Stopped in for a Banh Mi after hearing lots about this hole in the wall Spring Branch eatery. “Stopped in” makes it sound easy, but getting into Roostar Vietnamese Grill is actually a challenge. It’s the end cap on a small strip center with a smaller parking lot that it shares with a restaurant just called Korean BBQ and a busy Michoacana grocer. I hung out a bit and was lucky to get a spot recently vacated. Road construction on the span of Gessner fronting the strip center does not help.
The tiny restaurant is set up like Subway, sort of. It was packed at the lunch hour and workers spilled out onto the sidewalk tucking into rice dishes, chicken wings and banh mi.
I ordered the grilled pork banh mi to go and it was stuffed:
The meat was flavorful and tender, I liked the garlic aoli - I guess there was no fish sauce you might commonly find. I can only compare it to Les Givral’s on Washington and it is way more stuffed. Everything is made in the store, which I guess includes the french bread. Whoever bakes it, it is very good. Walk out price is $4.87
The wifeacita was in on the ground floor before the explosion going when it had the old name. She gets an extra sandwich for work, plus likes the shrimp spring roll and the beef soup.
Looking back at this post, I can’t believe it has been EIGHT YEARS since I last got a banh mi at Roostar. I went today for lunch and the construction on Gessner that always hindered access to the sandwiches has long since finished and the route was easy and smooth. This time I got the grilled chicken, it was delicious and I ate almost the whole thing regrettably.
The price now is roughly twice what I paid in this post in 2016, to be expected I suppose.
Now that I have retired, I don’t get out to restaurants as much as I used to, but I manage. This week I went to Kim Son Cafe at Memorial City for Mongolian chicken which was very good, Los Tios for pechuga Monterrey (smothered in Serranos, mushrooms, and Mexican cheese) and margaritas.
We should start another “what’s for lunch Houston, 2024” here. Looking at the 2017 version, there were some really good comments and suggestions, but they are dated now and many of the places mentioned don’t exist anymore.
Good idea. I like the idea of this NYC thread GOOD EATS NYC 2024 (A Blanket Thread) so it isn’t limited to lunch. (I’m not following it, just like the idea).
I’ve only been out once this year, i think, to Lopez. Had the tortilla soup - a total disappointment. But I haven’t been confronted with the sticker shock problem.
i make notes from time to time of places I think I’d like to try. Not as many as I used to and I never get to most. Just talked myself out of a couple of them over the last few days. But I do have a couple I hope will deserve a separate thread.
Right now, I’m gonna go find that old lunch thread. That sounds like fun!
