Ba Le Sandwiches

Excerpt from Eat the World Los Angeles: The Westminster location of Ba Le is an unassuming little shop, with a modest sign outside and the neon from Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots advertised in the window. Inside, a larger custom neon sign has been above the counter for as long as can be remembered with the name Banh Mi Ba Le. As with the Alhambra location everything is made on site, most importantly the small baguettes that make the heart of each of their banh mi sandwiches. If you peruse the refrigerators while you wait, you will also realize that you can buy just about everything that goes into the sandwiches here to make them on your own. The pate, the cuts of meat, even the mayonnaise. Their house special banh mi dac biet ($4.60) might be the best bet at least to start, a combination of all the best offerings. The cold cuts are stacked on top of a bed of pate and a perfect ratio of vegetables to make every bite just right. The mayonnaise they make has a shot of garlic in it, and a very fine and fatty layer of Vietnamese bacon rounds it all out. Ask for it spicy for a few more slices of jalapeño.

I tried the chicken Banh Mi, it was lovely and delicious. The bread thickness was just right, not overly thick like some other sandwich places where its mostly bread. The chicken was warm not cold which was nice. Very delicious I can't wait for lunchtime tomorrow so I can come back for another sandwich

This is THE O.G. Banh Mi shop in Little Saigon. Been eating here forever. Great sandwiches and lots of extra things you can buy such as beef jerky and bulk Cha. My favorite is to get an egg sandwich with pork and pair it with soy milk. This is a great take-out spot.

amazing egg ban mi, bread made fresh daily. Highly recommend

My family and I have been getting bánh mì here since I was a kid. I hope they never go out of business! My go-to is the dặc biệt. 👌 You can also buy the ingredients yourself and make your own bánh mì at home.

Convenient location, right by Phuoc Loc Tho Asian Mall. The bánh mì thịt is best eating fresh in the morning with café sửa đá. The lady owner is a little “cold”, customer service can be improved.

The bread is fresh and delicious but the meat is a bit dry. Service is fast. This small shop only has a single table inside with 2 tables outside.

This place make horrible food not like before in the 90s I come here when I was a kids playing arcade 30 years in business now it come down to this banh mi dac biet so sour yesterday 2/22/2024 9am the meat spoiled you could taste that expired stinky meat rotting in your mouth

Owner sits at front table i assume is for dine in customers cleaning her ears with finger. She hollers for the lady in the back to come out to help me. No gloves, handle cash from another customer that came in after me then went right back to making sandwiches.

I was in the mood for banh mi so decided to check out Ba Le when the place I originally wanted to try was already closed. The interior is very small, though there are a few tables for dining in. I ended up ordering the special sandwich, which took about 5 minutes to prepare. Most sandwiches are between $4-$6. There are also some items for sale on the side and in the refrigerators. The banh mi was a decent size, about a foot long, on a baguette. It was not too fat but it was full of goodies and had great flavor with relatively crisp bread. The jalapeño slices were quite spicy! Great place for no frills, no fuss banh mi! Credit card accepted with an additional upcharge/fee. P.S. If you are in a bigger group, I believe there was a "buy 5 get 1 free" promotion.

We bought 4 baguettes but they gave us the vegetables pickles for 2 baguettes. I will never come back ever again, wonder why they have opened for a long time but not popular

The #11 Ba Le Combo has all the good stuff, thit nguoi, ham, gio and gio thu. The pate and mayo complements the meats perfectly.

I ordered banh mi pate cha lua (pork roll). Bread is great; however, you can hardly find any pate or cha lua (see pic). Where's the meat? BREAD = 4 stars Meat ratio & filling in the bread = 2 stars

You can't do a SoCal Vietnamese food run without getting at least one banh mi... we ended up getting a couple, to-go of course (since this was like our 8th stop of the day). Even though we were stuffed, the sandwiches smelled so good we cracked them open in the parking lot and damn near finished one of them. So absolutely good... I mean there are a number of great sandwich shops in Little Saigon. I humbly assert that this one should be in just about everyone's rotation.

There are a myriad of places in Little Saigon to find a great banh mi - Vietnamese sandwich on either a baguette or French roll. And new spots seem to open up all time. I had a handful of favorite places myself when I lived in Orange County. I just wish I knew about Ba Le sooner. It remains one of my recommended choices. Their warm, freshly made breads are chewy, very light and has a nice distinct crunch when you bite into them. Moreover, at $3.50, their foot-long sandwiches are adequately stacked with meats (including their housemade pate) and the usual garnishes - making them one of the best values for a delicious, hearty meal.

Very good đặc biệt sandwiches ! Not too small not too big just the right size of baguette sandwich! Give it a try! Nice and friendly too not rude like some others ! That's a big plus!

