Ba Le Sandwiches

I’m thinking this is the same Bale Sandwich as the one in Alhambra, Ca. I asked the lady, but she said the owner wasn’t in & she didn’t know.
The #1, Banh Mi Dac Biet, was okay. It was kinda puny, like they had left out a couple layers of meat & marinated veges. The lady was friendly though, smiling a lot and making recommendations. I got there about 11:00 am and I was the only customer. Lee’s Sandwich looks cleaner and had better layout/​display although their prices are more.

Terrible. Didn’t even have the food. But service is everything.
Walked in, waited about 7 minutes. And no one was there to take an order. I guess they don’t take their business seriously. Go to hue thai or even Lee’s. Forget about this place.

Unilocal 365 CHALLENGE 2014−(148÷365) «Dakao’s Sister»
I thought I already reviewed this place?! Well, better late than never!
If you’re familiar with BA-​LE Sandwiches in Hawaii, this location ain’t anything like it.
I came here opening week a few months back and a lot of things I saw looked delicious.
Out came a familiar face from up the street (the owner of Dakao) so I knew the sandwich was gonna be good as I am (now was) a fan of Dakao. I ordered the #1 (Dac Biet) and a few other things, so when it was time to pay, The owner said the machine was broken (on opening week? Luckily, I had a Lincoln, so I just got the sandwich which was good.
A recent clip on Action 13 News’ Dirty Dining series featured Cathay House and Ba Le and went over various violations they had which caused both these businesses to shut down temporarily to «clean up» their act. Simple things like employees not washing their hands, mold from not maintaining a clean kitchen, storing baguettes uncovered in cardboard boxes and food thawing outside with no refrigeration. These shortcuts that foodhandlers take is Sanitation 101. I just hate the thought of wondering about other spots in Chinatown and other free standing ethnic eateries around town. You know a lot of these places continue the same practices. Its only a matter of time if and when they get caught. ALOHA!!!
Shaka Meter: ZERO!
*You are playing «Russian Roulette» any time you dine out, especially at ethnic spots around town which tend to take shortcuts when it comes to foodhandling/​sanitation

Was so hungry decided to buy a sandwich. I ordered the Dac Biet sandwich. When I finally got it, had little portion of meats and vegestable. Plus the bread was as hard as a rock! I had to go to another restaurant to buy something else to eat! Wouldn’t recommend this place at all!

I love banh mi, but this restaurant just isn’t user friendly if you don’t read Vietnamese. I enjoyed my banh mi take on the philly though will probably be back. Wish I could have read if they had vietnamese iced coffee, but their only english picture board is for the sandwiches.

