Baguette Express
Categories: Bakeries, Vietnamese [Edit]
Neighborhood: Civic Center/Tenderloin668 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94101 (415) 345-8999
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: No
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: No
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Lunch
- Alcohol: None
159 reviews
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
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91 Reviews for Baguette Express
In my boyfriends everlasting quest to find yummy Vietnamese food, we stumbled into this little joint across the street from the monstrous Lee's sandwiches. Good choice. The bread was nice and soft, but crunchy on the outside, I had the BBQ pork and it was full of flavor and not made all half assed. Its also a cheap, and that always scores major points for a student like myself.
my metric system for vietnamese sammies is the banh mi thit nguoi.
although the components were not exactly what i grew up with but the flavor was on point. .
i am used to it having a peppered crunchy gelatinous meat involved. i have a love/hate relationship with that part...hate the look/crunch...but also brings nostalgia.
this sandwich had different cured meats; a the Cha Lua (like a pork cake), flavored "Ham", to go along with a generous smear of the savory Pate. the sweet pickled vegetables, jalapenos & cliantro. bread was crispy & soft...perfect.
kudos. brought me back to vietnam. sooooo satisfied.
I thought this place is the Saigon Sandwich.
But, It wasn't too bad at all.
I like the combination of cilantro and pickled thin sliced carrot.
$3.25 for One sandwich.
Pretty good.
But I was kind of over killed by the pictures, the Subway lookin' sample photos of the sandwiches.
Subway photos are alright, nothing curious to know what's inside of the Subway sandwich, it's clear what they are.
But the photos for Vietnamese Sandwiches are not really attractive.
It gross me out just lookin' at.
I think Vietnamese Sandwiches are good but not photogenic.
But I don't mind lookin' at after 9 PM because there are few ladies standing right front of the store with such a tight bright color dress.
My GF told me that they are there almost every night.
So, .........
Baguette Express becomes Hookers Express at night.
P.S.
Ken k just mentioned, " Haha, or BANGuette Express :-)"
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this one wins the first bracket of the vietnamese sandwich playoff. The price alone sets it in its own league and the bbq pork sandwich was quite good as well. Sparing these places against each other is more fun than making m&ms and skittles fight
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Oh, I liked it while I was there. Good sandwich for the money... it's hard to beat $2.50, after all. I was ready to give it four stars--decent place.
Then I pooped green.
And this isn't just "hmm, I paid only $2.50 for a sandwich earlier today and then I had some questionable fecum." This is "oh my god, it doesn't smell like poop, it smells like sandwich... it looks like FOREST GREEN sandwich innards... I just crapped sandwich."
The novelty-seeking part of me wants to give 'em a 5 simply for that color. Amazing, really. Every other part of me... doesn't.
Least expensive sandwiches in an area full of Vietnamese sandwich shops. Not bad, either. The bread is a little more authentic as a baguette, too - tough on the outside, soft on the inside.
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I haven't tried their banh mi only because I had already hit Wrap Delight a block away for one and how many banh mi sandwiches can a girl eat in one sitting?
As tempting as the lineup of sandwiches was, my stomach wouldn't have forgiven me, so, instead I purchased my new obsession, Vietnamese iced coffee.
It was strong and syrupy sweet, just how I like it. I'm not sure if it was traditionally dripped or not because they made it in the back.
I can't wait to come back on an empty stomach and try the banh mi.
Long overdue 5 star review of Baguette Express. I was reminded today that you should not take a good thing for granted and ain't that the truth about this place. I was speeding up Larkin Street 2 days ago and saw a line (really, like 15 people) out the door at Saigon Sandwiches - passing BE, there was only 1 customer : ( so I slammed on the brakes, made a no-signal left turn, wrapped around the block, parked illegally at the motel and RAN (not walked) into BE for my sandwich. I just wanted the nice lady to know that she's appreciated and how tragic it would be if they let Lee's (yuck) and Saigon (dirty) kick them to the curb.