Food is okay! It's tasty and at a reasonable price. I got the pork bbq sandwich. It's in a small place, felt like a small business. Customer service is okay as well.

I'll never come back to this place again. The service is terrible. How do they survive all these years with the customer services like that.

The actual bread here is quite soft and not the same crunchy Vietnamese baguette/French bread that I'm used to. It seems like their sandwiches are supposed to be more of a take-out situation where you can heat them up at home. Otherwise, the flavors in the sandwiches were really great!

Banh mi dac biet was ok. Can find better elsewhere for the price. Customer service can use some improvement.

Been to Ba Le in Philly, Chicago, Los Angeles. This is by far the worst. One woman assisted me and went back to make me a banh mi, another woman came out and just look at my food and charged me $15 without itemizing (so shady). Got home and was excited to try the pate, it smelled like staled oil. I felt so sick after taking the first bite. My husband asked me to throw the whole container in the trash. Not every Ba Le is the same!

Amazing banh mi with the perfect amount of meat and butter mayo spread. Typically Asian baguettes are soft in center but I thought theirs had a very consistent softness. Wish there were more greens and pickled veggies but overall I would highly recommend. Don't get the egg rolls. They were tasteless

Please don't use plastic bags to avoid "wet baguettes. Also, please make baguettes more even, since one part is bigger the others on the same one.

Supposedly this is the reigning sandwich shop, better than Lee's, according to my uncle. Had the dac biet sandwich, but it was over several hours old. It still tasted ok.

First time coming here. Quick service. Place to sit down and have a coffee here. Small parking. Accept credit card which is great nowadays. Menu not updated for price online.

My dad was one of the first person to bring Vietnamese sandwiches to America and he had several bakeries a while ago which makes me extra picky when it comes to banh mi. I've tried many different places but never found one that comes close to what my parents have made until I tried this place! Now that my parents don't make banh mi anymore, this is my go-to place. Their bread has the perfect kind of crispiness on the outside. Most places nowadays taste stale even when it just came out of the oven. They also put in the perfect amount of meat, veggies, and spread evenly unlike some places that just shove everything in your bread messily. I have finally found the best place for banh mi and I don't think I'll ever be buying from another bakery unless if this one closes down!

They bake their own bread and ship to other shops. It's a small mom/pop store. I thoroughly enjoy their food. Bonus: they also sell lottery tickets and scratchers :)

I ordered special sandwiches, no belly. So disappointed when i saw the meat is bad quality like garbage. I feel like the meat is something left can't sell it so they put all for me maybe because I buy only one. Never come back again

What happens when a place makes the bread, the meat, and all the fixings for a banh mi? Magic. Ba Le is pretty famous for making all the components of their sandwiches. They make the cha lua, head cheese, jambon, nem nuong, sardine, and meatballs. They make their own mayo and pickles. They may even make their own pâté. And when they make their own bread, you get your banh mi served on warm crisp bread. The kicker is that you can get a fantastic sandwich that will leave you stuffed for about $4. Prices get cheaper when you factor in their buy 5, get 1 free promotion that's always in effect. You can also buy their items individually to craft your own banh mi at home. They even have frozen egg rolls available for sale. The folks who run this place are sweet and friendly. While we were waiting for our order, a homeless couple walked in and ordered bread. When they tried to pay for it, the owner said it was on the house. The parking lot is small and it is most certainly busy on the weekends. Truly a fantastic place.

I like the banh mi here. It tastes more like the ones in VN near my childhood home. Lightly crispy, not hard like Lee's. The pate flavor definitely is unique and the meats are tasty. One negative is that sometimes they are slow in preparing the food, but I am usually not in a hurry.

Very shady business , they always charged you more than what you ordered and no receipts , those businesses will have to report to the IRS for tax evasion and illegally charged customers for more than what they ordered . BE CAREFUL AND DO CHECK AND PAID FOR WHAT YOUBUY

My favorite banh mi place. The baguette is crispy soft, the pate is creamy and buttery. The service is whatever but I'm not there for the service. I love Ba Le forever.

For some reason, this place is not as popular as other Ba Le locations in other states. And it's especially not as popular as other sandwich shops in the area. I love their bread and it's my go to place for banh mi xiu mai aka meatball. The meat is so flavorful and the bread is toasted perfectly. I also like their banh mi cha trung, but xiu mai is still number 1 for me.

Ordered some banh mi sandwiches today and had it delivered. Overall my experience was great!! The bbq pork and pate with cha sandwiches were yummy. I would totally order here again. I wish I can order other things besides the sandwiches.

I was looking for a Viet Dac Biet sandwich place and found here on Yelp. I got their Dac Biet sandwich and I generally liked it since the bread was crunchy and everything was hot and just made but their pork slices were mainly fats and had rarely any meat. Or than that , love their yellow sauce (probably their own special yellow mustard sauce) and the other fillings they put in the sandwich.

I love the banh mis here and it's buy 5 get 1. They're super chùm sò(cheap) on veggies (no enough for all 6 sandwiches) and will charge for all 6 if they have to separate the veggies into separate bags. Cheap!

I messed up. I was very upset because they were out of stock of too many things and I took it out on the cashier/sandwich maker. It is the fault of the management for being out of avocados, Dr. Pepper, baguette, cilantro, and pork belly. how are you running a restaurant? the attendant kept their cool and handled themselves well. I hope to return again and super tip them for the error I did. I have been to other locations and the sandwiches are always on point. This location was a disappointment. The attendant told me he always had to disappoint customers because it is not a corporate store. It is a individually owned location operating as a franchise so they break the rules if they want to. shame shame

I wouldn't recommend ordering through GrubHub. They didn't get my order and I ended up waiting an extra 20min for takeout. But taste wise, still a neighborhood favorite!

Mad love for this place and their banh mi Trung in particular and tons more for the rest of their banh mi! This was my low price grub joint on ditch days so long ago! Now what you are having is French bread with Vietnamese jazz and French jazz fused into a sandwich in the USA... A lotta ish had to happen in this world for you to eat that sandwich that is in your hand right there. History in a sandwich!!! It's a small place with a certain strange charm! Get there at 10 ish with a pal, get an egg banh mi (runny yolk...yum!) and your drink of choice, grab one of the chairs outside, and just relax a bit... You're in So Cal chillin'... Where other people wanna be... Slow down and relax a few. Things aren't so bad =).

Slightly on the expensive side, but nothing special. If anything, the deli cold/specialty banh mi were actually on the plain side.

Best glutinous rice dumpling I've ever had in my life!!! Im can't believe I'm saying this but they are actually better than the ones my granny made!

Fun Fact: "Banh Mi" Ba Le is the original/first French-Vietnamese Baguette/Sandwich shop in the Little Saigon area. So...uhh...why does it only have like...5 reviews? My guess is that it doesn't exactly serve our typical Yelp demographic, but if a bunch of 70yr old Vietnamese men buy bread and sandwiches from here, I'm going to trust them! ^_^ 30min later... Their Egg Sandwich = TASTY! You can get it with Vietnamese Meat Loaf (Cha Lua,) Pate, Pickled Veggies, French Butter...and anything else you want on it! Or...just Eggs and French butter for those who like the simpler stuff! (Tried this too, and I like it...with a bit of Ketchup and seasonings from home!) Also, you can request a sunny side up egg (opla) or a fried egg for those who don't like a runny yolk. So how does Ba Le compare to other Banh Mi places? I'd say it's just as good (as a place like Banh Mi Che Cali) 'cause the bread is fresh, and you can request custom sandwiches, which is very cool! (AND, with it being as old as it is, I dare say that other Banh Mi joints probably got their ideas/recipes from this place...tee hee!) THANKS FOR READING! P.S. One of these days, we're going to have to do a 1 Day taste test of all the Little Saigon Banh Mi shops to see who REALLY has the best Baguettes! I think it would be fun. :)

I was driving around Westminster just checking out the stores that were lined up in the area, and I look up to see the huge name "BA LE" and in smaller print on the left side of the name, I saw "Banh Mi". I knew that I HAD to try this place. I tried a Banh Mi Ba Le in Oakland, and I doubt that this deli is related to the one up north, so I wanted to check it out to see what it was all about. I had had a great sandwich at Tan Hoang Huong, so I figured since this deli is in the same area, it might be as good. My default sandwich of choice - as always, the thit nguoi. Call it "the control" sandwich. Okay, so it wasn't as great as the one at Tan Hoang Huong, but it was pretty good. There weren't any bells and whistles, but it left me satisfied, so I'm not going to complain. I was more curious than anything at the mysterious and elusive "Banh Mi Ba Le" that I happened to find two of in two completely different areas.

Ok 1 review? 1 review folks? BA LE has been around since the opening of Little Saigon probably at least 15-20 years now! I'm surprise it only has 1 review..then again most of the people that come here are a bit older and probably don't speak much English. I haven't gone to this place in forever mainly b/c the parking is such a turn off but I decided to stop by on my way to the shop. I had a Cafe Sua Da and Banh Mi Thit Nuong. Cafe Sua Da - $2.00 - taste like any other plain cafe sua da. Not very strong or sweet. Banh Mi Thit Nuong - $2.25 Okay this Thit Nuong is the old school style where the meat is EXTRA fatty and more pink than dark charbroiled colored and well done. It was just too fatty for my taste. They did give sauteed green onions (which tastes delicious but makes your sandwich soggy fast!) with large slices of jalapeno. The pickled carrots and daikon were just too sour for me. Almost to the point of sour that you may question if it's the taste or if it's gone bad. Their other items look so yummy too. They were putting out freshly "Rim" Shrimp and Trung Opla (butter fried over easy egg) with pickeled veggies for only $3.50! TOO GOOD of a price! But I decided not to get it. Now I wish I did. =( The thit nuong here is the same style as Saigon Bakery. They also sell other items such as Bo Vien Gan (beef balls with tendon in it) and those looked yummy. They have Xinh To (shakes) amongst other beverages as well. For now.. it's a 2. Ill be back for other stuff.

First off, DRIVING HERE MAY LEAD TO DEATH...by bad drivers. I won't say who or what ethnicity in particular simply because it might be mean despite being true... at least in this area. I really like their egg sandwich (No veggies or soy sauce please!) with pate. It's definitely one of their best sandwiches hands down and totally worth nearly dying each and every time. As for their other things: Their pate chaud is rather....salty or at least the meat is. I can't eat the puff pastry that's in direct contact with the meat due to such, and their egg rolls are....pretty terrible. So if your in the mood for a good egg sandwich (Usually over easy, but if the lady cooks it, it always ends up over hard...) then I totally recommend this place. Other than that, its subject to how you like your asian style french baguette sandwiches.

Very cheap Banh Mi. Bread is not too big and I like the butter spread. The Banh Mi was think and long. I only had to wait 2-3 minutes usually. Can't go wrong when you are in the mood for Banh Mi. Their patechaud also looks good too so I might try that next time.

Dear Vegetarians, There is nothing for you here. Move along. Parking in this shopping center is a pain.

This place was surprisingly pretty darn good. The bun came out warm and crispy. It wasn't stale like some of the popular places. It's nice and quiet not alot of foot traffic for some reason. Its clean on the inside compared to the popular sandwich places. Lady behind the counter was nice. Very nice mom and pop feel. Price is decently competitive. They got that good Vietnamese buuuuu.

People should try their Iced Milk Coffee with Special sandwich with extra Saigon. My sandwich was $4.5 and coffee with extra sweet was $3.5. Even though the first and second time were wrong with having chilli, I asked for no chilli. Make sure if anyone wants no chilli just check your bread before you go. Third time was okay and the fourth time was messed up with my special added extra Saigon. They charged me but didn't add them in. I called to let them know and they would fix for me next time I come; however, I didn't satisfied with the owner said that she couldn't read what we're in the bill.

I always buy the already thinly sliced meats to put together my own banh mi. Only thing is, once you open the package, you have to use it within 2 days or the meats will start to go bad and smell.

This is by far the most rudest place I've ever been in. By far, the most, these ppl has no concept helping those next in line. I was literally standing there, patiently waiting for one and another to skip in front of me, cause what the hell, they r old, old Vietnamese ppl are usually don't understand standing in line, which i totally understand. But the stupid bitches standing there obviously CHOSE to not serve me and ALLOWED other customers to skip line.

Service was very nice but I would not come back. Came here at 9am and got the #1 special. The flavor was decent but the baguette was not hot! Meat tasted like it just came out of the refrigerator and the bread was a little soft and cooled down. This is a big fail for a good banh mi. I ate half and threw the rest away. Such a waste. :(

Banh mi was alittle on the dry side. 3.25 for the thit ngoi. Not much meat...but enough I guess. Nothing special. Not sure what their specialty is. There's a Ba Le in VA and it's alot better.

The name is slightly elusive b/c they offer both Vietnamese & French fares. This place has been my main lunch staple for God knows how long & may it continue, if possible, indefinitely. Purely for the one simple item among their many other delicious & fresh choices: the egg sub sandwich. Countless friends I inaugurated for their first bite instantly swears by it too. No other place has yet compared. Sorry Lee Sandwiches, you guys are gonna have to try harder. Major bonus: Ridiculously cheap--hope they don't hike the prices just cuz I said this. ; ) Best place for a quick pick up of pate, fresh baguette, VN sweet ice coffee (yum!) & maybe some spring roll snacks.

Small mom and pop shop with limited parking. With that said the Banh Mi Thit Nuing turned out much better than I was expecting. They gave healthy portions of both the meat and veggies (I get the veggies on the side and add them later). I will be returning to this establishment.

A wonderful place. Friendly folk behind the counter. I had the special Bahn Mii and it was quite tasty. The bread was soft and delicious. The fillings nice. The interesting item in this Bahn Mii is the Vietnamese butter. They're a bit overly generous with the butter. It adds a richness that is interesting, but maybe too much of a good thing. I recommend asking them to go light on the butter. But all in all, this place is worth a stop.

Service was great. I ordered banh mi thit nuong. The bread was soft but the meat was bad. It smelled old and look like it was stir fried rather than BBQ. I really want to come back because of the service but I am said to say I won't. It wasn't cheap either.