Banh Mi & Che Cali

I usually have no problem with this place but today, i came in to get my kids some lunch and stood at the register for 7 minutes until we decided to walk out. 4 ladies out front and not 1 stopped to take our order. On top of it, I am not feeling well and a line began to form behind us. If i could give 0 stars i would. If you want something quick and easy, don’t stop here.

I was a longtime fan and loyal customer of this particular chain, not anymore.
I came on a Sunday and ordered 3 banh mi sandwiches, spring and egg rolls. A line of 14 followed behind me, I had just avoided the lunch rush.
The tall but absent minded cashier swiped my card and left me with my receipt where I began my patient wait for my food. The egg rolls came out immediately due to their convenient location in the heater next to the register.
Two people pass which became four which became ten. After waiting 40 minutes for a meal that takes 3 on average to prepare, I looked around the restaurant and saw only a few patrons remaining. Then I heard the number «14» being called, and another hungry patron collected his order and left.
I calmly called the cashier over and inquired about my order. Turns out he didn’t even put it in and gave me the most disgruntled look, demanding that he see my receipt to confirm my order. I passed him my receipt, waiting for him to acknowledge that he made an error. He says nothing, puts my order in and retreats to the back of the kitchen.
No apology. Internally, I snapped. My 14 years of experience in the restaurant industry as a busboy, waiter, host, cashier, and kitchen aid. Humility and humbleness were embedded in me, forged from the flames of dealing with customers of all kinds. At the end of the day customer service was key, no matter what. This aloof buffoon couldn’t even look me in the eye and admit his folly.
Double check your staff Banh Mi & Che Cali. I have spent thousands on this chain over the last 6 years, catered events and parties with your food and marketed your affordable yet delicious food to anyone I know who’s ever asked me about Vietnamese food.
I was a longtime fan and loyal customer of you, but not anymore.

This review is for their «ready-​to-​eat» packaged food placed on their front and side counters.
First of all, I’ve been coming here on and off over the years ever since there were so many Banh Mi Che Cali places popping up everywhere. Not exactly my consistent go-​to spot but then again, also not the place I would avoid if I happened to have been in the area. The one thing that they do right is the price. And that’s about it. Prices generally fall between $ 3 – 4 for their packaged food on the counter. In particular, the steamed rice with grilled chicken (or fried chicken), a triangle steamed egg, cucumber slices, shredded carrots and lettuce, the rice with pork chop, a triangle steam egg, cucumber slices, shredded carrots and lettuce, and the rice with sliced spam, triangle steamed egg, cucumber slices, shredded carrots and lettuce. Occasionally, they will substitute rice with rice noodles but the contents remain the same. Each of these packaged meals usually come with a small cup of fish sauce and chopsticks or fork wrapped together in cellophane with the package. On the off chance they run out of fish sauce, they will include one packet of soy sauce, which honestly, really doesn’t go well with this type of food so I wouldn’t recommend it using that unless you find it absolutely bland.
The shrimp spring rolls are, by far, the best thing they have here but that’s just me. It contains shrimp (duh~), shredded lettuce, a fried wonton skin rolled into it, and a sliced cucumber. This comes with cup of peanut sauce. Occasionally, they make the spam version as well. Otherwise, same contents.
Food quality. It’s decent for what it is. Now, when I say «decent» for a Banh Mi Che Cali type of spot, I mean that it’s edible and it’s tasty enough. Some of the meat might be a bit on the dry side or bland side but otherwise, still edible This is not the sort of taste that will blow you away or make you want to come back for seconds, thirds or more because there’s something addictive about it. No. This is not one of those Vietnamese spots for that. This is more like you get a whole lot of food for a relatively cheap price but the taste is fairly mediocre all around.
Workers. Yes, you won’t find the female food attendants here very smiley or happy or whatever that you were expecting like you would from an American restaurant/​café spot. On the other hand, you can think of it this way. That’s their «resting bitch face» and their «resting bitch face» isn’t a clear indication of what they are feeling on the inside. If anything, I’ve found that they are generally friendly enough as long as you don’t make weird requests like «make their pre-​packaged food differently,» as in, adding or removing items that they don’t normally add or remove because that’s the store’s recipe or whatever. If you don’t like something just from looking at it, there’s something you can do. It’s called «Don’t buy it.» Simple. Stop hassling the workers!!!
Parking. There’s a few dedicated parking spots for this place plus it shares the parking lot with the Good Fortune Market in the same plaza. In other words, you shouldn’t have trouble finding a spot. But if you do, there’s always street parking. I usually come here bright and early in the morning around 7:30 am to get my food to-​go and I’ve never had trouble finding a parking spot. I can’t speak for how it is during the afternoon on a weekday but generally, on the weekend, the rear parking spots are usually empty.
Credit Cards. There’s a $ 10 purchase minimum before they allow you to use your credit card. This would be true even for your debit card as well. Bring cash. Enough said.
Cleanliness. This is usually one of those things I don’t really notice unless I’m just that anal retentive about how clean the spot is like the other Unilocal reviewers. To me, unless there’s a piece of dog shit sitting dead smack in the middle of the restaurant with several dozen flies around it, with maybe pockets of dirty water here and there on the floor, it’s clean enough. It’s not spic and span clean like many American restaurants but it’s clean enough so that it’s not a health hazard for the workers to be in said environment. Plus, there’s that Health Inspection Letter Grade sign on the glass windowpane that lets you know how clean they are. The last time I checked, (5÷16÷2016), it was a «B» letter grade. If a «B» letter grade isn’t good enough for you, stop coming here. Period. But me personally? I haven’t gotten food poisoning yet so I’d say that their packaged food on the counter are pretty safe to eat.
All in all, cheap spot for cheap eats. Only downside is the credit/​debit card situation where they won’t allow you to use it unless you spend at least $ 10 or more. They also seem to have a lot of Buy X amount of items, get 1 Free type of deals for their counter food too as well as what’s on their screens above. Bottom line: For cheap eats, come here. For everything else, go somewhere else.

