Sometimes you have to know to know, ya know? Vietnamese friends told me about this little shop, tucked between a check-cashing business and a vitamin store on Southwest Military. With a name like SW Tea House, I might have glossed right over it if one of those friends hadn’t done a shrug-your-shoulders emoji in real life and said “whatever. Still one of the best banh mi I’ve had over here.” One of the best Vietnamese sandwiches in San Antonio, from a shop that specializes in milk tea, bubble tea, hot tea, fruit tea, all the tea? Yes. A banh mi, part of a menu that spans Korean corn dogs, egg rolls, vermicelli bowls and 10 kinds of Vietnamese pho. And exactly one kind of banh mi. But they make it count, starting with a chubby, house-baked baguette with crust like shale armor and a heart as soft as spun cotton. The pork’s as sweet and syrupy as a Waffle House, dragged through a garden of carrots, green onions and cilantro. For $9. Just one banh mi. But sometimes one is all it takes, ya know?
