Around 11 on a weekday morning, before the lunch rush locks up the parking lot off Beltline Road, you should pull into the strip mall that shares space with a nail salon and a phone repair shop and get yourself a seat — or more likely, stand at the counter — at Lee’s Sandwiches. If you have never been, you will not immediately understand what you are looking at. The menu board is long, the bread is stacked in rows behind the glass, and the woman at the register will expect you to know your order.
Learn it before you go. Here is what you need: the classic thịt nguội, which is the cold cut combo on a freshly baked French roll. That roll is the whole argument. Lee’s bakes in-house, and the crust shatters when you bite into it — not the stale, chewy version you might find at a deli that uses day-old bread — but something with real snap, airy inside, with just enough give. The pork, the pâté, the pickled daikon and carrots, the jalapeño slices, the drizzle of Maggi: it all lands together in a way that justifies the drive from wherever you are in North Dallas.
This location is part of the broader Lee’s chain that started in California’s Vietnamese-American communities and expanded across the Sun Belt. The Addison outpost has been serving the dense Korean, Vietnamese, and South Asian populations along the Beltline corridor for years, and it draws regulars who come in for the same thing every time. You will see construction workers, nurses still in scrubs, office workers on a quick break, and older Vietnamese couples who eat slowly and talk quietly at the small tables near the window.
The sandwiches run between $3.50 and $6 depending on what you order. That price point is not a gimmick — it is just what a banh mi costs when no one is trying to market it to you as a concept. You can also get Vietnamese iced coffee, which is thick and sweet and poured over a cup packed with ice. It pairs perfectly with the sandwich if you need an argument for ordering it.
Beyond the banh mi, there are steamed buns, egg rolls, and a small selection of Vietnamese drinks including soy milk and taro. The smoothies are worth trying if you have never had one. The red bean and taro versions are genuinely good and cost maybe three dollars.
The person behind the counter on most mornings has probably been there longer than you have lived in Addison. She moves fast and does not over-explain the menu, which some people interpret as coldness and others interpret correctly as efficiency. If you ask what is good, she will tell you. If you already know, she will appreciate that you do.
Go before noon. Bring cash if you can, though they take cards. Order the thịt nguội, get the Vietnamese iced coffee, and sit at the window if a table opens up. Watch the Beltline traffic for a few minutes. This is a good twenty dollars for two people, and there is almost nothing else like it at this price in the area.