Great choice for a fast bite to grab. Cheap milk tea BOGO. $ 3 for Milk tea.
Service is horrible!
You get what you pay for

No frills but a little inconsistent with how some things are prepared. It’s good on a budget and quick bite in a rush. Their know. For their spring rolls which I think are good. Their pork chop rice plates are awesome and the fried chicken is very very solid. I still have to give their desert bar a try.

Quite possibly the worst banh mi sandwich I’ve ever had. We got the buy 2 get 1 free deal, 2 bbq pork and 1 chicken. Had the chicken one first, the bread was dry and hard, not edible. Filling to bread ratio was also totally off, way too much bread. The bbq pork one was slightly better.
Also ordered the BOGO almond milk tea. My sandwiches were done but the lady making the drinks was also the one taking the orders, so the drinks weren’t even started by the time I was standing there with my sandwiches ready to go. Eventually she started making them, she went straight from handling money to making my drinks, putting her hands on the ice scoop sitting in the ice bucket without washing her hands or putting on gloves. She dumped a bunch of almond powder in, blended it for a few seconds, and then handed me the drinks. There were big clumps of unblended powder visible inside the cup. It was also disgustingly sweet, and we poured it down the drain at home.
Not worth even the cheap cost, very unsatisfying and definitely not very hygienic. Next time we wont be lazy and we’ll drive a little further down to Lee’s.

Everything has gotten more expensive in the last 12 months.
Regular Phở has gone from $ 5.50 to $ 6.50, Boba Milk tea has gone from $ 2.25 to $ 3.00 (still BOGO), etc. Even the weekday specials for Chicken Phở and Bun Bo Hue went from $ 4 to $ 5 (M-​Th only).
I think the food overall is pretty good actually. I used to like it for the price it was decent, and two people could legitimately get phở and boba for around $ 13 out the door. Now it’s closer to $ 17. The phở itself is decent but I wish the noodles weren’t all clumped together. You do get a decent amount of noodles/​meat so there’s that. And you can also get the phở to go, where they separate the broth and the other ingredients for you to mix together later.
The place isn’t very clean and the seating area is in need of a makeover. I mean if it’s not that clean on the outside where customers can see, imagine what it’s like in the back where you can’t see.
The servers here do not care about their customers at all. They work like they hate their jobs and are just their to clock in their timecards. For example, if you are waiting to order, the lady will conveniently go and fill all her drink orders and sandwich orders before taking your order… which means after she finishes doing all of that, you’ll have to wait again for the kitchen to fill your order. Not to mention, no one is friendly at all.

My friend and I only came here for boba and spring rolls. Boba was meh and spring rolls were also meh.

Juiiiiiicy pork.
That’s pretty much all you need to know. I mean, I have had slightly better bread and accoutrements elsewhere but the BBQ pork is… transcendent. Good enough to be my go-​to place for banhmi on my regretfully rare visits to LA these days, certainly!

I really (x3) like this place! If only it was CLEAN then it’d be 4.5 stars.
Price is pretty cheap, food is pretty damn good and there’s a big variety.
I’ve only recently discovered this place but I came here 3 times in 2 weeks!
I’ve had the rare/​well done steak phở, egg rolls, thai tea, chinese donut & the sweet chinese donut.
Chinese donuts ~$ 0.50
–These were super cheap! Can’t go wrong with these. Come in the morning, these run out fast!
Sweet Chinese donut ~$ 1.25
–These were pretty good. Standard but expensive compared to their Chinese donut
Rare/​Well done steak phở ~$ 7
–Good enough size to be full (but not considered large for phở). They give a good amount of beef!
–Broth is pretty flavorful, not the best I’ve had
–The noodles always come in a clump! Which kind of bothers me but I still eat it…
Egg rolls ~$ 5
–This was good (above avg!). Good ratio of meat inside. Cheaper to buy to-​go at the counter than order the dish though.
Thai tea $ 3 (BOGO = $ 1.50)
–I really like their thai tea! They also sweeten the deal w/​BOGO free!
Cleanliness
–This place REALLY needs to clean up… I almost feel dirty sitting in their chairs. We had bugs on our mint and basil leaves! I even notified one of the employees and all he did was pick off the affected leaf. Didn’t give me new greens! But I’m not surprised… we just didn’t use them.

