There's something about Banh Mi sandwiches that puts them on the top of the food chain when it comes time to eat. Maybe it's the pickled carrots and daikon or maybe it's the chili mayo. Whatever it is, when it's all working together- it's magic. Xe May, located on St. Mark's place between 1st Avenue and Avenue A, tries to break the mold from the traditional Banh Mi and bring a little pizzazz to an otherwise overdone, yet tasty, menu item. Unfortunately, Xe May ends up missing the mark.

You'll probably walk by the store several times before you actually see it. The spot is tiny, mainly for take out, though it does have a seating area that can probably fit no more than 10 people. There's 7 choices of Banh Mi sandwiches to choose from, including the Banh Mi tacos we were very interested in. So, we gave it a shot. We ordered the Fresh Basil Soda Limeade, Super Cub Classic, The "Hog", Lemongrass chicken taco and the beefsteak taco. The Super Cub Classic is pretty much a classic Banh Mi with the pork, pate and headchease while The "Hog" is grilled pork with fried shallots. While the other five all seemed interesting and all offered something different from the normal Banh Mi, like the DUC (meatball, provolone and tomato sauce) or the Lam'bretta (coconut curry lamb), we figured that we'd get something a bit more traditional to test out the quality of their cooking. After all, if you can't the basics right, then usually there's not much hope for the rest of the menu. Sadly, the basics here just weren't impressive.

The first thing we noticed when we bit into the sandwiches was how perfectly done the bread was. In so many places the bread is toasted too much and you get a hard piece of french bread that cuts the roof of your mouth every time you take a bite. This one had a nice thin crunchy crust with a soft interior that seemed to either be lightly oiled or buttered and grilled on an actual griddle. The Super Cub Classic was nicely layered with each bite containing the perfect portion of pate, cheese, pork and toppings but somehow something was off. the BBQ part didn't really have a BBQ taste and something added an unpleasant nutty flavor to the mix. 

The "Hog" left much to be desired. Unlike the Super Cub Classic, the toppings were not layered and instead you would get a bite of either just the topping or just the meat. The flavor of the meat itself was on the bland side. It was a touch too oily and a hint too sweet. The toppings as well were a bit of a disappointment. At a lot of standard Banh Mi places, the pickled carrots and daikon occasionally overwhelm the flavor of the rest of the sandwich, but at good places, it's tangy enough to make the sandwich pop. At Xe May, there wasn't enough flavoring for the pickles, so the sandwich kind of fell flat. 

 

The tacos unfortunately were a bit of a fail. Sure, reusing the same toppings for everything saves on food cost, but it would have been nice if the same ingredients could have been presented and flavored differently to add a different dimension to these tacos. As they are, they're just the same as the sandwiches, just in soft flour tacos. A dipping sauce would have been nice to add an extra something to the so-so tacos (why not offer different types of salsa or something?). The flour tortillas had a raw taste to them, which was unfortunate since the chefs certainly took such care toasting the bread. The lemongrass chicken was totally bland. In fact it tasted like the exact same bland meat of the Hog, which was weird because it was chicken. The beefsteak with pineapple chutney taco only had a hint of pineapple flavor but it did seem to have other spices which worked. Hopefully this means the sandwich would have been good. The refreshment of the Basil Soda Limeade had too much basil flavor and not enough lime flavor. It tasted more like sugary basil water with a hint of soda and a tiny splash of lime. A little more tang would have made the drink much more refreshing.

For the price of the sandwiches, it's not a bad place, but it's not that great either. Everything was just missing that something to make it memorable.Granted, we only tried a handful of items off the menu so it's possible that other sandwiches and tacos were delicious. As for now, it's not a horrible place to go to, it just has room for improvement.