Clearly there are mix reviews here but it's just a sandwich people and in the end, I like my food clean, with a smile and cheap - all things you can say about BE. As for the people rushing to Saigon, my last visit was 2005 when I found a critter in the sandwich, showed it to the lady, and got it snatched out of my hand and then asked to "just go away". Lovely and memorable, especially when I can see her dirty finger nails to this day touching my hand during the snatch. With my head down, I ventured to the car but wait, what's this ? A sandwich place? Okay I'll try it on the account of hunger and anger - well the rest is history. LOVE the shredded pork and pate and love the #1 sandwich. And I love that they have a sign saying you need to wait b/c they are toasting the bread, can't bet it. I always tip and you should too.
Baguette Express ! We're here for you.
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My husband ran in and ran out with 2 BANH MI for only $4-5. I wanted so much to love this vietnamese ham sandwich but the baguette was so dry. I don't like biting into a sandwich and having the white part of the bread be as flakey as the outside. I was so hungry too that I was hoping for it to be the best brunch sandwich. Perhaps, next time...
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We did a side by side comparion from here and saigon sandwich. Saigon is still my favorite but i have to say the sammie here; we tried the head cheese..YUM, and we had the pork at saigon...also yum...though i forgot at saigon you need to ask for Jalapenos...they come automatically at baguette. I will be adding this place to my list of good vietnamese sammies!
I went there only for sugar cane juice, it was made right in front of me and was extremely sweet but had some after taste. I am sure that I can get better than this one in bay area..
So here we are, on our walk from North Beach to the Tenderloin in search of some great Vietnamese sandwiches and we found it. As this was neither lunch nor dinner time we decided to split a sandwich as this was only supposed to be a snack.
So we had the number 2, a pork sandwich with the works, toasted and GREAT! We loved it ... we almost ordered an additional 'snack' and just have an early dinner, but we decided just to come back for more at a later date!
Where can you find lunch for $2.50? Good food, fresh taste, friendly folks, so yes we will be back!
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Excellent Vietnamese sandwiches at an unbeatable price ($2.50 for grilled chicken). After three visits, I'm hooked on the fresh French bread stuffed with warm meat, crisp carrots, cilantro and hot peppers. The restaurant is clean and tidy with efficient service, though it can take a few minutes to get your sandwich as all is prepared to order. Not much seating, so to-go orders are recommended.
I came here because a friend of mine from Dallas told me they had the best BBQ pork and Vietnamese cured meat sandwiches . So I decided to give it a try and of course a welcome addition to my growing banh mi list.
So this review is specifically for their BBQ pork sandwich. I like that they strive to make their sandwiches hot and not warm (perhaps an answer to the busier Lee's sandwich shop across the street). The ingredients were indeed fresh and the sandwich was loaded with meat as well. I was not impressed by the grilled pork taste- it was too sweet and they also microwaved it (I have seen this grilled and kept in a warmer to be cut into pieces)- so their rendition was not to my personal liking.
PS- This Mom and Pop place is a tiny space but worth a visit if you're into Banh Mi's.
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"The Sandwich are Worth Risking Your Life!"
Explains the nicely printed Engrish banner out front (see photos).
I agree, although, I don't think you'll REALLY be risking your life walking down this stretch of Larkin Street. It's not too bad before dark.
It's an all around great Vietnamese Sandwich at an oh-so-nice price. Trust me, at $2.50 a sandwich, this isn't high-grade pork and you'll likely run into some grizzle. But if you can deal with that brand of "authenticity", you'll do just fine at B. E.
I've been there four or five times, and this is my favorite Viet-Sandwich place. I say it's better than the famous Saigon Sandwich.
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3.5 stars
This place does not beat Saigon, but it'll do. Shared the bbq chicken sandwich for $2.50 and a beef stew special, which was written on a small paper taped up to the wall.
The flavor in the sandwich was there, but there just wasn't as much ingredients (meat in particular) stuffed into the sandwich. Beef stew wasn't too shabby.
