Ever since Banh Mi Boys boldly entered Toronto’s food scene at the end of 2011, offering a twist on the traditional Vietnamese sandwich only blocks away from the city’s best banh mi in Chinatown, the three Chau brothers (owners) have become the city’s undisputed banh mi kings.
A banh mi empire
With rave reviews and lines of customers, the brothers expanded to capture the demand for their fresh, flavourful and cheap creations. Along with new Banh Mi Boys locations has come an unexpected compromise in flavour and quality.
Something has been missing at Banh Mi Boys
Dry meat, overcooked meat, too much salt, bland flavour, poor quality meat and cold bao buns are some of the apparent results of the expansions, not to mention the Yelper who received no meat in their sandwich at all.
Consistent quality is a common challenge for expanding Toronto restaurants
Richard Mulley, owner of Rashers who recently expanded to Ossington Ave, says “the key to consistency between restaurants is well-trained staff and not jumping the gun on opening new locations”.
Konrad Droeske, co-owner of Otto’s Berlin Döner, is planning to open a second location and “will centralize the prep work between restaurants and train the team extremely well” to address the challenges of maintaining consistent food quality and customer experience.
RELATED: Burger’s Priest had major challenges when first expanding.
With so many new Toronto sandwich shops popping up, Toronto foodies have more options than ever. Lets see if the brothers can turn things around.
Banh Mi Boys did not respond to our interview request.
