I’m not quite sure who mentioned ViNam Cafe to me? But it’s definitely Banh Mi “season” for me right now as temps are starting to rise and I found myself in Rolando. So, I decided to figure out where ViNam was. I finally found the little shop on the ground floor of a mixed use apartment on ECB just East of College. I found some parking on ECB and walked over and discovered that the shop has it’s own small, but dedicated parking lot.
It was fairly early on a weekend morning and the little shop was quite sedate. Folks were just getting coffee while I was looking for my banh mi brekkie!
Just one nice young lady working.
Looking over the food, it was apparent that this is one of those “new” places and the menu has no Vietnamese names…other than banh mi.
I went with the Banh Mi Pate Cha or perhaps Dac Biet Cold Cut ($9). And it’s an interesting sign of the times as the nine dollar price didn’t faze me at all. Another thing that was different from other places is that the very nice young lady was doing everything….taking orders, making all the drinks, answering the phone, and of course making my banh mi. If this is usually the case, I wouldn’t be in a hurry when you visit. My banh mi took over twenty minutes, but I’m not going to complain too much since that young lady was working hard!
Man, this banh mi felt pretty hefty.
And upon opening…..yeesh…even heftier than Avian or Banh Mi Express!
Three stacked slices of cha lua, two of nem nuong….though the flavor of that was nullified by that thick smear of pate….not that I’m complaining mind you. This was definitely pate forward in flavor.
The pickled veggies were really cut thick…a bit too thick for my enjoyment, but that’s splitting hairs. There were not one; but two slices of cucumber in this so you won’t find me complaining about that. A nice cross slice of jalapeno with some decent spice.
My least favorite item was the bread, the crust was hard and the bread was overly chewy.
Overall, not a bad banh mi, the proportion was off for my taste….though I might be the only customer who would ever complain about too much meat? If the bread situation is just an aberration (I understand they make their own bread) than this would indeed be a nice, slightly Westernized banh mi. I’m thinking this is great for the students at SDSU.
The ViNam Cafe
6150 El Cajon Blvd. Suite A
San Diego, CA 92115
Current Hours:
Mon – Fri 630am – 6pm
Saturday 7am – 9pm
Sunday 7am – 6pm