Another beloved exotic eats place in Hawaii turned upside down by franchising! Ba Le in Hawaii was one of the most decent places to get Vietnamese food! It’s how I was introduced to it. At one time, Ba Le Sandwiches were the snack that came with your Hawaiian Airlines flight from Hawaii to the West Coast!
Let me get the elephant out of the way first. This Ba Le by the Big Lots is all wrong on the signing, as mentioned in another review. Two separate words. BA…LE! Not BALE! So funny! Dunno who messed up with the signage of that one, looks like the franchise owner wasn’t watching the crew that day.
Being a fan of Ba Le back when I used to live on Maui, upon entering this location I was kinda let down. I mean, it was the middle of lunch… no rush? Empty tables? Limited signage of foods with numbers? What’s going on? All BAD signs. I should have turned around and left. But I bit the bullet and walked up to the counter.
Only picture menu is for sandwiches. Nothing for noodles or bowls like the ones I used to remember. Banh Mi sandwiches run the average price of all the other places in town, between $ 3 — $ 4 each. I ordered the #1 House Special, the D.B. otherwise known as the Dac Biet. It was $ 3.65. Upon ordering my sandwich to go, I checked out the other items most of these Viet places have wrapped on the counter. I love me some Shrimp Spring Rolls, but the ones sitting on their counter for $ 3 and pretty warm to the touch? Pass. They weren’t even sitting in a cooler or a fridge and normally I don’t mind as long as their fresh from an hour ago, but I didn’t bother with this one. Super warm! And the sauce looked a bit more watery than I like. Could tell it was sitting there possibly from the early morning. Hello, salmonella!
Took a good 5 — 7 minutes for my sandwich to come out from the back kitchen. It came wrapped in it’s required white paper with a rubber band around. Was still nice and toasty on the outside, and made it back on my 5 minute drive back to the office still warm.
Upon opening, the sandwich was very average. Meats were there but were pretty scarce. Smaller portions of pâté, cold cuts, and head cheese than I would like. The bread was a good size (a bit smaller than Dakao) but the crunchy outside and the chewy inside was intact. The veggies were sparse and not as textured as I would like them, I love the fresh snap! What happened to the jalapenos? Mine were missing. My sandwich didn’t have enough of the mayo mix either so it ran a bit dry especially towards the end of the bread. Overall just an OK sandwich. For the price I would have expected more ingredients.
It’s funny I’m hard on these sandwiches
I’m not sure I’ll be back to Ba Le (or BALE) anytime soon for trying out their phở. Each table was missing a key condiment for Viet food, hoisin sauce! I didn’t see a bottle of it anywhere! Maybe they hide it in the back or something. I will probably give them another chance at a sandwich and just eat it there for comparison. This Ba Le should run a similar special like Mr. Sandwich and Dakao… buy 5 and get 1 free. Maybe it will attract more customers? I hate to see a place like this never busy.
The lady taking my order was very pleasant this time around, so no bad service for me. However, take note… no cards! Cash only! Luckily I had my $ 5 emergency bill handy in my wallet to pay.
Ah, Ba Le Sandwiches… how I miss you so. This BALE place that is supposed to be one of your franchised stores just isn’t cutting it so far. Please fix it and fix it fast!

I came here expecting this place to be like the one in Alhambra, CA. I was disappointed. Their bánh mi were a little more expensive than other establishments, but I thought it was worth a try. I ordered their #1 special, expecting it to be quite good. But when I bite down in it, I found the bread too crusty and old. There wasn’t much meat inside and it was also lacking in flavour. There was only one couple in the restaurant eating. It looks like this place won’t be staying around for long.

Just when I thought that I could one-​up my family and tell them about a new Vietnamese sandwich shop that opened. It turns out that they already knew about Ba Le AND have tried practically everything on the menu. So it was my turn.
For sandwiches, I like the #1 (Dac Biet), just squirt some sriracha in there to make it the perfect sandwich. I love that when you order sandwiches to take home they will ask if you want them to toast the bread there or not, so that you can toast it when you get home. I love the bread with a crunch! I usually don’t add on all of the extra veggies in my sandwich, but rest assured, my family claims that it is fresh and delicious.
Now, my absolute favorite item on the menu is actually the congee!!! It’s called Chao Long and you get a giant bowl for only $ 4! That is an absolutely steal! We will actually drive all the way to Spring Mountain just to eat this (and to-​go an order home as well). I love the meat ratio too. This will definitely fill you up.
Their interior definitely needs a little. Improvement. However, I still like coming in to eat because they offer complimentary tea while you dine and I love to have my Che Ba Mau (translation: three color dessert) fresh! It is a Vietnamese dessert that has sweetened red beans, yellow mung bean, and green pandan jelly, served with crushed ice and coconut sauce. If you haven’t tried this yet, you’re missing out! It’s a matter of opinion, but I’m pretty sure that they have one of the best Che Ba Mau’s in town.
I look forward to trying more things on their menu, like the Bun Bo Hue.

