Saigon Vietnamese Sandwiches

Yes, it looks like it closed. Funny how the Grand Opening sign is still hanging from the ceiling…

The only place for banh mi in San Ramon? I was pleasantly surprised by the banh mi served by this stall inside Le Asia Supermarket. And no, it isn’t related to Saigon Sandwiches in SF.
The sandwich pictures didn’t look that appealing — I mean, they offer bacon banh mi? I’ve never heard of that. They had 8 kinds of banh mi, rolls, and Vietnamese desserts. The sandwiches are made to order as they should be and the bread is toasted in the back (out of sight).
* Grilled chicken banh mi ($ 3.55): It could use more cilantro and a smear of pâté, but overall it was very good. It was larger than average and the marinated boneless, skinless chicken was very tender, garlicky and delicious. The bread was lightly toasted, soft and crusty. It’s not the crappy kind of roll that results in a zillion crumbs the every time you bite into it. The sandwich included pickled carrots & daikon, sliced jalapenos, a crunchy cucumber spear, and cilantro.
I noticed that they were assembling the sandwich at an old metal pizza station. They hadn’t changed the labels so they still said pepperoni, pineapple, olives, etc. Ha. They even had a fro-​yo soft serve machine in their space but it wasn’t plugged in! I asked about it (it looked old) but it didn’t seem like they planned on offering fro-​yo soon. Or maybe she didn’t understand what I said?
Cash only. Update: maybe it’s closed now? Yes, it is closed. What a shame.

UPDATED 11÷5÷2009
My wife passed by this afternoon and the shop has closed down. I think that’s a record for a food stall in Le Asia. Bummer.
So sad…

A Vietnamese Sandwich store in San Ramon Area?! That alone is 5 stars. Yes, it’s not that amazing compare to Irving in San Francisco… but the fact that I don’t have to drive for over an hour — I’ll take it.
It’s good but not the best. The bread is not fresh and they have limited items on their menu. But I’m hoping it will only get better with time.
They have the vegetarian sandwich… it’s NOT on the menu but you can ask for it.
Do NOT order the bacon sandwich. Don’t say I didn’t warn you ;)

I’ve been coming here for a while now, enough to have a pretty good feel for the place.
They don’t have many customers due to its location inside an unsuccessful market. The one employee they are down to is helpful, but sits around reading because there are no customers. The bread/​rolls are not fresh because they don’t move very many. She heats them in a toaster oven in an attempt to refresh the bread.
The other day I took two bahn mi home, where I then discovered that she had _​burned_​the bottoms of both rolls in the toaster oven. She turns the rolls every which way when she puts in the mayo, meat, veggies, etc. so there is no doubt whatsoever that she saw that the bottoms were burned. Yet she sold them to me anyway — double wrapped, of course, first in the white wrapping paper with a rubber band holding it tight, second inside a paper bag. No way I could tell until I got home.
No, i didn’t drive all the way back to return them — on my time and mileage — but I’ll never return. If they can’t make a simple, easy decision like that (replace the rolls), what else could be wrong.

We went to get some boba at Le Asia and were pleasantly surprised to see the vietnamese sandwich place was finally open. We bought 2 sandwiches for $ 7. I was a little disappointed to see the lady putting the bread in a toaster oven, which meant that it wasn’t freshly baked. Overall the sandwiches were o.k. The bread wasn’t that crispy and the meat and fillings were mediocre. I don’t think I’d drive 10 minutes for the sandwich but if I’m in the area around lunch time I may get it again. Although, the dim-​sum in Le Kitchen looked pretty good too.