604: Banh Mi Bar (New Westminster)

Finally, I had a Banh Mi that doesn’t just fill the belly but satisfies me 🥰. Even my friend who’s born and raised in Vietnam gave a thumbs up. The bread had the right crunch and it doesn’t hurt your mouth; the inside is soft and chewy. They are also very generous with the meat and the pate. Apparently, this place also adds the red meat and a special sauce, while most restaurants just add in soy sauce and call it a day. So delicious 💕

Update: Came here again to satisfy the Banh Mi addiction. I'm not sure if the quality has changed because of Covid, or if I've had so many Banh Mis now and I have set a higher standards for my Viet subs. I had to go back to the photos and compare, but clearly they've cut down on the cold cut this time! They also seemed to have cut down on the pate as well *Insert angry face*. With all the cheaping out, I would still say it's still a good Banh Mi but the rank has drastically came down, and now I would prefer Obanhmi and Bonjour Banh Mi for a cold cut Sub.

As for their best seller grilled pork sub, I like that their marinade more than the majority of the Banh Mi bars I've tried, but it still requires a deeper flavour. For that I would prefer Lotus in Richmond over theirs.

Update 2: Okay, I came here for the THIRD time because I really wanted to be wrong about my second review. I even added extra money for extra pate this time and I can confidently say that they have officially cheaped out on all their ingredients. I'm not sure if the add on options are new but if it was, that explains why they have cut down on the filling. They want more $$. If you request for any extra meat, it's $1.50 more. If you want to add extra mayo, pate or sauce, it's an extra $0.50. This time I requested for extra pate, and I would still say that it's still not as good as the first time. I was really impressed with all the extras they had including their house special sauce, generous mayo, thick cuts of meat and meat ball, but now it's like any ordinary cold cut sub with the regulars. The special sauce is missing and they shaved off the cold cut meat.

I think it's fair that I'm demoting their rank now after giving them a few tries, and neither would I make a special trip for their sandwiches. SAD!

You would have been ranked as #1 in my Banh Mi Hunt but now you barely made it to my list.

Let's do a picture comparison for fun:

The left side is my Banh Mi from my first visit, and the right is from the last visit. CAN YOU EVEN SEE THE COLD CUTS FROM THE RIGHT SIDE?! You can see a lot of pate from the right though, but that's cause I added money for it.

📍 Location: New Westminster

💵 Price: $6.75 + tax

Extra meat (+) $1.5

Extra Mayo, sauce or pate (+) $0.50

🤤Taste: Dropped from 4.8 to 4.4 :(

📈 Price Performance ratio: dropped from 4.8 to 4.2 /5

Retention Rate: 100% if in the area

🕯Atmosphere: NA

🪑Seating: NA

604: Duffin's Donuts (Vancouver)

I gotta admit that I came here with a very low expectation due to the poll result from my Instagram Stories. By the way, thank you to all of you who have been participating in all my polls. It's been fun to see the results of everyone's likes and dislikes. Of all the donut shops, Duffin was everyone's least favorite, so I didn't have much expectation of it. However, I feel that as a foodie I should at least check off this place since it's considered as a "Vancouver Special" after all. The shop is quite cute. I felt like I time-traveled back to the '90s. It was also intriguing to see the variety of products they carry - from donuts to fried chicken, fries, hamburgers, sandwiches, onion rings, shakes, and spring rolls... As always, I liked ordering the plain ones because (a.) the simplicity makes it that much harder to hide the flaws, and (b.) it's usually less sweet. Here I ordered a sugar raised, honey dip (a.k.a. the classic - originally glazed?), and what the heck, might as well grab an angel donut (I also wanted to try their coconut cream donut but it was all sold out, but I only wanted to try it because it seemed like it was a popular choice).

Okay, let's cut to the chase. With very little expectation, I was surprised by the outcome. I liked Duffin's a lot more than Lucky's Doughnuts. I thought it would be disgustingly sweet, but it was not. I thought it would be extremely heavy, but it was not. I thought it would be greasy, but it was not... I thought people liked it because it was dirt cheap ($3.60 for three donuts..) I am sorry I judged you Duffin Doughnuts! The donut dough isn't as fluffy as Lee's or Lucky's or Krispy Kreme, but overall, I like how light it is and it has a nice bread chew.

The sugar coated donut reminds me of the Chinese dessert Sugar Egg Puffs (沙翁 / 冰花蛋球). It's like eating an airy breadstick coated with some coarse sugar. The honey dip is pretty much an original glazed donut. It's a lot better than Lucky's in my opinion. At least I could enjoy eating this and didn't feel like I needed to spit it out. Finally, my friend and I really enjoyed the angel's donut. It had the same bread texture as the other two and was filled generously with a light chocolate cream with a pleasant cocoa flavor to taste. The powder sugar coating added a nice touch to it and added a nice vanilla fragrant to the donut, but didn't make it extra sweet. Amongst the three, I like the angel donut the most, which is rare because I normally find filled donuts to be too sweet and prefer the classic donuts. Now I'm extra curious to find out what the coconut cream tastes like.

I think Duffin Doughnuts will be more suitable for those who can't take sweets like me, and for those who have a sweet tooth, you would prefer Lucky's, and Lee's would be the perfect in between.

P.S - I'm not a fan of old-fashioned donuts. They are cakey to me. All my reviews are on yeast donuts.

📍Location: Here

Menu: Here

💵 Price: $1.19 per donut || half dozen $6.50 || one Dozen $12

🤤Taste: 4.2 / 5

🕯Atmosphere: ⭐️

🪑Seating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

📈 Price Performance ratio: 4.9 / 5

Retention Rate: 200%

Menu: Here

ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕤:

• cheap

• not overly sweet

• not heavy or greasy

• lots of variety

• long business hours - 6 am to 12 am
  

ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕤:

• Things sell out quickly

• There's always a line up

• Donut isn't fluffy enough
  

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:

• Felt like you walked into time-traveled back to the '90s. The store is super old school. It's retro and nostalgic.

• Sells all kinds of things including donuts, fried chicken, shakes, hamburgers, sandwiches, spring rolls, onion rings, fries, etc.

604: Banh Mi Saigon (Vancouver)

Ever since I had that Banh Mi at @lepetitsaigonhk in Hk, I was determined to find a similar Banh Mi in Vancouver. I mean it can't be hard since we really have a lot of authentic everything here. I tried out this special sub at Banh Mi Saigon today, and boy, just look at the line!

My friend also swore by it too. $6 for nearly a foot long Bahn Mi. 😳 soo reasonably priced, but I think the filling is really lacking 🧐 Extremely lacking.

The bread was also really crusty and sharp which end up stabbing my gum several times...

In conclusion, their Banh Mi is cheap but they are skimpy on the filling and their sub was overly toasted. I felt like I just ate a baguette with some mildly pickled vegetables and cilantros, with a few sad pieces of thin layered cold cuts and a hardly noticeable pate spread. Perhaps it's cheaper than the average Banh Mi out there, but when you do the math, you're really not getting any value out of it.

I would consider giving it another try when I discovered that they provide the option to add more meat, but considering how hard the bread was, I don't even think it's worth giving it a second shot.

📍Location: Here

Menu: Here

💵 Price: $5.50 - $6 per sub || $2 for extra meat

🤤Taste: 3 / 5

🕯Atmosphere: 2

🪑Seating: NA

📈 Price Performance ratio: 2.5 / 5

Retention Rate: 0%

ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕤:

🌯 Giant Sub (just the sub)

🌯Buy 10 get 1 free (10% discount with bulk purchases)

ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕤:

🌯 Long line ups

🌯 Skimpy on the filling

🌯 Bread is too crusty

🌯 Needs more pate

🌯 Expensive considering how little filling they provide

🌯 Cash only

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:

🌯 I would consider giving it another try when I discovered that they provide the option to add more meat, but considering how hard the bread was, I don't even think it's worth giving it a second shot.