La Maison Da Nang

La Maison Da Nang is one of the closest Vietnamese restaurants to Bahn Mi Saigon, one of my current contenders for #1. Do they measure up?

Upon entry, I was greeted by a robotic voice. I’m paraphrasing, but it said “Hi, welcome. How are you? Please take a seat”. Who do I tell how I am? The robot? The shopkeeper, who was sitting at a table right in front, staring at me?

I should note, La Maison Da Nang came in at one of the cheapest bahn mi’s (in the $6 range), and they’re not the main focus of the menu.

The Components

Bread

The bread was fine. Fresh enough, though perhaps a bit dry.

Veg

The veg was… weird. First off, the carrot and daikon mix was very heavily weighted in favor of the carrot. Not much of a problem to start. It gets a bit weird here though - they included red cabbage and iceberg lettuce? I haven’t seen this yet on a bahn mi. This is not a problem in and of itself, however, it was all dressed with something approximating a salad dressing, at least to my taste buds. It all came together as something like a salad, instead of delicious pickled veggies. Not my favorite, but points for trying I suppose.

There was jalapeno, but no cilantro. Disappointing.

Spread

The spread was lacklustre, in quantity. It was a dry sandwich. Pate and mayo were both present.

Meat

I ordered the BBQ pork. No complaints here, more would have been nice to make up for where the sandwich lacked in other departments.

Overall Impression

La Maison Da Nang’s bahn mi left a lot to be desired. If you want a great bahn mi, you’re better off going a couple doors down to bahn mi saigon.

Recommendation

I won’t be coming back for another sandwich here. Don’t take this as a recommendation of the whole restaurant, they have a whole other menu that I didn’t even look at.