I’m a huge grilled cheese sandwich fan. I remember when I was younger, my mom used to make these things for me all the time and once I was old enough, I started making my own grilled cheese sandwiches, experimenting with different breads and cheeses. When I had heard from Vancouver Slop that Mom’s Grilled Cheese Truck had opened by the Art Gallery, I knew I had to check it out. Luckily for me, I was in a training course during the week and Krista and I took advantage of an hour-long lunch break to hike over the Mom’s Grilled Cheese Truck. It turned out to be only Day 4 of their opening but you really couldn’t tell that from the huge line.

Since they had just opened, they were still figuring out things so I waited quite a while before even placing my order and after that, I had to wait some more before my food finally came. That gave us an opportunity to chat a bit with Cindy, the owner and grilled cheese sandwich maker. I had ordered a Havarti grilled cheese on multigrain with tomatoes and bacon. She said that they procured their bacon from a really great deli on Commercial Drive.

Since we ended up waiting a little longer than we expected, Cindy packed up my order in a box container so I could take it back to the office. My grilled cheese sandwich ended up costing $7.50 because of my adds of bacon and tomato but each grilled cheese order also comes with chips and a pickle slice.

I could smell the butter as soon as I opened my container and despite the travel time between the truck back to my office, the sandwich was still very crispy and had a great buttery flavour on the outside. The Havarti was melted and gooey and I liked how its richness was slightly cut by the tomato slices. The bacon added a nice element to the sandwich and to be honest, you really can’t lose with bacon in a sandwich. Overall, I thought the grilled cheese sandwich was really tasty and turned out to be very filling. I wasn’t a huge fan of the chips, which were a little on the greasy side for me but the pickle was really tasty and also helped to cut some of the heaviness from my sandwich.

Krista actually brought her own lunch that day so she decided to order the Sweet Little Vals for dessert. What neither of us realized was that this also came in a sandwich form. In between the grilled brioche was caramelized apples, candied pecans, and cinnamon mascarpone. Krista noted that she enjoyed this quite a bit even though she would have liked for there to be more mascarpone. For $3.50, I thought this was pretty reasonable for dessert.

There are a bunch of other things at Mom’s Grilled Truck that I’d like to go back and try, including the meatloaf grilled cheese sandwich and the roasted tomato soup. Unfortunately, it’s a little hard to find Mom’s Grilled Cheese Truck these days due to its proximity to the Occupy Vancouver tents but they are open so definitely check them out if you are in the area!

Details:
Corner of Howe Street and West Georgia, Vancouver (by the Art Gallery)

Summary:
Food: 4 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $

I had the pulled pork sandwich from Re-Up last year around when it first opened and loved their delicious sandwiches. I definitely don’t get to try it as much as I would like to but when I heard that they were opening up a second cart at Hornby and Howe that served beef brisket sandwiches, I knew I’d have to check it out. Erika and I were able to go for lunch one Friday afternoon and just beat the lunch time crowd to order a sandwich each.

At $9/sandwich, the beef brisket version is slightly more expensive than the pulled pork sandwich. Generous chunks of beef brisket are sandwiched between a bun and topped with the same coleslaw that’s used in the pulled pork sandwich. The beef chunks were moist but were slightly less tender than I expected, which made it a bit difficult to eat my sandwich neatly. The BBQ sauce for this sandwich is also on the tangier side. I didn’t mind it as I felt it went quite well with the beef but I’ve heard from other people who definitely preferred the pulled pork sandwich more.

If I had to choose, I think I prefer the pulled pork sandwich more but this beef brisket version is a good alternative for those beef lovers out there.

Details:
Robson between Howe and Hornby (across from the Art Gallery)
11:30AM-3PM (or when sold out)

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $

I’m a big sandwich fiend and with the proliferation of fancy sandwich shops opening in the Vancouver area lately, I have to count myself as being quite lucky. One such place that I really wanted to try out was Big Lou’s Butcher Shop, a half butcher shop, half sandwich shop place that opened up right at the edge of Chinatown. Jenkins and I do a lot of our grocery shopping in Chinatown so we figured we would stop at Big Lou’s one day before our shopping expedition.

Once inside, I was offered some samples of meat loaf, which I graciously accepted. Too bad we had dinner plans already that weekend or I definitely would have liked to try out some of the offerings from the butcher shop side. I guess that will just need to wait for my next visit!