No line and no crowd around 1 pm. Two tables indoors and a table outside.
Will choose Saigon over Baguette any day. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't as good as Saigon. This place loses out in overall sandwich "fatness" - how fat can you stuff it? not much here
$5.00 bought me two tasty sandwiches for our journey back to Washington, DC. I'd been craving banh mi for several days and decided it would make the perfect plane food. As he tucked into his baguette I could tell my favorite Washingtonian agreed.
It'll be hard to fly without banh mi in tow going forward!
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Sooo good. I stumbled into here looking for a mock duck sandwich, but whatever their #11 is fixed my craving. As good as Lee's but 70 cents cheaper. hell yes!!!
Larkin is 'banh-mi' alley. The competition is fierce now than McViet (I mean Lee's) has opened directly across the street. No worries, Baguette Express holds its own with friendly, quick service in a space cleaner than Saigon Sandwiches, with a few tables, and a window counter to boot. I must subtract 1 star because the vegetarian sandwich (bi chay) was a little too salty (fried onion paste?).
Tip: They are the only shop that has fresh squeezed oj (nuoc cam vat) AND fresh squeezed sugar cane juice (nuoc mia nguyen chat)
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After watching a transsexual beat up a knife-wielding junkie with her cane, what else is there to do but go get a BBQ pork bahn mi? Such was the situation today, and such was the sandwich I got. Perfect.
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A few years ago, one day, whilst spending time with my father he asked me what i would like to have for lunch. I'm a sandwich for lunch kinda guy, and i made that preference known to the big guy. He said that he knew this Vietnamese sandwich shop that was pretty decent, and i was blown away by the idea. Vietnamese don't eat sandwiches! Well i guess there is that little bit of French influence from that little occupation. Anyway, we went and I was introduced to the banh mi, and fell in love. Flash forward to the present day, me living in S.F and walking down Banh Mi corridor on good ole Larkin St., and a smile so big my head almost falls off my neck. End overly long and useless intro, sorry.
Anywho, I've been to BE a few times now and have always left happy. The first thing that your teeth hit when biting into their sannies is the toasted French bread. Though i like the warm crunch of the bread, i hate it when a sannie tears up the tom of my mouth, leaving little skin shreds that i spend the rest of the day ripping out. BE's bread is almost toasted too much for me, it's right on the edge, but i like the warmness. One thing i love about banh mi is the veggies on the inside, the pickles, jalapenos, the cilantro; they all add to the distinctive flavor of banh mi that i love. BE's selection of meats is pretty good, I've not tried them all yet, I've pretty much stuck to the pork options as of yet, which can be a little gristly, but usually tender and flavorful. Nothing in particular has made this my banh mi stop of choice, I've tried Lee's, but i don't think I've been to other sannie purveyors here. But, for $2.50 a sandwich, you really can't beat this place for a yummy lunch.
I still need to try the shredded pork, shredded chicken, and meat ball options, i'm looking forward to them.
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Sometimes they are good and sometimes they are just very bad. Their poor English and bad service can be a real turned off. How hard is it to take a phone order and follow the instructions? I asked for extra crispy bread and extra veggies. I got 2 NOT at all crispy bread sandwiches and not only that they bagged it together with the cold shrimp vegetable rolls. Last week I would have given them a 4, but with this kind of inconsistency ?. . . I was so looking forward to it too. I called them to explain this and they just hanged up on me.
$2.50 sandwiches are a pretty obvious choice for the poor student/barista such as myself, and when they actually taste good, it's an added bonus.
I cannot attest to the goodness of the meaty grub but the Veggie Special is indeed pretty special. See, my main beef (oh man, pardon the bad pun) with a vegetarian sandwich is that it's typically way oversalted or soggy. They don't do that here. whee!
Baguette Express is my knight in shining sandwich armor.
