Sandwich Quest {Volume 3}

Some sandwiches I've eaten recently.

Hot Roast beef cob, Hambridges, Matlock

A traditional butcher's shop effort. Thinly sliced beef, overcooked to dessication then redeemed with a generous slop of dark, lustrous gravy. Satisfying and messy. Sturdier bread would be better, reducing the mess and turning less rapidly to mush. I'd have another though. £2.60.

Bread 5/10

Core filling 6/10

Secondary filling 3/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 3/5

Service 3/5

S-Factor 7/10

Total 30/50

Doner sandwich, Munich

German doner kebabs are ace. Even the cheapo ones are a far better proposition than their British counterparts. Better salad, better bread and better meat. We win on the chilli sauce front though, spice fiends that we are. About 3 euros. Maybe 4. Can't really remember.

Bread 7/10

Core filling 7/10

Secondary filling 3/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 4/5

Service 4/5

S-Factor 8/10

Total 36/50

Toasted cheese, Bold Street Coffee, Liverpool

An expertly crafted sandwich, I wrote about it here.

Bread 8/10

Core filling 6/10

Secondary filling 4/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 4/5

Service 4/5

S-Factor 8/10

Total 37/50

Roast ham and pea hummous, Smythson's Deli, Nottingham

Rubbish. There's nothing worse than somewhere that gets your hopes up then doesn't deliver. A ridiculously meagre effort for around four quid. Roast ham and pea hummous sounds good on paper, and the ingredients might have even been good,  but it's difficult to tell when they're present in such stingy quantities you can barely taste them.

And look at the accompanying crisps and salad. Limp and miniscule, a complete waste of time. If you're in the area there's a Subway next door.

Bread 6/10

Core filling 3/10

Secondary filling 2/5

Sauces/condiments 1/5

Value 1/5

Service 3/5

S-Factor 3/10

Total 19/50

Home Sweet Home, Manchester

I really should stop listening to my cantankerous brain. Home Sweet Home is another of those places I'd written off as probably being a bit rubbish due to some misguided preconception or other. In this case it was a vague notion, from past glances through the window and at the menu, that it combined two food fashions I'm not that much in love with (sort of half way between twee tea shop and American inspired filthy food joint).

I don't think that categorisation is too far wide of the mark, but who cares whether there's actually any concept or not, the important thing is that the food and drink is really good. A Cheeseburger toastie could easily be a big greasy mistake, but in practice turned out to be bloody lovely. It wasn't exactly lacking in grease, but all of the oozy cheesy beefy richness was offset perfectly by the bite and crunch of gherkin spears. Just as you'd find with an actual cheeseburger of course. 

Thin-ish fries, skin on with a good potatoey flavour were worth adding for £2, even if I didn't really need them (when asked 'do you want fries with that?' the instinctive response can only be yes), and the coleslaw was decent stuff if a bit too creamy for my tastes.

A flat white was very well made, velvety smooth with quite a mild tasting coffee. It was served in a glass which seems to be a Manchester thing as North Tea Power do the same (all of my favourite coffee shops east of the Pennines use cups).

I'd definitely return to try more of the menu. Service is friendly and quick, the food is good and the prices fair. The cheeseburger toastie will set you back £4.50 with coleslaw, fries are £2 extra. Not the cheapest of lunches but a pretty monumental one. £2.20 for the coffee. 

Home Sweet Home is the business. Don't let my brain tell you otherwise.

8/10

Edge Street

Northern Quarter

Manchester

M4 1HE

http://cheeseburgertoastie.co.uk

White House Café, Otley Chevin

I wasn't going to bother blogging this. It was a hiking pit stop where I ate a cheese and beans toastie and drank a pot of tea. Oh, and a can of Irn Bru. To give me strength.

Photo credit

I changed my mind because it turns out the café is run as a social enterprise, providing gainful employment for people with learning disabilities. I could be way off the mark, but that sounds like exactly like the sort of enterprise that needs a subsidy, is going to lose its subsidy in the foreseeable future, and needs more custom to justify its existence to the bean counters.

Whatever their funding status it's worth a visit regardless, especially if you're having a tramp round the forest park. There are picnic tables on a terrace looking out over Otley town astride the Wharfe in the valley below, and the toastie wasn't half bad for £1.50. Yes, £1.50. Including green salad, potato salad and coleslaw.

Cheaper than chips, grand scenery, friendly service and noble intentions. What more do you want?

7/10

The White House
Otley Chevin Forest Park
Otley
Leeds