Nicky's Vietnamese Sandiwches

I'm not sure how this blog has suddenly become focused entirely on thoughts of various restaurants, but it was not exactly my intention when starting this experiment. I had hoped to catalogue the obsession that follows the pursuit of a good meal, but these last few months I've been going out to eat a lot, and it became so easy to just do a quick blow by blow of the experience.

This post is no exception, but I felt compelled to tell you that your food blog reading experience is getting the short end of the stick, and I know it to boot.

Okay, with that confessional out of the way, let's do a quick review of Nicky's Vietnamese Sandwiches. I quit my job a bit over a month ago in order to take the summer off before graduate school. Yes, more school. No place like a classroom to hide in the worst recession of a three generations.

This means that I have ample time to wander by various lunch spots. And until a phone call with my mom where she was horrified that I was paying for restaurant food while not bringing in a paycheck, it meant that I could pop by a place like Nicky's Vietnamese Sandwiches guilt free. Now that I've had said phone call, I'm "not allowed" to go eat out by myself. No comment on whether I've felt obliged to obey the dictates of the woman who bore me into this earth.

This meal ran me $8, with the iced coffee eating up three of those greenbacks. It's a very strong coffee with a definite espresso flavor punctuating every sip.

The sandwich is sub-par. I don't understand why New York Magazine anointed it a "Critic's Pick." Their reviewers must not comprehend how good food can be, even cheap food. The primary fault of this sandwich is a failure to understand that if anything, a solid banh mi needs to be a demonstration in contrasts. Iron rich pate mingling with sweet carrots, aromatic cilantro, and spicy jalapenos. Crisp vegetables nestling in creamy mayonnaise, heaped upon slices and smears of various force meats. Nicky's sandwich was not these things. Instead it was a mere shadow of a proper sandwich and gave a rather muddled experience. If you want things to blend together, go order a French dish in a cream sauce, not a Vietnamese banh mi.

Nicky's Vietnamese Sandwiches, 150 E. 2nd Street (near Ave. A), 212-388-1088