssam, but very satisfying. Good to have for a treat every now and then. To wash it down, I had a Tazo Mojito Green Tea, which was delicious and which I have yet to find anywhere else. They get cool points (and an extra star) for that and for the fact that they sell Eli Zabar’s cookies, oatmeal raisin in particular.