As usual, I had already figured out what to get prior to arriving but I was still swayed by all the offerings on the menu. After deciding to go with my original choice, Jenkins and I snagged a couple of counter seats and waited for our sandwiches to be made. First, we had some black cherry soda from Boylan’s. I never noticed this flavour before but I think it’s going to be one of my favourites from now on.

Jenkins went for the porchetta sandwich. I was really glad he got this because it had been one of my top choices as well. The juicy pieces of porchetta were generously piled onto the ciabatta loaf and drizzled with some chimmichurri sauce. I found the size of this sandwich as well as the amount of pork quite a bit more abundant than the version from Meat & Bread but I did find Meat & Brad’s cracklings to be slightly more crunchy. Other than that minor criticism, I really liked this sandwich and would definitely order it again in the future.

My pick was the whole roast beef sandwich, which was definitely a hit for me. Thin slices of medium rare roast beef were piled onto the baguette, topped with onions, and just the right amount of red wine sauce and mayo. I felt that the crunchy pickles in this sandwich really gave it an extra kick that made a great sandwich fantastic. The pickles were so good that I probably would have just eaten them straight out of the jar on its own and added some vinegary acid to the sweet red wine sauce.

Given Big Lou’s proximity to my weekend grocery shopping route, I’ll definitely be back and hopefully will be able to stray away from the porchetta and roast beef sandwiches long enough to try their other offerings. The sandwiches ($7.50-9) are fairly priced in my opinion for the quality of what you get.

Details:
269 Powell Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-566-9229

Summary:
Food: 5 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $

When I first saw that a couple of new A&Ws were opening on Robson Street last year, I figured that they would be similar to the locations operating out of a typical mall food court. I later read in the newspaper that they would be a different type of concept A&W that was targeted at the downtown crowd and came with new amenities such as self-serve ordering machines. The decor was also a little more modern looking with a throwback feel to the original A&Ws so Jenkins and I decided to check it out one day for lunch.

I ordered a Teen Burger combo, which is what I normally order when I go to A&W. As you would probably expect, the burger tasted the same as any other A&W but I really liked the presentation of my combo. My Coke came in a tall, frosted mug and my fries came in a steel mesh basket. While the flavours and taste of my food were typical of any other A&W, I liked the feel of the A&W and especially enjoyed the frosted mug for my drink.

I walk past at least one of the Robson Street A&Ws fairly frequently and I often see someone in front handing out coupons. If you are hungry and in the neighborhood, it may be worthwhile to go check it out.

Details:
450 Robson Street, Vancouver (and various locations)
Tel: 604-569-2409

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $

I always love a good sandwich so when I heard about Meat & Bread opening up by Victory Square in Vancouver, I knew it was something I needed to check out. Luckily for me, Meat & Bread’s concept is so good that it wasn’t very hard for me to recruit someone to go with me to grab some lunch. It was a bit of a brisk walk for us but Erica and I made it over there one weekday afternoon for lunch.

I knew before going in that I was going to get the porchetta sandwich. My only worry was that they would be sold out by the time I got there but there was still some porchetta left even though I didn’t arrive until it was almost 1pm. The fresh ciabatta bun soaked up the juices and flavour from the porchetta and herbs. What I really liked was that the pork cracklings were cut up and included in the sandwich, which added a delicious crunch. I thoroughly enjoyed this sandwich and the accompanying dollop of mustard and house-made sambal sauce.

Meat & Bread switches out their soup regularly, if not regularly. I was originally just going to go for the sandwich but I was pretty hungry and worried that just a sandwich wouldn’t be enough. The soup of the day was cream of parsley and it had just the right amount of creaminess. The parsley flavour was really strong and the sprinkling of croutons on top add just the right amount of texture.

I have to say that Erika and I thoroughly enjoyed our lunch at Meat & Bread. Erika had the grilled cheese sandwiches, which came with mushrooms as well and she remarked that it was really tasty. I’ll definitely be back to try their other sandwiches! I also want to try their maple bacon ice cream sandwiches, which, unfortunately, was sold out by the time I got there

Details:
370 Cambie Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-566-9003
Closed Sundays

Summary:
Food: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a (you order at the counter)
Price: $

When I was researching which restaurants I wanted to try in Seattle, I came across an interesting sandwich place called Jimmy John’s. I didn’t know that it was part of a larger chain of restaurants in the US but since it had received rave reviews in Yelp, I thought it would be a nice place to check out. Jenkins and I went to Jimmy John’s on our second and last day in Seattle and it was a bit difficult for us to find because we didn’t realize that it was on the second floor of a mall.

