Bicycle Bánh Mì

We ordered banh mi and spring rolls for a team-​building event for work. Perfectly delicious (as expected), but also nicely presented and delivered right on time.

Came to their food truck at the ERF yesterday. My friend and I shared a Tofu Banh Mi, which was good. The ingredients were fresh, but the bread seemed a bit over cooked, so the crust was a bit too crunchy for me.

Went to the Bicycle Banh Mi stand at the Oakland Eat Real festival. To begin with, the sandwich was smaller than what it should have been for $ 8. It also had very little inside it, so at least of my sandwich was just bread and sauce. I’ve had plenty of banh mi in my life, and it’s usually stuffed with meat and veggies. Also the chicken tasted like it could have come from the frozen chicken section of the grocery store, and it took forever to make. Did not leave a good impression at all…

Had the opportunity to try Bicycle Banh Mi as a catered lunch at work. Their packaging is super clean, cute and actually pretty elegant. LOVED that my chicken curry Banh no was stuffed with cilantro and veggies. I wish they put more jalapeños in mine (don’t think I had any). Easy to eat and clean up; perfect for eating and working. (NOTE: I highly discourage that last part… sigh)

So fried coconut fried chicken banh mi? Sounds delicious right? Well it gets most things right except for the chicken. First bite in, wow great bread. Well portioned carrots, cucumber, and cilantro. The fried chicken filet is flat and well breaded. The problem is that the ratio to bread, breading, and chicken is off. It’s hard to discern that you’re even eating chicken. Maybe if they went with popcorn fried chicken or simply just coconut chicken the sandwich could have succeeded. I love me some fried chicken yet this banh mi needs to learn a lesson from po’ boys.

Tried their booth at the SF Street Food Festival
The fried chicken banh mi was $ 7 and it was quite the deal. Probably the largest and most filling sandwich in the entire festival. The banh mi wasn’t all that spectacular, but the fried chicken was fresh and refreshing in a banh mi sandwich.

Absolutely delicious! I was able to check them out at pop up in Santa Cruz and plan on coming to visit their restaurant as the food was amazing. Had two Banh Mi sandwiches that were equally delicious. The pork was perfectly seasoned, tender, and had a great aroma. The fried chicken sandwich had a great crunch and the root salad side was great. Even though it was a pop up the service was excellent. Thank you!!!

Every now and then, my office will order a big batch for meetings. I always look forward to these occasions, as the food is amazing. These hefty sandwiches are definitely a product of real care, and it shows. The bread is perfectly light but substantial, the pickled veggies and cucumber are fresh and crisp, and overall it’s just a great balance of the flavors and textures that make banh mi so good. The various ingredients are even layered evenly, so that you get some of everything in each bite — a rare feat! My favorite is the slow-​cooked pork, very tender and incredibly tasty. The service is also excellent; we get the sandwiches delivered, and they always come in pristine condition, tightly wrapped in paper so that everything is neat and easy to eat.

For a $ 10 plate of vermicelli and pork, I expect to actually have more food than a few bites of pork and a small handful of vermicelli. For that price, I can get a full meal of garlic noodles from Perilla. And it’ll taste 10x better.
Never ordering from here again.

Our company decided to shake things up a bit after years of always getting pizza at our company meetings, so we got some banh mi. What a good decision! I’m glad they chose Bicycle Banh Mi. I had the curry chicken with lemongrass, with some cole slaw salad on the side, and it was delicious. The curry was spicier than I expected, but in a good way.
Keep in mind that the curry is going to stain your face and hands yellow, so make sure you grab plenty of napkins!

Bicycle Banh Mi did a catered sandwich lunch for our office today, and it was really good. They included a whole lot of the coleslaw salad, and then a bunch of sandwiches, which I believe were all the lemongrass curry flavor, but in chicken, pork, and tofu. I had the tofu sandwich, which was very tasty– it was slightly on the spicy side for me, but I’m not a huge spicy food person, so, if you like spicy, you will be fine, it’s really not that hot. The tofu was excellent, the ingredients were tasty. I did feel like the sandwiches could be a little bigger? But that was my only complaint.
They also included some gluten free salad options, which was great for some of my co-​workers, and the tofu sandwiches were vegan, which was also great. The flavor of the lemongrass curry was excellent.
TL;DR– I would eat this even if my company weren’t buying. Very tasty!

