Tonight I was going solo, my dear Chicho was unvailable, and I was honestly dreading this… you see, since the first time I met this “Lebanese Memes Guy” who turned out to be Chicho… who later became The Coach… he kinda grew on me, he not only became my partner, but also my brother in arms and sometimes in crime, well no, not literally but you know what I mean… suffice to say that I was feeling alone and very self-aware, something that does not usually happen to me…
This is why I felt those mocking eyes heavy on me when I entered Sandwiched with my Yummy Lebanon Apron on… the eyes of the staff mind you… I never cared before… I was just a bit oversensitive that night…
The presence of friends made me feel better, Karlzan and Jane, The Optimus Prime sisters, Haru San and the ever smiling foodie o’clock…
During a Zomato meetup, everything is detailed, organized and smooth, the atmosphere is always fun and relaxed, and it’s only the food that can contribute in either disturbing or enhance the experience.
Well tonight it was a mix of everything really, some dishes were good, some were less… and mostly because of the execution and presentation.
Let’s first start with the salads, a quelques details pres… all the salads looked exactly alike, even in taste, they were mostly all presented with pomegranate seeds on top, and that beautiful green salad that made the whole lot looking like a Christmas dish…
Aside from the Chicken ceasar salad (which was the best I think), the similarity in shape and taste was striking. One had grilled halloumy, one had goat cheese toasts and the last one had blue cheese toasts… you have to look well in the pictures to see the difference…
The rolls were also confusing in presentation, no real differentiation was made to separate a dish from another… except when it came to taste.
While the honey mustard chicken was only okay, the crab rolls, for me, were inedible because of the amount of ginger in it. The dough roll was also undercooked and chewy.
I couldn’t tell most of the other rolls apart as some were presented as sandwiches in slice bread, which was confusing since the waiters insisted on call them rolls and when questioned on the content of each, weren’t really acknowledgeable (some training to the staff will go a long way) so we only knew we were eating some yummy (Lebanon) chicken at a time and a not so tasty pulled pork at another… which is too bad, because all the sandwiches had the potential to be really great. I mean they looked good despite the similarity.
Those issues can be easily fixed by creating a unique look for each dish and work up the small details to have perfectly unique sandwiches, you should call a consultant… oh wait… we consult !!
What made it up for us I think was the chocolate cake at the end… it dropped on the restaurant probably from another dimension, one of the best chocolate cake I ever had.
All in all the place has tremendous potential, its location is great, it has a catchy name and the prices are really good. Only minor things and small details needs to be adjusted along with some training for the staff. The owner (who was a nice gentleman) promised to make changes after we gave him some of our comment, so we will most definitely be passing by again a l’improviste to see the changes…
Gaston Le Consultant
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