Meat and Bread

meat and bread - it's all you'll ever need...

Food:

As the current spot on Urban Spoon's "Talk of the Town" list, combined with an incessant number of reviews from various media outlets and food bloggers, Meat and Bread has sure garnered a lot of attention given its relatively new birth! Alas, I was finally able to pay it a visit to see what the hype was all about!

The "bread and butter" sandwich of Meat and Bread (haha) is undoubtedly the Porchetta sandwich (which is btw, pronounced as "Porketta" for I was corrected :S).  From the information that I have gathered, it is pork loin that is slow-roasted (daily), rubbed with garlic and various fresh herbs and wrapped in pork belly (kinda like the Chinese roasted pork minus all the herbs and seasonings) My dining companion opted for that while I went for the daily special: Braised Beef, Hoisin Glaze, Sesame Sui Choy salad.

Porchetta sandwich

My porchetta was carved and diced upon order.  I loved the see-through open display for it allows you to immediately visualize the sensations that would ensue (lol!).  The meat was tender, juicy, moist and delicious with the absolute best part being the uber crispy pork cracklings (rind) that were placed atop the meat.  Add a splatter of their salsa verde (which though, was quite mild in taste, it complemented well), and you've got yourself a heck of a good sandwich!

The braised beef was deliciously tender, juicy and oozing of the sweet hoisin sauce flavour.  We were also served two, rather cute, dollops of a house-made mustard sauce and hot sauce.  Who doesn't love extra sauce?  I also had a side of their potato side with huge chunks of white potato, dressed in an adequate amount of mayonnaise, and seasoned and flavoured with pepper, onions and celery.  It was good.



Braised Beef sandwich with a side of potato salad



They also serve a Maple Bacon Ice Cream Bar which unfortunately I was too full to have.  Have heard great things about it and will definitely be sampling it on my next visit!

Service:

Though one might be intimidated when you first walk into the doors only to catch a sea of people in the lineup and what not, their assembly-line format of first requesting your sandwich to paying the cashier is actually quite efficient, I must say!

Value:

Ok - $8 for sandwich, $4 for salad or soup

Ambience:

Limited decor (though not much is needed), long wooden communal tables for seating, animal heads mounted on walls (is there a special name for this? lol)

Overall: 8/10

Yay:  Porchetta sandwich!

Nay:  Looooong lineups during lunch rush, communal tables (perhaps a nay?), limited menu for those wanting more variety, not the ideal grub spot for the vegetarian.....