I’ve seen the Ba Le shop before, but I’d never been in. I always assumed it was a nice parisian cafe because between Ba and Le is an Eiffel tower. I was partially right, Ba Le is a fusion of French and Vietnamese food.
The restaurant is set up with refrigerators with glass doors lining the walls filled with drinks and foods of all kinds, the labels on the top, with pastries in the center and a glass case filled with mini baguettes for 50 cents. They have a bakery shelf filled with macaroons and other delicate french sweets. They do smoothies with tapioca and sandwiches (Banh’ Mi). There are places to sit, a dark grey bench that lines one wall by the back with white tables and white round ottoman looking chairs. There is also some seating up front and some outside.
The sandwiches come on the mini baguettes (despite being mini they’re good size and delicious) They include pickled daikon, carrots, onions, cilantro, and jalapenos. Depending on the sandwich ordered it may include house mayonnaise, soy or fish sauce.
I picked out a chicken sandwich after debating on how spicy the other options would be and my stomach demanding to be fed immediately. It didn’t take long to be made and I picked out a can of Foco Aloe Vera and honey drink. Aloe Vera drinks tend to have chunks of Aloe Vera in them, they can be wonderfully delicious and sometimes a bit too sweet. I didn’t know what came on the sandwiches and only managed not to order the jalapenos by asking if they were spicy or not. I’m not a fan of cilantro but it was easy to pick off. The pickled daikon, carrots, and onion had a light sweet flavor and mixed well with the somewhat dry chewy chicken. The baguette was a bit messy but overall I loved my sandwich and want to go back to buy some 50 cent mini baguettes. I’ve also tried some of their desserts, their macaroons are good and so are their coconut desserts. I’m not sure what the coconut dessert is, I split it with my aunt when she visited and we loved it.
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