T H P.
Yelp
There was a time, many years ago, when K-Sandwiches was considered by many, including me, as the best place in town for bahn mi. I especially liked the version with thit nuong (bbq pork), which came with a delicious fresh bun and was stuffed with tons of fresh veggies. If you ate the sandwich in their restaurant, there were giant bottles of what seemed like (but may not have been) home-made hot sauce. Home-made or not, it added a lot to the sandwich. Yum.
The place burned down, and the loss was mourned by all. It took a long time, but finally the family rebuilt. The reworked restaurant had a more open, lighter ambience and was generally an improvement. The sandwiches were pretty much the same as before.
Meanwhile, though, a place opened up that was surprisingly the equal, if not even better than K-Sandwiches for bahn mi thit nuong: Pho Hut. So we started going there for them. Management at Pho Hut has changed since then and the bahn mi isn't quite as good as before, but it's still very good.
Several years passed, and last week we decided to see how the bahn mi thit nuong was now at K-Sandwiches. The same? Better? Not as good as before?
Sorry to say, they were definitely not as good as before. The roll was the best part, still very fresh and just right. But there was little inside, and the meat was almost flavorless. Very, very skimpy, low quality. And there was none of that great hot sauce on the tables. We were given two little packets of siracha sauce when we asked (which was ok, but not the same).
We also shared an order of spring rolls, another thing we used to like to get at K-Sandwiches. They were inedible. The thit nuong in them stood out even more with its cardboard-like lack of flavor; the thick wrappers were extremely gummy yet fragile; and the other ingredients inside were completely nondescript and blah. My companion managed to finish hers, but I couldn't get halfway through. Yuk. Horrible.
On our way out we picked up a pastry called "pineapple cheese flakey" to eat at home. That was very good. So from now on the only reason for us to go to K-Sandwiches will be to get bread or pastries. Definitely not bahn mi -- and absolutely definitely not spring rolls.
If just for the sandwich, I'd give today's K-Sandwiches 3 stars. As in, "ho hum". If just for the pastry, 4 stars ("very good"). But that inedible spring roll drags it down.