Co Ba

Last spring, Tom Colicchio declared the bahn mi trend "so over." Someone forgot to tell Steven Duong, who just spent several months tooling around Vietnam gathering ideas for his new Chelsea restaurant. Co Ba, named after the women who run neighborhood food stalls in Vietnam, has six varieties of bahn mi on the menu. They're also serving a seriously tempting array of other dishes, but we managed, on this visit, to confine our extra-bahn-mi wanderings to the chim cut roti, roasted quail whose delicacy was underscored by the subtle spicing.

As for the sandwiches, we went with the banh mi thit and the bahn mi cha ca. The former has layers of cold cuts to go with honey-plum glazed pork and zesty pickly crunch. The cha ca combines flaky fish with mayo, onion, pickles, carrots, and fresh dill, which adds a sweet note that complements the tang of the pickles and the softness of the fish. Neither sandwich is overstuffed in the popular way; they both rely on flavor over heft, a choice we'd make every time. And Tom, if you're not eating yours, send it our way, alright?