Lily’s Sandwich

Great little spot. Awesome selection of Bahn mi sandwiches. No phở, but they do have a really good Bön bo hue. Cash only.

I said I won’t write a review if it’s not good. Why help destroy a business? But I get a feeling Lily has been here for a while, and the regulars are not phased by Lily Unilocalers. I got the meat sandwich (that’s what the server said) and a dac biet. The bread was tough, the meat felt un-​fresh. The woman near the cashier was staring at me– that blank Viet stare where you are kind of curious if she’s cursing you to the ground, or just thinking about what to make for dinner. Anyway, I don’t know why I’d return here. Maybe for the bun dishes that looked kind of appetizing. At least the customers there made it look good.

Love the Vietnamese sandwiches and food they make here. They use fresh ingredients and make them in a timely fashion when you order. The food is amazing all home cooked Vietnamese authenticity. I have been going to Lily’s Sandwiches for years and really appreciate also the customer service they have.

All I can say is WOW!!! Their Banh Mi is large and soooo good. Freshly made when you order. They make their own bread and its always warm and soft on the inside. Small place not a lot of seating. If you have a chance and want a good Banh Mi try Lily’s…

Really just not a good bahn mi. Stale bread, cold mushy overly sweet pork, if there were any veggies I couldn’t see em, let alone taste em, not aware of any mayo or butter either. I will try bahn mi pretty much anywhere but this was a big fail. Maybe it was an off day? They were pretty crowded so I must be missing something or ordered the wrong thing!

The first time I came here about 6 months ago, I fell in love with this place. What makes a banh mi? Fresh bread and fresh ingredients and decently sized. When I first ate here the first thing I noticed was the fresh ingredients and the freshly baked bread. This place has great prices as well. I fell in love.
Unfortunately, the last 2 times I have been here I have been really disappointed by the stale bread. It tastes 3 days old and the ends were hard. Very disappointed to say the least. It also tasted like part of it was microwaved as parts were soggy too.
Please go back to using freshly baked bread. Until then I will be visiting the other place in Chinatown that makes this sandwich really good using fresh baked bread…

This IS as good as it gets for a sandwich shop. They make them right there, to order. It’s cheap for a huge, delish, authentic banh mi sandwich and their to go items are some of my faves as a Vietnamese kid who misses my parent’s cooking. The egg rolls are homemade. :)
HEADS UP: They only take cash. And there’s not a lot of seating if you plan to eat there.
It’s more like a café that you’d find in Vietnam Market place. They have a few coolers with cold drinks, they make smoothies (which I have not tried yet) and they make fast, good food.
SOMEONE PLEASE take pictures of the menu board next time you’re there and post it on Unilocal.
I will, if I remember. :)

Good sandwiches… I loved the bread they used. It was nice and fresh, but I was missing the pâté. Viet sandwiches always have to have that flavor for me. The spring rolls were pretty good too. Prices are great.

My review is solely on their Banh Mi Dac Biet since that’s the only thing I ever order here. And I LOVE IT! I just had it the other day and I’m still thinking about it. Their sandwiches are bigger and cheaper than other places like Thanh Nhi and Ng BMT. They were super accommodating with what I wanted on my banh mi and toasted it to perfection. Only drawback is that they only accept cash!

I was a loyal customer only for their already pricey beef noodle soup… ignoring the fact that they have some baby roaches crawling on the ground here and there –but then I found out that they raised the price to $ 10 whooping bucks. Cya

Yes the banh mi is bigger than most I have seen, have not been to Baguette House or NG BMT, I thought the Lily’s gourmet sandwich was really good, fresh bread, crisp veggies, and descent about of meat, spring rolls were a big hit as well. The dining room is very small, seats maybe 15, and they only accept cash, which to me, you should at least put an ATM in your place. Well worth a try in my book.

The pork BBQ banh mi sandwich is absolutely delicious and reasonable at $ 4. I go here all the time just for that. (I cannot comment on the other dishes since I haven’t tried them.) They also provide free iced tea if you eat inside the relatively small restaurant. There is absolutely no ambiance so I wouldn’t bring a date here or anything. Unfortunately, it’s cash only so come prepared!

LiIy’s is my favorite spot in Austin. I love xíu mi (Vietnamese meatballs), and they have the best ones in town. At $ 3.70, it is the cheapest banh mi in town as well. I have yet to try the other things on the menu that are not banh mi. That tells you something.

I know this place has sandwich in it’s name but I have never gotten a sandwich here. :)
They have a variety of Vietnamese snack food on the counter and that’s normally what I get here. I like their Banh Beo. I live south so every once in a while whenever I go to Chinatown, I hit up some spots to get my fill of Vietnamese foods. This is now on my list of places to hit up when I’m north. :)
I haven’t actually tried anything on their menu but all their take away items are delicious.
I never had an issue with food tasting old here but maybe I’ve lucked out. I know that’s really common with take away food but from what I’ve seen, they usually make enough to sell out for the day and that’s it. Sometimes not even enough.