Even though it was a weekday and slightly pass the regular lunch hour, it was quite busy inside. Jenkins and I scored a table right by the ordering counter so we were able to sit down and peruse the counter menu at our leisure. I had heard pretty good stories about Totally Tuna sub, which was an eight inch sub with house-made tuna salad which had celery, onions, Jimmy John’s tasty sauce, alfalfa sprouts, cucumbers, lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes. I decided to order my sandwich on a white bread baguette, partly because the menu said it had less calories than the whole wheat. I have to admit that when I saw the sandwich, it didn’t look that appetizing to me but luckily for me, this sandwich tasted way better than it looked. The tuna salad was fresh and the alfalfa provided a nice, light crunch along with the cucumbers. The tuna salad was also seasoned nicely and although I think the bread would not have been good to eat on its own, its slight dryness and chewiness allowed it to soak up the flavours from the tuna salad.

Jenkins decided to have a sub as well and chose the Pepe, which has applewood smoked ham, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Although Jenkins enjoyed his sandwich, he noted that he couldn’t really taste the applewood flavour and thought that my sandwich was the better of the two.

At first glance, Jimmy John’s looks like your typical sandwich joint but I really liked their variety of sandwiches, the fact that they’re made fresh to order, and they are quite reasonably priced. If you’re of regular hungriness, the eight inch subs are definitely enough although I have to admit that I was quite tempted by the rows of bagged potato chips. I guess I will just need to try this the next time I’m there.

Details:
1420 5th Avenue, Seattle (2nd floor)
Tel: 206-805-5733

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $

Note from Gigi: Samantha had asked me if I was interested in doing a review on the KFC Double Down a few weeks ago but I’m currently trying not to eat any fried food until Christmas so I declined. Samantha thought that doing a post on the Double Down would be so worthwhile to do that she enlisted Julio to take one for the team and give the Double Down a try! So Samantha and Julio…on my behalf and that of Ho Yummy’s readers: Thanks!

Note that this monstrosity is only available until Nov 14 in Canada so if you want to try it out, you better hurry!

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Hi Everyone, I’m Julio, Samantha’s husband, here to write a guest post!

Four months ago an American colleague informed me that in the southern United States, KFC released a sandwich that no one should eat without a defibrillator nearby.  The sandwich is called the Double Down, and according to the KFC website, has 560 Calories, 32g of fat and 1300 mg of sodium which is approximately half of the recommended daily intake of fat and sodium based on a 2000 calories daily intake. When KFC Canada announced that the Double Down would be available in Canada for a limited time, naturally I had to try it.  For my own safety I enlisted the help of a group of coworkers with first aid experience.  Interestingly, the general sentiment of the group was that hopefully the sandwich would not be good so that there would be no follow-up cravings.

It seems the publicity hype surrounding the sandwich has worked, as nearly every customer in the place was there to try the Double Down.

Let’s dissect the components:

Two pieces of skinless chicken breast breaded in the Colonel’s original recipe, two slices of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese, and a piece of thinly sliced bacon,  all seasoned with some chipotle mayo. The cost of a KFC Double Down meal is $10.10 with fries and a drink.

Out of the group of taste testers:

First comment: “It’s a lot smaller then I thought it would be.”

Second comment after tasting it: “It is very salty.”

Comment after eating the sandwich: “When will they bring out the extra crispy and hot and spicy versions?”

Although the sandwich was tasty, the excessive salt and price would discourage me from repeating the experience. Although the 1300mg of sodium should have served as proper warning, it was still surprising just how evident the salty taste was.  It would appear that they tried to offset this with the addition of a little spice in the chipotle mayo and Pepper Jack cheese, however the heat was so low, I would have gotten frostbite if it wasn’t for all that salt.

Jenkins and I recently took a trip down to Seattle during the waning days of summer. We were only there for a couple of days but had a great opportunity to try out several different eateries. One of our first stops was to Piroshky Piroshky right by Pike Place Market. I had been wanting to try this place out ever since I saw it featured on Anthony Bourdain but never had the chance to stop in during my previous visits to Seattle. We finally had the opportunity to stop by this time around. After lining up for about 10 minutes, we were finally at the counter.

