Sunday Sandwiches – Poppy Boba Kitchen

**** The sign for Poppy Boba is gone and online it mentions “temporarily closed” to reopen in July of 2626?

I was driving home from Nijiya the “back way”, via Stalmer, then Beagle Street when a shop caught my eye.

This is on the Beagle Street side of the mall that houses The Pad Thai Stand and Carnival Market. This seemed like a new shop as I didn’t recall seeing it before. Since I’m not much of a “boba” kinda guy I wouldn’t have given the place much attention; but I noticed the bottom of the sign said “banh mi”. Hmmmm………  I went ahead and added the place to my “list” to check out when the weather got warmer; which was just about a week later. So, I decided to drop by. Checking the hours I noticed that unlike many shops that do banh mi; Poppy opens at 11.

I walked on over and entered the elongated shop which was a counter and all kitchen.

A very nice young woman was working. I had a quick glance at the liquid refreshment based menu.

Basically baos and various snacks, alongside banh mi and rice bowls. Sadly, only three different “fillings” are available; Grilled Pork, Grilled Chicken, or Lemongrass Tofu. Obviously “Poppy” is more of a westernized “Asian” snack shop. As I looked over the menu, a woman walked in with two large bags of banh mi….so, I figured what the heck, at least my bread will be fresh, right?

I went and ordered the Grilled Pork Banh Mi ($10.50). It was fairly sizeable.

    The bread was very crusty…it was indeed quite fresh, though it didn’t hold up real well because there was a bit too much mayo. The menu said the banh mi has pate in it; but I could not find, nor taste any. There was a good amount of pork, in chunks, fairly chewy, but decently savory-sweet-salty.

It was kind of unevenly put together as the “chunk” of cucumber only covered half of the width of the sandwich. Not enough pickled carrots and daikon, nor cilantro. I’ve always stated when confronted by over-stuffed banh mi that I appreciate proportion when it comes to these type of sandwiches. The jalapeno was sliced fairly thick and it was fun playing “jalapeno roulette”.

It was an ok “Americanized” banh mi.

During my visit, I had seen something on the menu that caught my attention. There was something called “Japanese Egg Sandwich” on the menu. So, I decided to drop in on my way home from Nijiya a few days later. Same nice young lady working. Based on the price; $5.75, I didn’t expect this to be too large and it wasn’t. Which was a good thing since I wasn’t very hungry.

Here’s what it looked like scaled against a quarter.

 I had noticed that it was toasted, which was a clue that the folks here weren’t using Shokupan, the classic Japanese Milk Bread; a must for a egg salad sando, which this was definitely not. I missed the light, fluffy texture and the slight sweetness that the proper bread brings to the sando.

Just making egg salad with Kewpie Mayonnaise does not make it a proper Japanese egg salad sandwich.

The dill added some refreshing anise tones, but was unevenly distributed. There was a nice layer of egg salad.

Not a terrible sandwich; but definitely not a Egg Salad Sando!

Overall, the young lady working was very nice. The sandwiches ok, but not worth going out of your way for…it’s Americanized – Asian to me. Still, it’s interesting to see these businesses slowly making their way into the area. I’m interested to see what’s coming next as there seems to be some vacancies in this strip mall.

Poppy Boba Kitchen
3538 Ashford St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Tues – Sun 11am – 8pm
Closed on Mondays