North's Complete Sandwich, Bridge St, Sydney

North's Complete Sandwich, Bridge St, Sydney
Thursday 23 August, 2007

The recommendations came flying in when I posted the review for Via Abercrombie. So, today I decided to check out North's for myself.

Located in a small arcade off Bridge St, North's commands large queues and an impressive phone line that never stops. If you arrive before 12pm you will be served easily however anytime after 12pm the queue starts to grow and before you know it it has snaked up the stairs and onto the Bridge St sidewalk.

North's offer a range of sandwiches, wraps and daily specials. They offer enormous slabs of white & wholemeal bread and have also introduced sourdough. There are a few standard sandwiches to select from e.g. roast beef, grilled chicken, chicken schnitzel, roasted vegetables, tuna etc which they prepare with their own lemon mayonnaise.

I joined the queue just before 12pm and there were about 5 people ahead of me. It's a production line with 6 servers behind the counter. There are a few servers at the rear preparing the phone orders and a few on the front behind the glass cabinet calling out 'next'. I stepped up and called out my order, 'Grilled chicken on wholemeal please'.

Once you have ordered you proceed to the register to pay. The sandwiches are all $8 which is a bargain considering their size. The staff are so focused on churning out the sandwiches that there really is no opportunity for chit chat however they were pleasant enough. I watched my server pull down a slab of bread from the shelf and cut two very thick slices. Within minutes she was waving a gi-normous aluminium foil wrapped package towards me. Oh my goodness!

I lugged it back to the office and provided my work colleagues with a preview. As I unwrapped the enormous package the realisation hit me.....I had buckley's of eating the whole thing. I offered up half to a team member who gladly accepted. The bread was so deliciously fresh, the fillings were packed in - lettuce, tomato, lemon mayo and huge chunks of grilled chicken and the combined taste was really, really good.

The only downside for me was that the fillings all fell out when you attempted to take a bite. It was messy and I was repacking the sandwich after each bite. Maybe it would be easier to have the sandwich cut into 4 manageable sections rather than 2 enormous ones?

I'll be back.

North's Complete Sandwich - Shop 1A, 2 Bridge St, Sydney