Viet Baguette & Kitchen

Xandir is on a never ending quest to save his boyfriend, while I am on a never ending quest to find a decent (in terms of quality and quantity) Viet baguette, aka banh mi in Hong Kong. In case you haven't read the post on Bee Two, it was a total disappointment as nothing about that baguette tasted like a banh mi. Well maybe the bread tasted right, but that's about it.

I saw Viet Baguette & Kitchen a week or 2 ago when I was walking out of IFC One and heading towards the escalator. They have a huge red sign up across the street on the left hand side that caught my attention, and I made a mental note to visit the place for lunch some time soon. Finally I gave this place a try last week as my plans to go to Sunday's Grocery failed.

Located in the Nexxus Building, this is a proper full on (pho) restaurant with a take out area for quick bites like baguettes, salads and juices. I think they have 4 kinds of baguettes to choose from and I went with the traditional pork one. Price wise it was $58 and about 2/3's the size of the baguettes in Edmonton, so I would consider that to be quite expensive. In case the baguette wasn't going to fill me up (which it did in the end), I also got a small salad from Pret.











Surprisingly, the sandwich kept me full until the end of the day so I didn't end up having my salad. Taste wise, they've checked the list below:

• pate
• cilantro
• fatty pork with skin
• chili pepper/jalapeño
• cucumber
• pickled carrots
• Vietnamese salami

I recall reading somewhere that Maggie sauce is supposed to be an essential ingredient as well. Never actually knew that since I thought Maggie was more of a Honger sauce. In any case... the point is these baguettes do not have Maggie sauce so it tastes slightly bland. As someone who is trying to lower salt intake this is not necessarily a bad thing, especially since the baguette still tastes good.

Overall, I would say that $58 dollars is not bad for the taste and size (though it wouldn't hurt if they came in bigger sizes).

Location: Ground floor of Nexxus Building
Website: NA

The other problem is the crumbs aftermath...