Wendy Hargreaves: Five of the best sandwiches in Melbourne

Image: Consider the Sauce’s Kenny Weir

By WENDY HARGREAVES

In world full of keto diets and carb phobias, the humble sandwich has taken a back seat of late. But sangas are making a quiet comeback across the city. Here are five of the best…

LATIN FOOD + WINES

809 Ballarat Rd, Deer Park, [phone]

Fresh bread is baked on premises at this cafe/deli/restaurant/bottle shop in Deer Park, but its the super-thin slices of flash-grilled wagyu steak that make the chacarero sandwich a winner. Fresh green beans are thrown on the grill with the wagyu, adding a squeaky crunch that’s hard to resist. The traditional Chilean chacaerero also has tasty cheese, tomato, rich mayo and hot green chilli, all for $10. A rusted-on audience followed Marco and Maria De La Plaza from Sunshine to their new premises in Deer Park a few years ago. This places comes highly recommended by Western Melbourne’s preeminent food blogger Kenny Weir (who took the photo).

HECTOR’S DELI

1/94 Buckingham St, Richmond

Hector’s takes classic sango combos and raises the bar with top class ingredients. These aren’t cheap sandwiches, but they’re worth the extra bucks. My go-to is the Chicken Schnitty ($14), a perfectly crumbed chicken schnitzel with tarragon butter, iceberg lettuce and a secret mayo recipe on a steamed white bun. The pastrami with three types of pickles on light rye is also good (but misses the hit of caraway). Make sure you get in early as these sangas tend to sell out.

WONDERPOP + DELI

18 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne, [phone]

Here’s one for the meat lover, from the deli that brought you the Tradie Slammer (a beef pie wedged inside a brioche bun with caramelised onion jam). This time it’s the Pie Man’s Lunch, a house-made sourdough baguette jammed with shaved turkey, shaved ham, shaved corned beef, bitey cheddar cheese, Branston pickle, mustard mayonnaise and some crunchy salad. You might need to queue for this one. Melbourne’s flouro-vested tradies are onto it

PIEDIMONTE’S

37-49a Best Street, Fitzroy North, [phone]

Every day from 6.30am to 9.30pm, the deli staff at this North Fitzroy supermarket let you pick your favourite house-made bread and fill it with whatever you want. Hot roast chicken and salad is one of life’s great pleasures.

MEATSMITH

273 Smith St, Fitzroy, [phone]
227A Barkly St, St Kilda , [phone]

Every Friday, Melbourne’s poshest butcher has a sandwich special for $12. It might be a corned beef bagel with horseradish cream, or a brioche bun filled with succulent roasted and panko-stuffed Bannockburn chook thighs, watercress, mayo and gravy. Follow Meatsmith on Instagram to find out the Friday sanga special, and get in early (from 11am) as they often sell out. The first six customers get a free tinny of Sample IPA.

SPECIAL MENTION: MAKER AND MONGER
Prahran Market’s favourite cheesemonger Anthony Femia is making some seriously good cheese toasties to order, such as the Flaming Reuben with Q le Baker’s Kingbrot rye bread, mustard, Russian dressing, home-made sauerkraut, Robbin’s Island wagyu brisket pastrami and, of course, cheese.

Wendy writes online at 5ofthebest.com