A tiny Buddhist shrine welcomes visitors to this French-Vietnamese bakery that Food Network star Bobby Flay cited as one of his must-hit stops in Chicago. There's not much room to sit down and enjoy your sandwich, but that shouldn't prevent you from visiting Ba Le.
The French-Vietnamese cafe has subs galore, ranging from fried tofu vegetarian to shrimp cate to lemongrass sausage to Chinese pork. Specials are just as numerous: Sink your teeth into a buy five sandwiches get one free deal (but really, do you need that many sandwiches? Even if they are insanely good? Yeah...probably) or get three rolls of French bread for the price of one. But back to the sandwiches. Most of them are of the chicken and pork variety, served on a sub roll and topped with jalapenos, bean sprouts and other veggies of that sort. Pair with a Thai iced coffee to maximize the delish-factor.
The tables are few and far between and aren't all that clean, but an area to chill is an area to chill. In addition, there are numerous ready-made, take-away items such as salads if you don't feel like waiting the two minutes that it takes to actually make a sandwich.
Centerstage Reviewer: Jon Graef
