Under $10: Huge Banh Mi Subs at Vinh Loi Tofu
Way over in Reseda, miles away from the joints I usually frequent and deep in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, Vinh Loi Tofu is serving up some of the best sandwiches in town for well under 10 bucks. The modest vegan Vietnamese eatery is definitely off the beaten path, but redeems itself by offering several different banh mi subs stuffed with animal-free versions of chicken, beef, tuna, ham and curry meatballs…all of which are reasonably priced and insanely delicious.
Curry Meatball Chicken Sub. $6.50
Vinh Loi Tofu is one of those addictive restaurants that’s so good, I can’t even describe it. Owner Kevin Tran actually operates his own tofu factory in the back of the 100% vegan establishment, which supplies Vinh Loi with the incredible protein for so many of their savory soups, sandwiches, noodle dishes and salads. While everything that I have ordered at Vinh Loi has been to my liking, I would most strongly recommend the faux meat subs to all newcomers and/or meat-eaters. Each Vietnamese sandwich comes packed with cucumbers, radishes, green chili and cilantro with your choice of creepily realistic (but tasty) soy “animal” meat. All that mess sandwiched in a crispy but chewy french bread roll, and you have yourself a winner. The curry meatball chicken sub is the most expensive, but it happens to be my favorite. Alternatively, you can get classic banh mi flavors like vegan beef or chicken for just $4.50 a pop! (seriously.) For an enormous vegan sandwich, that’s a really good deal.
This is the kind of food that you start chomping on with another person and for the next half hour the conversation is littered with outbursts like, “No, really this is so fucking good,” “….I know, right? God, this sure is amazing,” “Wow, this food is much better than i thought would be…” and then various chewing noises.
Although Vinh Loi has been around since 2003, I’d never even heard of the place until it started getting massive coverage from vegan food blog To Live And Eat In LA in 2007. Even with all the tempting pictures and gushing descriptions of the food, it still took me over a year to finally make it over there. Don’t make the same mistake I did, or else that will be another year and a half you will be missing out on the best banh mi Los Angeles has to offer. Whether you eat animals or not, this food is ready to impress.
Owner Kevin Tran works the counter at Vinh Loi Tofu
Oh, and it doesn’t just stop at the sandwiches. Every single item on Vinh Loi Tofu’s menu is under 10 bucks. That includes gigantic noodle dishes, salad meals, curries, appetizers, and a slew of appetizers & desserts. Eat up…!
Vinh Loi Tofu
18625 Sherman Way #101
Reseda, CA 91335
(818) 996-9779
For more vegan food reviews, visit me at Quarrygirl.com!
Ok. I hate to hate – no, actually, I love to hate – but.. how are these ANY bigger (or better) than the banh mi found at say.. Banh Mi My Tho for $3.50?
It’s not like Vinh Loi’s in West LA. It’s Reseda yo. Nothing at Banh Mi My Tho or Baguette Express or Bale or Banh Mi Che Cali, is over $5. There is no way Vinh Loi is rockin’ food at 200% higher quality than the SGV powerhouses.
sinosoul, i understand that vinh loi isn’t the least expensive banh mi in this town. what is amazing though, is that the subs at vinh loi are ALL VEGAN, massive in size, and relatively cheap. that is something very hard to come by. most other vegan sandwiches in this town run $8-12. the fact that this place has a vegan traditional sandwich for $4-7 is pretty awesome.
but if you eat meat, you can definitely find cheaper sandwiches, full stop.
I’m all for expensive viet baguette sandwiches. They just don’t belong anywhere near my neighborhood.
In fact, I applaud the existence of any establishment in Reseda that sells them, since they perform 2 important functions:
1) Cultural education, with increased price of admission.
2) Widening access to a limited resource. By creating a portal to this resource on the westside, demand is kept in check on the eastside, allowing for the continued advantage of a price discrepancy wide enough for me to point towards Reseda and taunt, “nah, nah, na nah nah!”
Half the pleasure of eating a viet baguette is knowing how little you paid for it.
I’m not vegan by any stretch of the imagination, but I’d further back QG’s assertion that vegan ingredients are not cheap. Looking at it from that angle, getting a normal-sized viet baguette, all vegan, under $10 (really anything vegan of any sort of substantial size) is a great deal – even in Reseda. Mind-blowing, I know. apples and apple-shaped oranges, guys. QG is here to represent the veegs!
[...] readers, i wanna encourage you to click over and check out this blog post i wrote for the popular LA blog, losanjealous.com. what you’ll find is some bona fide banh mi sandwich porn, and write-up on one of our favorite [...]
I can’t believe people are actually complaining that this massive, delicious and VEGAN sandwich for $6.50 is expensive! You people are nuts! It’s like twice the amount of food you’d get just about anywhere else but for half the price. AND VEGAN, something most of those places in the San Gabriel Valley do not offer.