Jenkins and I decided to order a couple of items to split. What I had really wanted to order was the beef and cheese piroshky, which was one of the most popular items on the menu. Unfortunately for us, it was so popular that they had ran out that day and unless we wanted to wait, there was none available. Instead, I ordered the Bavarian sausage Piroshky. The sausage itself was actually quite disappoint as it was more of a European wiener rather than a Bavarian sausage. It was a little tasteless and did not have much flavour to it. The pastry crust though was super flaky and had a nice, crispy bottom. Despite its flakiness, it did not seem very greasy or overly buttery.

Jenkins chose a west coast option by going for the salmon and dill piroshky. His piroshky was made with a different pastry wrapping so it was not as flaky. However, the filling for this was very tasty with the flavour of dill really permeating the smoked salmon. It’s probably not the most traditional option but I would recommend this one.

We also decided to share a potato mushroom and onion piroshky. This one was very filling as you can probably imagine. The mushroom and onion flavour dominated the potato, which provided the creamy texture. Although I enjoyed this at the beginning, I found it to be too filling towards the end but that may be because I had already shared a couple of piroshkies with Jenkins by that time.

Piroshky Piroshky definitely offers something that you don’t see every day in Vancouver. The piroshkies are freshly made every day and since the turnover is so high, you can be pretty sure the one you’re eating just got out of the oven quite recently. I’d definitely like to come back to try the beef and onion one day. As with any type of offering with many flavours/fillings, it can be hit and miss so you just need to try a few to find out which one you like.

Details:
1908 Pike Place, Seattle, WA
206-441-6068

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $

I remember my first visit ever to PHAT Deli several years ago. I was drawn in by their claim to have real Montreal smoked meat so I went there for lunch with a few friends. I ordered the smoked meat eggs Benny and still remember how tasty it was to this day. Funnily enough, it was quite a while before I went back and so when Jenkins and I were trying to decide where to go for lunch one day, I decided to take him there.

Despite the fact that I really like their smoked meat sandwiches, I had actually eaten it a few weeks prior so I decided to order something else. Jenkins and I were both interested in the club sandwiches they had to offer so we decided to order one of each and split it.

The regular turkey club house sandwich came on whole wheat bread and in addition to the regular filling of turkey, tomatoes, and lettuce, it also came with avocados. I felt that the fresh and crunchy veggies really made the sandwich and the avocado added a nice creamy texture. As a big fan of poppy seed, I also liked that the bread was crusted with it, which added some additional crunchiness. The small coleslaw salad that came with the sandwich was pretty good as well, with not too much dressing.

Of the two club sandwiches we ordered, I preferred the shrimp & avocado club house. Instead of the regular turkey, this one was made with shrimp salad along with the regular fixings of lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado. Because of the mayo in the shirmp salad, the bread in this sandwich got soggy pretty quickly so you had to eat it pretty fast.  The abundance of lettuce provided the requisite crunch though.

The sandwiches were probably more than enough for me but I was feeling a bit indulgent that day and also added a side of PHAT fries ($3.95). The thick cut fries were double fried so had a great crispiness to them.

Another sold offering at PHAT Deli. I like how their sandwiches are all made fresh to order and you get to choose what fixings you want if you’d like. It is a tad on the pricy side with our sandwiches being $8.99 each but everything is fresh and well-made. I bought a Groupon for PHAT Deli recently so I’ll be using my coupon to come back and have some more sandwiches. Or maybe I’ll come back for something from their breakfast menu….there are just too many things to try out!

Details:
1055 Mainland Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-684-6239

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $

Jenkins and I were shopping on Commercial Drive the other day and since it was mid-afternoon, I was hankering for a snack. Since Jenkins was hungry as well, I figured it would be a good opportunity for us to split something at Belgian Fries since I find a full order of fries to be a bit indulgent for just one person.

After a bit of deliberating between ordering regular fries versus poutine, Jenkins and I settled on the poutine because I had heard that it was quite good. We ordered a medium classic poutine for $5.69. For the price we paid, I felt like we got a really large order of fries. I found that the fries themselves were quite tasty but the gravy was a bit tasteless and had a grainy texture to it. The cheese curds were ok but I prefer my curds to squeak between my teeth and these curds were lacking in that respect. In retrospect, I probably would have preferred ordering just an order of plain fries with a sauce to dip them in instead.

I have to admit that I was not super impressed with the poutine at Belgian Fries and I’ve had better versions at places like Chambar and Boneta. However, I wouldn’t mind going back to try their plain fries with a flavoured mayo the next time I’m in the neighbourhood.

Details:
1885 Commercial Drive, Vancouver
Tel: 604-253-4220

Summary:
Food: 2 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $