Oui Banh Mi has finally opened – technically it’s still in its soft opening – in the location formerly occupied by the late Lucky Burger on Richmond at Mandell. Now Montrose residents have access to favorably-priced banh mi sandwiches, spring rolls, vermicelli bowls and Vietnamese iced coffee via a convenient drive-thru window.
We stopped in earlier this week to check out the menu. The namesake banh mi sandwiches at Oui Banh Mi range in price from $3.25 (pork, chicken, tofu and egg) to $4.25 for the extra-flavorful chargrilled beef. For a buck more, you can add a fried egg (a personal requirement) to your sandwich for a perfect, creamy bite as the yolk breaks and runs into the French bread.
The freshly-wrapped shrimp spring rolls (photo below) in their translucent rice paper are served with the traditional peanut dipping sauce. The veggies tucked in with the shrimp are a nice pop of freshness. The pair will set you back $3.50. Oui Banh Mi will also offer vegetable egg rolls and summer rolls stuffed with Chinese pork sausage once fully opened.
The two stand-outs of our visit were the special tofu vermicelli ($8.25), which was served with the customary bun offerings of sprouts, noodles, cucumber, herbs and fish sauce and the traditional Vietnamese iced coffee, or ca phe sua da. At Oui Banh Mi, they flavor their slow-drip coffee/condensed milk mixture with subtle hazelnut flavors. A fellow customer, who said he was a coffee bean brand ambassador, proclaimed this the best Vietnamese coffee he’d ever had.
The coffee alone would bring us back to Oui Banh Mi – so long Starbucks drive-thru. The chargrilled beef and special tofu vermicelli don’t hurt either. It’s la belle vie at Oui Banh Mi.
Oui Banh Mi, 1601 Richmond at Mandell, 832-831-5172, oui-banhmi.com