Yesterday, I was eating phở in the same plaza as these guys, so I decided that it was worth a shot to pick up a sandwich to-​go. I chose the banh mi dac biet (#1), which is $ 3.65. The other sandwiches are just $ 3.45.
I’ve heard that these guys have the same owner as Dakao, which offers $ 3.25 sandwiches. To me, that means that Ba Le should be a little better. I can’t really distinguish the two shops’ offerings, unfortunately. Maybe there’s slightly more meat, but there’s still a major dearth of veggies and an overabundance of bread (which, again, is why I don’t typically like Subway). On top of that, some of the cilantro that did reach my sandwich was yellow. Spoiler alert: good cilantro is not yellow.
I’ve grown to appreciate the phở offerings of Las Vegas in recent weeks, but I’m still not sold on the banh mi thit at all. If you want to experience this type of sandwich, you would do better to wait until you’re at a good place in California.

The food at this place makes me sad and the restaurant and the service itself make me even sadder. It’s a new restaurant so I think they need to work out a few kinks, like the overhead lighting and the super quiet interior. It was so quiet, bright and harsh in this place, I felt overwhelmed while sitting here eating my food.
As for the food, I asked for the banh canh soup and house sandwich. The banh canh tasted alright despite an odiferous emission coming off of it. And why is the noodle pink?! Meanwhile, the house sandwich was a little hollow and limp looking. It tasted good otherwise.
Just an additional note: they shouldn’t be cleaning the floor while there are customers inside eating. The strong pinesol and bleach scent does not intertwine well with whatever I’m eating.
Oh, and isn’t it «Ba Le»?? There should be a space between «ba» and «le» on their sign out front; otherwise the name of this place is bale, as in, a bale of hay. Just sayin’!

Their sandwiches are the best in town (same owner as Dakao sandwiches). The freshness and the light crispness of the bread is perfection. I personally think it’s better than Lee’s sandwich in Vegas.
I tried their soup– bun bo hue, it was decent. Little noodle and meat in a large bowl of soup (the owner was so nice he even apologized and brought out a plate of extra meat). The soup itself wasn’t greasy as other restaurants, so that’s a plus. I’ll give them a lot of credit for the side toppings dish. That’s something I pay really close attention to — how fresh the greens are, the quantity, and the proper types of toppings they give you for the particular dish. I’ll give 5 star for that one! But on the other hand, I think it’s best to order what their known for — sandwiches: P
The Vietnamese coffee and their jasmine green tea were pretty good and on point — can’t go wrong there.
As for their desserts, I was too full so I ordered their coconut jello to go. The drive home was enough time to make more room to try it out and it was pretty good! Can’t wait to check out their other freshly made desserts next time!
As for the customer service — the owner and the older lady in the front are really sweet ! :)

Shout out to Nelson Q for having a good eye and letting me know this business opened today! I got myself down here about 30 minutes after the heads up. Dedicated!
I arrived expecting this to be the chain that’s based out of Hawaii. Unfortunately, this is independently owned, and not at all like the Bale that I’m used to back home, but that’s where my disappointment ends. The owner, seeing my sad expression enthusiastically told me that it’s much better than the place I was looking for. That’s a lot to live up to, since I have childhood memories of pâté banh mi.
I came knowing I was going to order a pâté sandwich, but didn’t see it on the menu. Upon asking, they told me they could make me a pâté sandwich and asked if I wanted it with or without butter. I opted for no butter, letting the pâté do it’s own rich thing.
The sandwich was huge and only $ 2! Not sure if this is regular pricing or grand opening pricing seeing as all the other banh mi are $ 3.45– which, on it’s own, is pretty competitive for Vegas.
The bread is crusty and crisp on the outside while light and buttery on the inside– perfect! Way better than Mr. Sandwich and on par with Dakao. The vegetables were just right and cut the richness from the smear of chicken pâté which was actually minimally applied. The cilantro provided that herbal kick that I love so dearly. Jalapeños for heat. Sriracha because. Well. It’s Sriracha, and every table is equipped with it. Based on the bread and veggies alone, this is a major banh mi contender on the LV China Town strip.
They offer a lot of soups and deli items as well, though the sandwich was just right for me and I was unable to bring myself to sample anything else.
And nice plus was the hot jasmine tea they brought me when I sat down, brewed just right and not bitter.
Update!: after speaking with the owner, he also owns Dakao up the road, but he says he likes the bread better here because they have a different oven. =)