Cali Baguette & Pho

Everything here is delicious. My wife and I come here at least once a week sometimes more when I’m too lazy to cook. Just writing this review makes me want to go and have some phó or maybe even a barbecue pork sandwich. So good. So clean. So friendly.

Really flavorful Banh Mi and spring rolls. If you are in the area, skip the fast food and head straight to Cali it is genuine Vietnamese food that has flavor that is memorable. Definitely worth the trip.

Anytime I crave a bahn mi, this place always comes to mind. I usually get the Cali special. The pâté they use is so good! They are very nice and have fast service. We usually call in our order and by the time we get there it’s ready. Their eggrolls are pretty bomb too. It comes with the usually spread, lettucses, daikon, and fish sauce. I would recommend this place to anyone who loves a great bahn mi.

Best Phở in town! The Banh Mi’s are ridiculously amazing! The food is always fresh and has great flavor! Try the spring rolls and BBQ Banh Mi. You are guaranteed to have a great dinner for two less than $ 25. It is also a great place to have some warm spicy Phở to clear up your sinuses and make you feel warm and fuzzy when you are under the weather!

The STARS ARE FOR THE RATING OF SERVICE. The main things are as follows;
1. If you’re gonna be a White, Mexican, other than an Asian server in a Vietnamese restaurant, it would be a thumbs up if you know the menu. Half the time, it’s «I’m not sure/​I don’t know.»
And she doesn’t care too much to be nice either.
Very irritating!!! (probably the owner’s/ mgr’s gf)
2. The OWNER/​MGR gives off this «I DON’T CARE TOO MUCH FOR YOUR SATISFACTION, WE’VE CORNERED THE VIETNAMESE FOOD MARKET IN THIS LOCATION,» vibe.
They messed up our orders completely. And the mess ups were the «essence» of the dish. i.e. The «crunch» factors. When the same items were practically ordered just hours before.
It’s usually the owner/​mgr that takes the orders at the register. No smiles, young, bald head dude with the «I’m an asshole/​I’m a dick vibe.»
Both individuals speaks English.
After craving for the stuff all day, and then only to come home and not get the very thing you’ve been craving for!!!
WHO WOULDN’t be pissed!!!
If it wasn’t for the fact that El Cajon Blvd is almost 20 miles away, I wouldn’t even come to this place. I’ve been to establishments where English was practically non existent and still hardly ever effed up my orders.
Bottom line, everybody gets this vibe from those two individuals. Nobody writes a review about it cause it’s time consuming and the convenience of the location, but the owner /​mgr already knows that.
It will only be a matter of time until another one will open and hopefully with better customer service. So enjoy the monopoly for now cause it will be no time until then, OR LOSE THE ATTITUDE!!!

Some of the best phở I’ve had. The employees are pretty nice and helpful too, which isn’t always the case at some of the Vietnamese restaurants I’ve been to. Definitely recommend their phở and baguette sandwiches.

Not gteeted for 15minutes. Mediocre service. Short staffed. Mixing simple orders up. Water after we got half our order. I got my Phở but my boyfriend is STILL waiting on his baguette as I am writing this review. Its chaos and you can not tell who is your server, host, or barback. If your in a hurry or want excellent service this is not the place. Food is good though.

We love Cali Baguette & Phở!!! We’ve been fans of their Bahn-​Mi sandwiches for years since their first location in City Heights off of El Cajon Blvd. This location is by far their nicest and largest restaurant. They have a nice dining room that’s on the Broadway street side, then they have a casual café to-​go area next to their private parking lot. The food here is very good, very reasonable, their french bread is fresh, and they also sell day-​old bread for a discount and it’s still very good!!! The family who owns it are some of the nicest people and they keep their restaurant very clean. I can’t name a better Vietnamese Bahn-​Mi sandwich spot in Chula Vista.

It’s one of my favorite phở spots!
I always get a veggie phở to go and I LOVE how they place everything in a disposable bowl it makes things a lot easier! They are always friendly and polite! I highly recommend this place if you’re nearby!

