The banh mi is possibly the world’s best sandwich. And even if that’s a bold and disputable position, this is absolute: It’s utterly authentic fusion food.

At Pho So 8 on Ridgeway Road, the banh mi trends more to a true Vietnamese sandwich than the French-Vietnamese mashup that is traditionally a medley of paté, mayonnaise, pork, pickled radishes and carrots, hot peppers and leafy herbs on a baguette.

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Here, there’s no paté and if there is mayo on the sandwich, it’s the very lightest smear. But the bread is excellent and the charred pork is piled on with a generous handful of fresh herbs and slightly sweet and tangy pickled vegetables. It’s delicious and filling, and it’s $6.99 for a small or $12.99 for a large, which we split and would’ve been full.

But the job here is to find good cheap eats, so we kept going.

In a restaurant with pho in the name, you eat the pho, of course. We order the pho tai, a simple selection of paper-thin slices of beef served with sliced onions and flat rice noodles in a visually unappealing but flavor-packed beef broth. It’s much richer than its light color suggests, simmered with spices such as star anise and cinnamon, punched up with garlic and ginger and smoothed out and deepened with fish sauce.

A bowl of this is $10.99, served with a plate of herbs, bean sprouts, peppers and lime to add as you see fit.

There’s banh xeo, a Vietnamese pancake generally stuffed with vegetables, pork and shrimp and folded like an omelet, on the menu, but at $14.99 it’s pushing the concept of $10 too far; nonetheless, I’ll try it next time and if it’s big enough to share, I’ll let you know.

There are 10 lunch specials for $9.99, dishes such as General Tso’s chicken, broccoli beef and Hunan tofu, served with fried rice and an egg roll, but we steered clear of these because they seemed out of place on the Vietnamese menu.

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That wasn’t the case with the com trang, or steamed rice plate. I think this is an under-appreciated Vietnamese meal, and one of my favorites. I’ve only eaten it with pork, which is what I mostly see in restaurants, though one of the selections here has chicken as the protein.

A plate of rice comes topped with what’s called a barbecue pork chop. It’s grilled on a flat top, lightly caramelized in a sweet and savory sauce, and served with pickled carrots and radish and sliced fresh vegetables — maybe cucumber, maybe tomato, a bit of lettuce. There’s more fish sauce, and a wide selection of condiments on the table to spice it up if you desire.

We ordered the rice plate with extras to try the meat patty and the pork skin, but the way to go is the first plate, which is just the pork chop, and is $10.99.

It’s fork tender, full of flavor and just great. The texture of the meat patty won’t appeal to everyone, and the cold slivers of pork skin to even fewer, so I don’t find these additions worth an extra $2. Go on and splurge on a fried egg, though, because yolk and rice is just good eating.

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The menu also includes a selection of vermicelli and house specials, and a bonus is a side trip through the attached grocery, Family Best Market, where you can pop in to pick up a bottle of fish sauce or browse through the cold case, with sausages, pickled vegetables and quail eggs.

You’ll undoubtedly chance upon something you want to take home and try — maybe a bag of shrimp-flavored chips or a jar of tom yum paste — but you’ll have to hunt for it. It’s a bit chaotic, but a fun walk-through for anyone who likes to discover new foods.

Pho So 8, 3588 Ridgeway Road, is open 9:30 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. Call 901-366-7827.