Baguette Bros

A few weeks ago, we had lunch at Baguette Bros in the Convoy area. This restaurant is run by three Vietnamese brothers who added a creative spin to the traditional Vietnamese sandwiches! I visited once prior but it was the first time for Dennis. We also met with our longtime friend... she was one of our writers during the early days of Oh-So Yummy! Being familiar with the process, she allowed us to take pictures but countered with a fast verbal countdown due to hunger!

Here is the full menu board at Baguette Bros. They only serve 7 fusion sandwiches (at the time of this post) so you'd have to go elsewhere for standard Vietnamese sandwiches like the Banh Mi Dac Biet! Maybe sandwich #8 should be a revamped "everything" sandwich! They also serve other non-traditional items such as loaded fries with pork belly/bulgogi or wings.

Our friend was the first to receive her order, sandwich #3 Belly Flop Banh Mi. This sandwich comes with shrimp chips on the side which are sprinkled with a salt similar to Red Robin seasoning. The chips were fried recently but had softened a tiny bit when we got them.

The pork meat that day was a little drier, with some of the fat parts sticking a bit in the teeth. This meat tastes similar to chinese roasted pork skin so it was too crispy for my taste. The rest of the ingredients kept it Vietnamese style and helped out with the dryness. 

The bread was crunchy almost to the center so it flaked messily and overstepped the bread to meat ratio. Plus, there's always the sandwich battle of not pushing ingredients out the other end when you take a bite! Less toasty bread seems like it would handle this power struggle better.

Just hearing the name Big Shrimpin gets you interested in this next sandwich! Sandwich #7 was composed of garlic butter shrimp topped with a spicy mayo. Both Dennis and I wished there were a little more oomph in the shrimp though because it would have been amazing if it were seasoned and grilled like what comes on typical Vietnamese dishes! Instead, it had a bit of a cajon style sauce which didn't quite float our boat.

One plus to this sandwich is the generous amount of shrimp... 4-5 decent sized pieces per each half!

The best part of the meal was the Pork Belly Fries. The fries were reasonably crispy and salted plus whatever orange sauce on here didn't distract from the meat and eggs and fries. Also, because it wasn't crunchy like the sandwiches, I was relieved not to have to do a lot of chewing! I admit, some days I'm terribly lazy!

There is a water station as well as a squeeze bottle for the cilantro sauce and other condiments. Dennis also ordered a strawberry green tea to drink. Can't remember how it tasted though.

This picture is from my original visit. For this visit, all the bar tables were full but most people were still waiting for their food. These are made to order and a different style than other banh mi shops so give it a little extra time. There's also the option of calling in your order for pickup, which would save time. Closer to 1pm, it had cleared out considerably. Since Baguette Bros is a little more out of the way for us (at least Dennis anyway), we'd prefer the buttery and half priced sandwiches from Bale in Mira Mesa. For some fun, we might come back to try more fries or another fusion sandwich.