If there was a way to give less than one star I sure would do it. The hot water teapot was absolutely filthy the sugar shaker was absolutely filthy.
The barbecue pork was too salty and tasted like beef jerky. It was full of bones and gristle was not worth the price.
At a small table in the back of the restaurant in full view of all the diners, The table was full of condiment containers. And the waitress was mixing all of the different condiments into fresh bottles which is an absolute health department failure.
The action of marrying all the condiments should be enough to shut the restaurant down immediately. No telling how old the different condiments are. I will never eat there again I do not take a chance on getting sick.

This place was amazing in so many ways! Adam our server was extremely nice, well spoken, and professional for our every needs. I had the chicken phở and added shrimp which they made into a combo for us. Super good food with a clean beautiful place inside. I high recommend this place and thier other locations! Thanks, Anthony (the twins)

3 years later gave this place a second chance.
Last time I ate here they had the shrimp BBQed on a fire grill. I come back and now the shrimp is cooked in a pan with lots of butter and grilled onion. Sort of strange since every other Vietnamese restaurant will cook the shrimp on a grill flame kissed.
Shrimp were tiny and I assume came from the freezer bag type. It tasted alright and went well with the vermicelli noodles but not what I was expecting. I double-​checked the menu and it did describe the dish exactly as it was prepared and served to me so no tricks, but not sure if I would ever crave the shrimp prepared in that fashion ever again.
One thing they did have going for them was the delicious nuom chac sauce because it had lots of garlic and chili flake and stood out.

Simple establishment with a clean interface and homey aesthetics, but casual enough to grab a quick meal. Food was spot on, and seemingly fresh. The entrance had me confused as to what was provided though. It felt like some resturant hidden in the back with a fast food counter in the front, but I suppose that’s for takeout.
I had the Dac Biet Xe Lua (P1), and K1 and K7 eggrolls. I haven’t really had any eggrolls as good as the ones provided here, and they came with a sauce mixed with some additional flavors that fit perfectly together. I couldn’t finish and was offered a container that worked for the Phở which was nice, nevertheless expected.
Service was a little wacky. Seemed as if we had two servers, but little communication between the two led to going through the motions twice. Looking at it on the other side, both were well to accommodate our needs and checked in frequently. I was also informed about shrimp being in one of my orders after I mentioned an alergy to it.

This place has never disappointed me. The food is great the service is unmatched. I come here at least once or twice a month and they have yet to dissatisfy me.

This review is strictly for the phở.
Second time trying is NOT a charm and I might give it a third try. My hubster ordered the Vietnamese sausage with egg banh mi. I ordered the P3 tonight and the broth was very disappointing. Just a little bland for my palate, but it’s somewhat strangely sweet. And when I asked for fish sauce, they gave me this thick and sweet dipping sauce… hmm…weird. Then the waiter asked his colleague and they came up with another sauce that looked more like fish sauce, but tasted «off.» It was a mix of vinegar, (again) sweet, and fish sauce. The running theme here is: this place is a little «off»; is it maybe because the owners and/​or chefs are from a different region in Vietnam? Or, maybe they’re not Vietnamese at all? I can ask all sorts of questions.
I guess I should pay more attention to the name of the establishment: cali BAGUETTE and phở. They obviously specialize in their banh mi’s because my husband swears they are the best around San Diego. However, the phở… well it’s just an afterthought perhaps. So… with that said: I may return for their banh mi.

This is my third time here and it just seems to get better and better. I love their vermicelli bowls, they’re so bomb, I’d eat one every day if I could. I brought my friends over from Texas and they’re really big on phò and they really loved this spot. I must say this is my new spot Award Winning except on my second visit the customer service was not as good, they were short in employees and had to young poor guys running around like chickens without heads, leaving us waiting for about 5 minutes to get our drink order. But overall good is Magnificent!

