Midtown Lunch

Iron Tower Deli Shop opened up 2 months, bringing some competition to QT’s banh mi monopoly in Chinatown. Besides the Viet sandwiches, the small menu focuses on French and Vietnamese food including crepes, rice pudding, fresh juices, peppercorn duck pate, and chocolate orange fudge.

Inside is a little counter displaying the daily wares. You can sit at  the stools by the window while the owner heats up your banh mi ingredients on a make shift stove.

Banh mi range from $3 to $5.75 depending on size and contents. Rather than pate and sliced meat, which is available, a chicken and portobello mushroom banh mi sounded a little more appealing to me. I was surprised at how generous the pile of chicken and mushrooms was. An equally pleasant surprise was the mild coconut marinade on the chicken. I was slightly miffed at the lack of pickled carrots and cilantro. With lettuce and tomato instead, this was more of a pleasant sandwich than a real banh mi. But I was happy to pay the $4.75 for this much fungus and poultry.

Iron Tower Deli Shop, 56 N 9th St, 215 485-7399