I love this place. It used to be my number one place for authentic Vietnamese food before I move to Houston. They are small shop but surprisingly has many options for the food. You name it, they will have it. (Except for Phở, you could not find phở here, i think because of the Phở Sai Gon next door which is owned by MT owner — monopoly thing!!!).
Will definitely come back and eat whenever I’m in town.

This place is worse than I let on. Just thinking about it makes me uneasy. –1 star.
Seeing how many 1 star reviews this place had definitely made me leery, but I was told they had better bahn mis than NG BMT, so I gave it a try. I got the same thing here as there, the grilled pork bahn mi and then tried a little bit of the sticky rice and chicken and sausage pre packaged meal.
The Bahn mi here is cheaper and quite a bit larger than lots of places which seems like a good thing until I took a bite into possibly the worst bread I’ve ever had on a sandwich. Completely old, stale and freezer burn tasting. It actually smelled like a freezer which is never a good thing to build a sandwich around. You just simply can’t have a good sandwhich without good bread regardless of what is inside of it.
The filling was slightly better than the bread, but the pork wasn’t charred, tender or even very flavorful at all. Nothing about the sandwich was good, to be honest, other than the jalapeño and cilantro weren’t somehow destroyed. Just a dry, stale sandwich on par with Dang Bahn Mi for the worst I’ve had, unfortunately.
The pre packed rice, chicken and sausage seemed like a safe bet, but even this tasted unfresh and strange. The rice was beyond japanese style sticky rice and was completely congealed together as if it were one entity and not made up of individual grains. Just a horrendous gelatinous texture that was difficult to even cut through, topped with with leftover quality room temperature shredded chicken and a few sausage slices with a very strange sweetness about it.
When this many people have terrible experiences somewhere, there is usually something to it and despite the prices being really cheap, I’d happy pay double or triple elsewhere for something fresh and flavorful. I’d highly recommend to look elsewhere for bahn mis, and start with NG BMT. The prepacked food doesn’t make me want to try anything else either… A reluctant and borderline 2 stars for me.

I only came here for some bubble tea, so I can’t speak for anything else, although by the looks of it, it’s probably about the same. For about $ 5, I ordered a taro bubble tea — my favorite. I was CRAVING it so bad. As the guy working the counter made my tea, I looked around the restaurant. Why are there packages of dyed rice? Why are there packages of food just lying around at all? Why aren’t some of these things refrigerated? WHY DID I COME HERE? As I watched the man make my tea, I noticed two important things. First, the drink is powder based. Okay, I’ve had powder based bubble tea before and it ain’t so bad. Second, what are those weird rectangle things you put in my drink? I got some bubbles too, but I also got those weird rectangles. I don’t want rectangles, I want more bubbles! He hands me my drink. Okay. I pierce the seal with the straw and take a sip. WHAT. THE. EFF. The powder didn’t dissolve properly, so the drink is chalky! Gross! I try to salvage the drink and aim my straw at some of those bubbles. Got some of those rectangles too. UGH. TERRIBLE. These bubbles have the wrong texture to them — probably overcooked. And those rectangles, don’t get me started, eff those rectangles. $ 5 in the trash. AVOID.

Whenever I crave for Vietnamese banh hoi, I go here! Beware, they ONLY take cash!
Their banh cuon thit nuong was bland, but I really enjoyed their banh hoi shrimp!
Banh Hoi are bundles of vermicelli noodles woven together and they had it with shrimp paste wrap around sugar canes. I got this to go and was surprised at everything that came with it. They placed about 10 spring roll papers, a variety of vegetables, and about 4 of the shrimp paste on the sugar canes. Delicious and the whole make your own spring roll kit with the to-​go order was nice!

I used to go to Baguette House for my banh mi cravings but ever since they started skimping out on meat and stuff, I’ve started coming here. I’m rating it 4 stars based on the sandwich because it was good enough to satisfy my craving, but not the best I’ve had.
I feel like you get faster service here if you speak Vietnamese because I’m pretty sure they forgot my order until I reminded them I was still waiting for a sandwich.
It’s a mom and pop shop and prices are affordable. This will be my go-​to banh mi place until I find another one. Oh yeah, it’s also buy 5 sandwiches, get one free.

A very «Mom & Pop» restaurant, Lily’s delivers quality banh mi at an incredibly affordable price!
My girlfriend was craving some banh mi, so since we were in the area, we stopped here at the recommendation of other Unilocalers. We were not at all disappointed! There was only one person working and a few people sitting at one of the 6 tables in the entire store, and I was kind of apprehensive when ordering our food.
That apprehension was immediately cleared up when two warm sandwiches were brought to our table, all wrapped up and ready to eat!
I got the BBQ Pork Banh Mi and boy, was it good. The bread was clearly fresh, as it was not only warm, but delicate and crunchy on the outside, while the inside remained soft. The veggies were very fresh and crisp, pickled just the right way. The BBQ pork had an interesting marinade, but was good nonetheless.
At the end of the day, it was a good sandwich at a simple sandwich shop, but the simplicity is good enough for me to want to return again SOON.