A great altenative to the lines at Lees sandwiches across the street. This tiny cafe has some tasty BBQ sandwiches for $2.50!? I dont know how they do it. PLUS, they make a mean iced coffee. I'll order an extra sandwich or two for snacking later in the day. Service is also served w/ a smile here.
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The main reason why I come here is for their shredded chicken sandwich, which Saigon unfortunately doesn't have on their menu. That, and their freshly squeezed (cranked?) sugarcane juice, which I recommend if you love a sugar high as much as I do.
Also nice is their spaciously clean interior (at least compared to Saigon) with tables, magazines to read, and even some outdoor seating. But don't sit outside unless you enjoy the smell of stale urine to go along with your sandwich.
I don't come here more often because I usually find their bread a little too toasted and crunchy for my tastes. Actually...now that I think about it, I could probably just ask them to toast my bread less and I'd be really happy with my sandwich. Duh. Okay, four stars it is.
I gave Baguette Express a try at the suggestion of a friend of mine (who atleast thinks he's asian & who's fiance is vietnamese). I got the grilled pork sandwich, and while it was decent, I was still a bit unimpressed. I'm not sure if this is how the pork is supposed to be, but it seemed more like Chinese cha siu to me. Don't get me wrong, I love cha siu, it just seems a little out of place to me in a vietnamese sandwich. Like most (vietnamese and non-vietnamese) sandwiches, the meat was lacking as well, but this was no surprise to be honest (*see my note below). I can't quite put my finger on it, but something was just lacking from the sandwich overall. I usually go to Saigon Sandwiches to fulfill my vietnamese sandwich craving, and I still think you just can't beat it!
*Note: If you want a sandwich FULL of meat, try Moishe's Pippic on Hayes. You could easily make 3 sandwiches with the amount of meat they put on one, and they would still qualify as "meaty" as far as I'm concerned. Just be sure to ask for the other stuff too, or they might give you a "meat only" sandwich.
What's a sure fire way to ruin a banh mi made on warm, crusty bread with toothsome grilled meat and tangy pickled veggies? By also adding hot peppers that are still frozen!
I understand that a restaurant can get in trouble for not refrigerating certain ingredients, but it doesn't have to chill the peppers until they ice over. That threw the whole sandwich off kilter--it chilled the meat, then as the peppers thawed, they made the bread soggy.
***
Updated 8/27/07
Went there the other day and the chili peppers weren't frozen. That improves the sandiwch greatly. Baguette Express has the best bread--as toasty as Quizno's wishes its sandwiches were--but the meat (in this case the meatballs) were tinted an odd shade of red.
It was kind of hard to get the sandwich maker/conter person's attention since she was deeply engrossed in doing something in back. Upgrade to 4 stars!
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If your idea of a good sandwich is some salty, old, weird-colored meat by product on stale bread with a generous smear of margarine, by all means, knock yourself out.
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Big fan of these bad boys. $2.50 for a big, meaty eight incher.
I'm a little worried that my white trash year of living in San Mateo has taken its hold though ... I secretly wanted to put some mayo on my sandwich. *looks down at feet*
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This place makes a much better banh mi than Lee's Sandwiches, and I'd be hard pressed to choose between this shop and Saigon. As other people have indicated, one of the big differences is the baguette - awesome texture. Another thing that impressed me about this place was the fact that the woman behind the counter was chopping raw pork off the bone and preparing it to stew it in the shop. Many of the banh mi stores I go to look like they don't even stew the pork in the store. The pork was really well seasoned and tender, and she put in a lot of pickled carrot/daikon, just the way I like it.
Very strong banh mi. Highly recommended.
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I think that I may technically be one third Vietnamese now. Having worked in "Little Saigon" now for two and a half years I have eaten as much Vietnamese food as any of the actual Vietnamese in this city.
OK maybe not, but I consider myself a devotee, go ahead ask James at Pagolac, and a connoisseur.
As such Baguette express is one of my favorite Bahn Mi.
