Granted, it’s cheap fast food, but Lee’s Sandwiches offered some of the most vulgar food that I have ever eaten. There are so many more authentic, fresh, and delicious Vietnamese sandwich places around southern California (many selling sandwiches for even cheaper). In my opinion, Lee’s strength comes from its convenience, being such a commercially successful franchise. But convenience isn’t everything.

Hence, the vulgarity comes in. Eating at Lee’s Sandwiches is like sleeping with a 5-dollar hooker. It might feel great for a couple of minutes, but you quickly realize how cheap and dirty you’d feel afterwards. As a favor to friends, I have tried Lee’s special combination, cured pork, grilled chicken, and barbeque pork sandwiches. They all had extremely cheap, synthetic-tasting meat, flaccid veggies, and an overwhelming dressing of oily mayonnaise. The hard bread hurt the roof of my mouth on many occasions. The first few bites feel great when you’re a poor starving student, but subsequent bites demoralize and disgust.