Lee's sandwiches is like the Starbucks of vietnamese sandwich and coffee shops. It's a national chain that has a blueprint for success with a wide variety for a menu, and yet doesn't really excel in any particular aspect. Despite this level of mediocrity, it still commands a great deal of business for its convenience.
So why do I come here despite my tepid review?
The pros: There is a really good auto maintenance shop (Top Tech) across the street so this is the most convenient place to walk to while I wait for my oil change. I can come to Lee's Sandwiches for a nice breakfast of pork pate chaud and a cafe sua da (definitely not healthy but quite savory) while getting work done on the free wifi. Their croissant sandwiches are also pretty ginormous.
My major gripes?
a) the cafe su dua - although it is a pretty good cup of vietnamese iced coffee, they always never fail to load it up with waaaay too much ice. This applies to most of their drinks as well. When you ask for no ice or little ice, they simply don't fill it up. Apparently, they have a set predetermined measured corporate amount of coffee or tea that is to be poured into each cup with or without ice. I find this really annoying when you suck up your coffee within a few gulps and you're left with a nearly full cup of ice.
b) the crowd - the crowd here is almost always a devoted and loyal fan base of 50+ year old vietnamese men who enjoy sitting at the outside tables sippiing their coffee and smoking their cigarettes while occasionally playing chinese chess. It doesn't matter what time of day it is, there will always be such a crowd lounging around outside of this place. It gives the place a quasi-Parisian Saigonian feel where large groups of vietnamese older men are just chilling and people watching.
Overall - to sum it all up, Lee's Sandwiches on Bellaire is a place to get some work done and eat some okay vietnamese sandiwiches with over iced coffee.
more