House Special #1 Banh Mi at Dakao, in Chinatown Las Vegas!

Vietnamese Banh Mi Sandwich!

     If there was a street vendor style food success story during the last few years, banh mi is the winner!  The rise of the banh mi sandwich's popularity could not have had better timing.  During bad economic times, people look for food bargains, especially when dining out.  Banh mi are cheap to make, so the price of banh mi on a menu board is very appealing.  A whole freshly made banh mi sandwich only costs about $3.00.  That is a bargain!

     The Dakao Banh Mi - Che - Banh Cuon restaurant is located at 5700 Spring Mountain Road in Chinatown, Las Vegas.  Dakao is in the Asian Pacific Plaza between Lindell and Jones.

     I did lunch at the Chinese BBQ restaurant in the plaza that day and I had a great meal.  I did some shopping at the asian food market, then I decided to visit some friends.  My friends had never heard of a banh mi sandwich, so I stopped in the Dakao restaurant to get a banh mi sandwich for them to try.  Banh mi sandwiches do make for some great cheap food gifts!

     I did sample part of the House Special #1 Banh Mi, after meeting my friends.  The House Special #1 tasted as good as it looked!  The lunch meats at Dakao were sliced to order and that always impresses me.  Slicing meats to oder is a good sign of old fashioned quality!

     Usually the meats on a Special Combo Banh Mi or a House Special #1 are head cheese and pork loaf.  The lunch meats were of nice quality!  In Vietnam's tropical climate, canned lunch meats are a popular choice, because of their long shelf life.  Fresh lunch meats were used at Dakao.

     Banh mi are considered to be snack sandwiches, so the meat portion size on a banh mi is small.  Even so, when compared to the the latest round of skimpy size meat portions of some recently opened American and Italian style sub sandwich shops and delicatessens, banh mi is the better value!  

     A few months ago, I paid $8.50 for a salami sub at a newly opened Italian sub shop on Alexander in Las Vegas and the portion of meat on the poorly made sub was embarrassingly small.  In fact, the portion size of meat on the Bulgarian owned Italian sub shop's $8.50 sandwich was only about one half of an ounce larger than than Dakao's $3.00 banh mi sandwich.  That sub shop on Alexander was a double embarrassment, because the owners had the audacity to give their sub shop an Italian name.  I will not even mention the name of that sub shop in my in my food blog!  

     I post no negative restaurant restaurant reviews at all.  If a place is not worth mentioning by my liberal informative standards, then it is not worth mentioning to my readers.  Bad restaurants deserve no free reviews!  That sub shop on Alexander looked like it will not be in business for long anyway, because nobody likes to get ripped off on a meal that they spend their hard earned money on!

     Well, back to the good experience that I had at the Dakao Vietnamese Banh Mi Sandwich Shop!  The menu board was amazing.  Every menu item had a picture and a price.  The price per banh mi was $3.00 including tax!  That price was enough to make me drool with envy!  Dakao also offers a "Buy 5 Banh Mi, Get One Free" special.  For $15 dollars you can sample 6 of the best quality banh mi sandwiches in Las Vegas.  That is a real bargain!

     The banh mi bread at Dakao is a fusion combination of a French baguette recipe that replaces half of the wheat flour with rice flour.  The soft pleasant texture of true banh mi baguette bread is one of a kind!

     The garnish on the Dakao banh mi was the refreshing standard of grated daikon radish, napa cabbage and carrots with sliced cucumber.  French mayonnaise is spread on the banh mi sandwich and that is a tradition that started during the French occupation in Vietnam.  

     Overall, the House Special #1 Banh Mi sandwich at Dakao was superbly crafted and delicious!  My friends that sampled the Dakao banh mi really liked the bread and they could not get over hearing about the low price.  Of course my friends were hungry and they asked for directions to the Dakao Banh Mi Sandwich Shop!

     I almost ordered the sardine banh mi sandwich menu item at Dakao, because I really like sardines.  I wasn't sure about whether my friends had a taste for sardines, so maybe next time I will give it a try.  To my surprise, an asian gentleman walked up to the counter and ordered a sardine banh mi, while I was pondering over my decision.  That was kind of weird, because it is rare that you find two people that like sardines in the same place at the same time!  I actually went into a state of shock and awe!

     I highly recommend the Dakao Banh Mi - Che - Banh Cuon restaurant for locals and visitors of Las Vegas alike!  The price of banh mi is a bargain, so go to Dakao with an appetite and sample a variety of banh mi sandwiches, till you are full and satisfied!  Yum!  ...  Shawna