Review: Baoguette

After a tasty tapas dinner last night at Boqueria, I decided to keep the ball rolling today with indulgent, cleanse-erasing delicious food. Since my date ( ;) ) bailed on me today I went over to Lexington Avenue solo to try out a relatively new sandwich place called Baoguette. Their specialty is Banh Mi. Banh Mi, in Vietnamese, means baguette, but that's not the complete picture of these amazing, pork-stuffed sandwiches.

The regular banh mi/"Baoguette" contains a few different kinds of pork - pork belly and pork pate, along with fresh pickled jalapenos, carrots and cucumbers, romaine, cilantro, a little bit of mayo, and is drizzled with fish sauce and Sriracha, all served inside a crusty TomCat bakery baguette. I ordered mine medium spicy, but after a few bites now I regret not slapping on some extra Sriracha - but it was still great. The shop itself is tiny - a row of stools and a countertop to eat at, but that's it. Did I mention I was the only woman in the place? Definitely not a sandwich for the daintily stomached.

The Bao certainly lived up to the hype - the crunchy bread, sweet and salty pork, the spicy jalapenos, and the umami flavor of the fish sauce hit all the right notes. And the touch of cilantro brings a bitter freshness to the whole thing.

You can also order a "sloppy bao"(ground curry-spiced beef), a fried catfish bao, or a bbq chicken bao. They have soups and pho noodle dishes as well.

A wonderful surprise is the iced coffee - I'd heard it's really good but wasn't sure why. But everyone in line as ordering so I went along with the crowd. I have to say, it's like drinking a melted milkshake. So good. It has this malted flavor to it that is unlike any iced coffee I've had here in NYC.

Baoguette, fyi, is owned by chef/restaurateur Michael Hyunh, who was responsible for opening up Mai House, Bun in Soho, and the recently opened Bar Bao on the Upper West Side. So this stuff is the real deal. There's two other locations on Christopher Street and St. Marks Place as well. Oh, and the best part? My bill only came to about 8 bucks. Not bad for a giant, manly, Asian sub. I'll be back again soon, preferably on my next hungover Friday.