Tried Bicycle’s shredded pork banh mi at this year’s SF street food festival. For $ 8, the sandwich was definitely big enough to split cuz you know I can’t be eating all that pork all by myself!
Tons of pickled carrots & daikon, but surprisingly added little crunch to the sandwich. Bread was on the chewy side, maybe needed to be toasted for a few more minutes. Shredded pork was pretty lean, moist, & tasty, though was not evenly distributed throughout; three bites in & I was still only tasting bread & veggies. We’ll chalk it up to a rushed job.
I’d cautiously give them another try.

From their stall at the SF street food festival on 2013-​08-​17:
* Slow-​cooked pork bánh mì — 4 stars
(Slow-​cooked pulled pork shoulder with caramelized onions and a green onion-​soy sauce sauté, served with homemade pickled carrots, daikon and jalapeños, topped with fresh cucumber and cilantro on a toasted baguette. $ 7)
pic:
cross-​section:
The pork was soft & hearty but not very evenly distributed throughout the sandwich. The bread was more on the stretchy side, texture-​wise, and could’ve used more crisp. It was also quite small for a banh-​mi you could get in a hole-​in-​the-​wall spot in the tenderloin. My bf ate most of this and really, really liked it so they seem deserving of the 4 stars.

I volunteered for the La Cocina SF Street Food Festival Night Market and had the pleasure of sampling and serving up Bicycle Bahn Mi’s dish. Here’s the description of their dish:
Bò Kho Vietnamese beef stew
«Bò» means beef, «Kho» means braised; Bò Kho is a Vietnamese-​French influenced beef stew with lemongrass, turmeric and star-​anise; served with carrots, potatoes and green peas; topped with basil and lime; sourflour bread on the side
It was a savory and hearty stew. The bread was a great accent. Jessica Nguyen was their chef and she was an absolute pleasure to work with. She came right up to us volunteers and encouraged us to try her dish. She kept it cool the whole night even as wave after wave of customers came through.
I haven’t been to their actual establishment but if it’s anything like their performance at the Night Market, I 100% recommend!

Best lunch delivery in our office in a long time.
We received a slew of chicken, pork and marinated tofu banh mi sandwiches, with a large side of coleslaw salad. Everything was delicious, and Bicycle Banh Mi somehow managed to keep the sandwiches warm without making the bread soggy.
The food disappeared quickly although the sandwiches were healthy size! Order a lot!

During my week of veganism (which is much harder than I thought it’d be in San Francisco) I ordered the Curry Lemongrass Tofu Bánh Mì from
(curated FiDi delivery/​pick up service).
The Bánh Mì itself was delicious, especially for something vegan… I definitely dug the yellow curry sauce and big strips of lemongrass… but it was kind of small, especially for $ 8 ($ 10 after tax/​tip). I’m used to regular bahn me for around $ 5, and that’s including real person proteins.
Regardless, if I ever ran into the actual bicycle cart, I would definitely give some of their other options a shot.

Bikes and banh mi — two of my favorite things! Fresh, flavorful, satisfying, and the bread didn’t cut up the roof of my mouth. Someone get this girl a brick and mortar (yes, I realize the irony of this statement)! But until then, I’m happy to follow on Twitter.

We had an assortment of pork, chicken, and tofu banh mi’s for a work function in Mission Bay. Great sandwiches and great presentation, all reasonably priced. The chicken sandwiches won out in popularity, but I highly recommend the entire experience.
P. S. One person did comment that there could have been some extra jalapenos on the side, but a minor quibble.

*52 places in 52 weeks*
A friend of ours has a new office space in Hayes Valley and to celebrate they threw a little partay and we were very lucky to be invited. «Banh Mi Love You Long Time» catered the event! We shared a Pulled Pork Banh Mi and the pork was seriously delish. Yeah to street food!

Banh Mi Love You Long Time is the name of an actual cart that sells banh mi. the name itself is longer than the banh mi. though many banh mi are on their menus, only the pork version was available at the fest.
locale: SF street food fest 2012 (whole foods segment)
eats: marinated pork banh i (6)
–with jalepeno, carrot, daikon…
–food vendor winner in a whole foods contest.
–schredded pork semijuicy, banh mi otherwise dry.
–banh mi may have been premade, no doubt fresher would be a winner…

As someone who has eaten Banh Mi in a number of countries, I can safely say that Banh Mi Love You Long Time serves up some delicious banh mi. The owner, Jess, uses fresh ingredients, and is a delight to interact with. Check the BMLYLT twitter account (@Eatbanhmi) for information on where to find Jess and her dank banh mi sandwiches.