Reseda ain’t the SGV, so deal with it. Top quality vegan food is worth paying a little bit extra for, and the delicious food at Vinh Loi is worth paying even more for regardless of if you’re even a vegetarian or not… that’s why it’s ironic that some people are missing the point of just how cheap this food is, all things considered. I’d pay just about anything for what they’re serving up at Vinh Loi because it’s just THAT good. $6.50 ain’t nothing to complain about for something that is that satisfying.
Thanks for the link QuarryGirl!
I don’t know about the food but you guys check out all the pics posted on their yelp? wowsa i think it wins for most pics posted ever! they range from awesome to hilarious. Sriracha bottle closeup FTW! http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/8lQdlnHokoGzTCpR8c1PPw?select=nSN2NXFxHQEg_Az6TODswQ
Annnd I’m back. I will go out on a ledge and assume much of what VL makes is tofu based. Huge assumption, right? Cuz you know, it’s in the name. If not tofu, gluten. That covers 100% of VL’s ingredients.
The manipulation of tofu & gluten into “vegan” meat has been employed by Buddhists for.. let’s just say a few hundred years. Tofu has always been dirt cheap and “vegan”, before there was the word “vegan”.
Btw, who’s the biggest producer of soybeans & wheat in the world? Good ol US of A. Do the math. $6.50 for a gluten sammy? F’ing rip. Perhaps not to the value system of vegans who are used to paying for… “top quality” vegan “meat” but, really, tofu is tofu, is tofu. Ditto to gluten.
#3 There are plenty of Vietnamese resto’s in the 818. In fact, there are tons. #6, you’re absolutely right, Reseda isn’t SGV, hence it should even cheaper. #7, those “awesome” pix on Yelp? Posted by the owner.
SinoSoul: What exactly is your point? If you want to stick with dirt cheap meaty sandwiches from the SGV, than go there and eat them. I don’t know what planet you live on where $6.50 for a fresh, large and delicious specialty sandwich is expensive, but I think I want to live there because it sounds like a wonderful fantasyland.
And by pointing out that the photos on Yelp are by the owner you are saying what? That he takes nice photos and wants to share them so that people will come eat his food? Wow… scandalous. In case you didn’t notice he’s got his name there right with the photos, it’s no secret that he put them there and you’re probably the only person on earth who thinks it’s shady.
There may be plenty of Vietnamese restaurants in the 818 but there is only one that is vegan, and there are NONE that are as delicious as Vinh Loi Tofu. Most everyone else who’s eaten there, both vegetarians and meat eaters alike agree that the food is great, the portions are huge and the prices are ridiculously cheap. Four people can leave there having eaten a table full of food for less than $30.
It’s “obvious” that you couldn’t find much in this post to diss on veganism with so you opted to launch a little rant about the price. For what it’s worth, the word “vegan” does not need quotes around it, and if you were to ever taste the amazing things that Vinh Loi does with “tofu” and “gluten” you’d realize how very “mistaken” you are in “assuming” the price is a rip off.
its ok sinosoul is just coping with a better blog that happens to be vegan getting on los anjealous
I have never had the chicken curry sub at Vinh Loi Tofu, I usually get the normal chicken one, which is cheaper. BBQ duck is pretty good too.
Sorry to report that Banh Mi My Tho seemed to be gone last time I went by….
LMAO @ the idiots posting how this food is too expensive, etc.
Great review, Quarrygirl.
I’m heading over there tomorrow!
“Half the pleasure of eating a viet baguette is knowing how little you paid for it.”
Uh…so that axiom only applies to vietnamese baguettes? Brilliant logic.
Good god, duck out of town a few days and hilarity ensues. Sinosoul, if you can offer a “vegan” alternative restaurant that suits all of the above commenters’ tastebuds – and falls within the budget bucket with which you have apparently burdened Reseda (!?) – this is obviously what is needed for your argument here. Blathering about 300-year-old monks and the origins of the word vegan just does not do a lot for the average vegan angeleno looking to score a sando for less than a Hamilton.
Wow. Tony hi-jacked the comments section here, did he? hehe. Well, I’m lovin’ this sandwich but the drive there I can’t justify to the planet. if i’m in the hood, i check it out.
[...] $3.50 bowl of ORD’s boat noodles are superb values, yet there exists such ramblings as this gushing review of a vegan $6.50 banh mi sammy in Reseda. This bowl tho, was the king of cheap [...]
[...] beef pho all around LA, SGV & Little Saigon are tremendous values, but then, there also exists a gushing review of a vegan $6.50 banh mi sammy in Reseda. This particular bowl of lighter pho, relatively to that banh mi, is the king of Vietnamese [...]