It is a little fancier than Wrap Delight, so when I am feeling more like the Hermes bag toting beautiful wife of a Saigon business man and less like the street trash I really am I go here.
Also they put cucumbers on their sandwiches and I really like that. If you go now there are some cool photos up of people transporting massive quantities of things, like dead chickens and truck tires, on mopeds that are pretty bad ass.
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My brain always stages an internal battle when I try to determine where to get a Vietnamese sandwich -- Baguette Express or Saigon Sandwiches. Baguette Express has much better bread -- it's crunchy in the best possible way. But, the vegetarian filling is not nearly as good as Saigon's (Saigon = giant tofu, Baguette = weird crunchy/salty things). And I always have to tell the people here that I want my sandwich spicy. That said, it's good and super cheap, and really, I can't choose between it and Saigon.
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Sorry, I posted it to the wrong place somehow.
With Saigon Sandwiches on the same street, I could never make myself try another banh mi/Vietnamese sandwich shop in Little Saigon. Well, I finally gave Baguette Express a chance. One bite into the sandwich, I regretted my adventurous ways.
Theirs was a very average roast pork sandwich. There wasn't much pork. The pork had more garlic flavor than I'm used to, which isn't a plus or a minus, just different. The baguette was fine, nothing special. It had what a good banh mi should - the pickled carrots (which apparently you have to request), cilantro, cucumber and jalapenos. It just wasn't that flavorful. And Saigon Sandwiches is so much better than any other banh mi place around...in this case it's one block away.
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There was a review of this place by some food columnist (forget the name) that emphasized how great it is that they toast the baguettes just right. Well the business took this review and made a gigantic banner out of it, which cracks me up.
Anyways, this place is usually pretty fast, has good sandwiches and isn't as claustrophobia-inducing as Saigon Sandwiches. I don't think that the meat at SS can be beaten, but the sandwiches here are damn good. That review was right to praise the properly-toasted bread, which adds so much to the texture and taste of these wonderfully cheap meals.
I have to admit that it was just a few short weeks ago that I had my first banh mi. This is where it came from.
My GF was shaking her head in disbelief the morning we woke up to go to the ballgame and considered banh mi sandwiches I had to tell her that I had never tasted the delights of this sandwich. She was kind enough to drag me down the hill to Baguette Express and help me order. I think I got some pork meatball thing. It was great. SUPER spicy with the raw jalapenos too. Yum. Anyway, I can't compare it to other banh mi places yet but if there are better I am in for a treat!
I'm WAY into it.
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Yum Yum!!
My first and definitely not my last time eating Bahn Mi. The meat was of surprising quality (not fatty), and the veggies were crisp and refreshing. The thing that sealed the deal was the excellent bread! Oh my gosh crunchy outside squishy inside. The only drawback was that I asked for jalapeno and received two little slivers. It was total racial profiling! Oh well my white butt will be back anyways, for $2.50 I'll put up with it!
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I had the bbq chicken sandwich - the bread was warm and fresh, they were generous with the meat and pickled veggies. The chicken was slightly on the salty/"gingery"-side (perhaps marinated too long?), but that didn't stop me from eating the whole sandwich!
My BF tried the fried fish cake sandwich - he said it tasted really good, but he would've like a litte more meat with it.
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Great prices. Fast service.
They're not huge, but, they're not tiny. Usually fresh and spicy.
As advertised, the bread on these banh mi are toasted perfectly, leading to delightfully soft, warm, toasty banh mi buns -- something that nearly every other vietnamese sandwich shop misses. Nevertheless, I found myself disappointed by the sandwich filling, which was good, but which really don't hold up to the promise of the bun.
Being the type of person who likes to believe in "the dirtier, the better", I had a hard time accepting the fact that I like Baguette Express more than Saigon Sandwiches. The bread is flakey and a bit softer than Saigon's. The sandwich just tastes fresher in general, plus they have a wider selection on their menu. They don't cram as much meat as Saigon, but the trade in quality is worth it.
JONASAPPROVED!
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