Alexander H.
Yelp
I used to go here all the time. Hadn't been in a while so I thought I'd go by and get some tonight. While most people will comment about the pho, I usually get the bahn mi, with tofu, because I'm vegetarian / vegan. It's nice having options like this.
But, I remembered why it had been so long. It just wasn't that good. It has a lot of potential but there are three things that make it a work in progress. I will say the inside is very nice, the staff is very friendly, and the Tractor brand tea they sell is some of the best tea I have ever had, full stop.
The bread is not baguette as they say, it is and always has been a hoagie roll. It is always so soggy on the bottom it falls apart. There is no way to pick it up and eat it as a sandwich - it all falls out the bottom.
Second, the tofu has almost no flavor to it. Tofu is notoriously difficult to flavor but it can be done, and if you're going to serve it, it pays to fine tune the method. The creamy sauce or spread they use is great. But aside from that it tastes strongly of fresh greens and crunchy cold cucumber, radish, and carrot. The overall flavor is just cold, crunchy, slightly sweet and creamy, with no salt or umami to it at all. It's very thin flavor wise, with or without jalapeños.
Thirdly, it's always burnt. Always. The bread goes beyond charred to being burnt on the inside and outside. Charred is a great complementary flavor alongside something stronger and richer, but with the vague sweet and creaminess, and the crunchiness of all the veggies - all pretty light flavors - it sticks out like a sore thumb.