The bread on the Banh Mi Dac Biet was so fresh! It was warm and the crust was the perfect balance between soft and crispy.
Bun Bo Hue was not the best but it was solid.
Decent prices, clean, and fast service round things off 5-​stars! This is gonna be our new go-​to Viet place in Chula Vista now.

A U T H E N T I C Vietnamese PHO’OD … so GOOD!
I usually pop in to order take out for lunch. The service is empecable, and although my orders tends to be complicated most times, the server’s ALWAYS makes my orders extra special.
The F R E S H Beef Spring Rolls are marinated with full of lemongrass flavors. It’s a Healthy Choice if you ask me. :)
B A G U E T T E S are baked freshly every day! Try their sandwhiches. They’re so much to choose from. You’ll never have to wait long for take outs. There’s plenty of parking so you’ll never have to honk your horns to fight for one.
The vermicelli noodles with shrimps and shrimp bean curd blended with fresh herbs (mints, cilantro, and basil leaves) is one of my favorites! This is a special order so ask the server for details.
Lastly, if you need something to wake you up (better than Starbucks) try the Thai Ice Tea with a hint of Vietnamese Coffee.
Overall, this is the most A U T H E N T I C Vietnamese PHO’OD on the BOARDER of National City & Chula Vista you’ll find!

This place is my GOTO Phở place in Chula Vista… well, let’s just say I frequent this place the most.
They make excellent PHO (P1 the big bowl with everything is $ 8.00); the broth is excellent and they make a good Banh Mi as well. They bake their own baguette which is always a good sign, and it’s been very fresh every time with the exception of just once… that particular time, it was just as they opened and the bread they used was a little stale, as if it was baked the day before or something… but it’s been great every other time for me.
They are really cool about adjusting the order for you too… I usually ask for extra pickled dikon/​carrots and extra jalapeño. Sandwiches are around $ 3.50 each.
I gotta say pretty much everything I’ve ordered here has tasted very good.
The kitchen staff are all older… like Bà ngoi is back there and they definitely know what they are doing. The front end staff are the grandkids and the atmosphere of the restaurant is set by them… it tends to be super casual and the streaming music they select is always a little bit on the loud side. No biggie… I don’t mind… this is an excellent place for delicious eats and it’s a good day to day casual cheap dining but not so much for the special occasions.
Go to Phở Hiep & Grill Château in East Lake if you’re taking out your girl.

Well I decided to try it and trust my fellow Unilocalers… Big mistake. The restaurant is very clean and spacious but they only have 2 server’s working. It was a rainy night Phở sounded amazing so we decided to stop here upon walking in the place seemed quite packed I asked if we could wait for a booth and was told they had no booths available or opening up so we had to sit at a table. Right when we sat 5 booths opened up «not kidding 5 booths!» I asked him can we move he replied well idk we have to clean it «I said its okay we’ll wait the chair is hurting my back» they just looked at me like so I got up and went to stand next to the booth. Finally someone came over and wiped it.
We ordered the XL Phở Soup and the Spice noodle salad which is made with shrimp and pork.
XL Phở soup — The broth was okay nothing spectacular the meat was bland and a bit on the shiesty side had small amount of noodles (only 1 small pc of tripe im the bowl?) It was good after wwwe added several slices of lemon, drenched it in sriracha sauce and hoisin sauce, a second veggie plate because the one they bring out just isn’t enough.
Spice Shrimp bowl– Was way different than expected the pork had no flavor it tasted like simple carne asada and the shrimp OMG it had no flavor as well pale and bland not marinated like the menu states «boiled shrimp» is what I got.
The sauce was not like the usual how can you make «fish sauce» bland? Idk but they managed to do it lol. The plate was half way full and for $ 8 and change it should be served full, I found myself eating all tge lettuce in this dish instead of the shrimp and meat needless to say I didn’t finish it.
I posted a picture to show an example of what was expected and what we were served.
Try Phở Van better prices better food overall.