Their Banh Mi has improved since my last review. It has more flavor and the meat is less dry. It is still buy 2 get 1 free. Pretty sweet deal. But I would only get their Banh Mi here.
Also, they really aren’t that sanitary! I saw an employee drop the bread for the banh mi on the ground, simply pick it up and reused it. Kind of gross in my opinion.
They have a minimum $ 10 to use credit card.
Shared parking with other stores and a supermarket. Can be hard to find parking during lunch hour.

Ehh… decent food but suuuuuperrrr slow service.
I’m standing here waiting for my food as I write. I called to order 30 egg rolls this morning (4 hours prior to picking up) and an order of fried rice. I’m still waiting and it’s been almost 20 minutes since my pick up time.
Food:
I’ve been here before and they food is good. Cheap and decent. Nothing extraordinary. But definitely a good price. Egg rolls (in bulk at least) are $ 0.69 each minimum of 25.
On the plus side they just gave me a free drink…

I haven’t written a review in years but felt the need to write this review. I went to Banh Mi & Che Cali to pick up to go food. I picked up a pre-​packaged shrimps, ground pork and rice cake plate. I got home ate a few bites and opened up the fish sauce and it ended up being bad shrimps that were put in the fish sauce container. My guess was they were picking out the bad shrimps and forgot about them and when they packaged the plate, they thought it was fish sauce. I already had some shrimps from the plate before realizing this mistake. I am disgusted to my stomach. I feel a bit nausea but I’m worried that I will get food poisoning!!!

For the quick and valuable lunches, it’s great. I haven’t eaten at this one since I always go to Golden Deli. But when I buy lunch for work, the prepackaged ones are only $ 3.75-$ 4 flat. Just grab and go. The shrimp rolls are $ 3 and the iced coffee strong and very sweet, but does the job $ 2.
Parking is a breeze. Only one time I came by in a hurry and saw the long lines, I just left. So if you have 5 minutes to spare, get your to go food from here.
I think my favorite is the noodle with the chicken/​shrimp/​sliced spam in it with the sauce on the side. $ 4 and incredibly filling. The second is the rice with grilled chicken. That one is okay.

You get what you paid. My dad and I were starving and parked at the first phở shop we saw driving down Las Tunas. Unfortunately, I ended up with an upset stomach afterward. Food didn’t taste bad — ordered the combo phở (the beef was a bit… strange and chunky) and shrimp roll (delicious sauce), but is it worth risking food poisoning? Heck no, and especially not when there are so many other choices to pick from!

I’m sorry to give this place a bad review because the women were extremely apologetic when it happened but I placed a large order of 50 sandwiches to be picked up at a certain time and date. The day before I called to confirm. I ran a little late to pick up the sandwiches and arrived 20 minutes after the order was supposed to be ready and they STILL hadn’t started yet.
Other than offering me something to drink, the order wasn’t discounted and I had ordered veggie banh mi, and what we ended up getting had meat. Needless to say I wasn’t a happy camper.

If you’re craving for some good food for good cheap prices, then definitely come here! I swear I feel like I’ve been to so many Banh Mi & Che Cali locations and so far I’ve never had a bad experience.
I highly recommend taking advantage of their buy 1 get 1 free boba drinks with your choice of 1 free topping (get the egg pudding) as well as their buy 2 get 1 free banh mi sandwiches! You have the option of letting me know if you want the pickled veggies separately. It’s pretty helpful so that your sandwich won’t get soggy if you plan to save them for the next day.
Parking is easy. The sandwiches are great and the milk tea is decent. I love me some deals on food!

The truth is, Banh Mi & Che Cali loses quality.
I just paid $ 3,64 after tax for a Banh Mi. It used to be $ 3 and now $ 3,25. But that’s not the point. The point is, as I noticed before already, that the bread is pretty small compared to how it was before. In addition the bread was not fresh, it was pretty hard. 9:30pm doesn’t mean you can give me leftovers, not yet.
They put so little inside the bread, almost no green. How about giving me one piece of cilantro leaf. Wouldn’t make a big difference.
The fact is once these places has its name out and the regular customers down they save where ever they can and cut at every corner.

The store is different from the others when it comes to drink selection they have more of a variety such as melon drink and their slushes.
The service is okay, however I did not like how they placed us by the door when the other sits were empty.
When it got busy I felt my friends and I were in the way, because it got way too crowded by the door.
The food seems to lack freshness as my friend ordered curry and his bread tasted a day old…
I ordered the phở it was okay.
But the prices is pretty cheap here, like the other chains.

Been to a lot of banh mi che calis and this ones still the one I hold the closest to my heart. 6 AM phở runs to che cali… I will never forget you.
Plus how I still can’t get over the fact that it’s 3.99 for a bowl of chicken phở M to Thursday. Best deal ever.