Baguette Box
1203 Pine St.
Seattle, WA
206-332-0220

When it comes to the best places it eat, it comes down to one simple concept.

Simplicity. Simplicty and passion.

Umm,make that two...two simple concepts.

It's these concepts that you rarely see in a restaurant, let alone a sandwich shop. This is what makes the Baguette Box such a delight: Eric Banh has created a place which not only pleases the late night pub crawlers (Baguette Box is open to 3 am on the weekends), but also is a must stop for us foodies. He did this by simplifying the menu, and bringing higher end ingredients to what is traditionally a lower-cost food. Let's see Quizno's or Subway offer a Kobe Beef baguette.

There's so much to love here. The crispy drunken chicken baguette could easily be the best drunken chicken in town, even without the bread.The grilled Spanish chorizo baguette was spicy without being overbearing. The house cured salmon gravlax baguette does Seattle extremely proud with it's sashimi grade salmon buried within the crunchy bun.

If you're not in the sandwich mood, they do have other items on the menu, including pork tongue with a red pepper sauce which was quite tasty. Their beef stew was a wonder, with marinated beef, soaking in a rich beef broth/soy sauce combo which hit the tongue with such aplomb, I thought that beef stew had always tasted that way.

What makes Baguette Box even more wonderful is it's cost. You can have a sandwich there from anywhere between $4.75 (for their tuna salad) to $9.50 (for the pricey Kobe beef). Most other sandwiches fall roughly between the $6 to $7 range, making it a more than viable alternative to the average deli meats sold at Subway.

It's rare that I'm completely sold on a restaurant. Normally I can find one or two things of note in a place which may detract from my overall experience of an eating establishment. Not so at Baguette Box. If you're a sandwich fiend, you can do no better than here.