VanFoodies.com

Meat & Bread didn’t really catch my attention until I saw it feature in an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. In fact, it was precisely at 5:13 of this clip that made me decide that I have to try this place.

Naturally, I was very excited to learn that they’re opening a second location on Pender Street, only steps away from my office. We were counting down the days to its opening, yet several months later we still haven’t stepped inside the store. Must be the “it’s so close we can go anytime” mentality.

Finally, for a team lunch we chose Meat & Bread as our destination. This is it – the moment a few of us have been waiting for!

Lunch lineup at the door

Food

It just smells so good as soon as you walk inside. There’s a staff chopping mushrooms right in front of you. Then another dicing the house-made porchetta.

Chopping & dicing the Porchetta

Without hesitation I ordered a Porchetta Sandwich. Because there’s limited seating in store, we ordered our sandwiches to go. But I was able to take a glimpse of my sandwich before it went into the box. Argh the anticipation!

Porchetta Sandwich – Salsa Verde

The packaging is pretty cool. Because they only serve 4 types of sandwiches everyday so they have just 4 icons on the box to indicate the choice of protein (I’m guessing they would circle nothing if it’s a vegetarian sandwich).

Porchetta Sandwich to go

The moment of truth. Boy it was really good!! The meat was juicy, tender and nicely seasoned, with a good balance of salsa verde, meat and a little bit of pork fat. Love the chopped, crispy cracklings that they put in, adding some crunchy texture and flavours to the sandwich. The meat itself may be a bit too salty for my liking but it’s fine when combined with the ciabatta roll. The only issue was that I didn’t have any pork fat/juice running down my arm or chin as I was eating it.

Check out the amount of meat & pork crackling

My colleagues ordered the Corned Beef and the daily feature chicken sandwich. They were also raving about their sandwiches.

Service

There might be a line up at the door and it might seem long, but don’t be fooled by it. They’ve got a system going that they were able to move the line really quickly. With maybe 15-20 people in front of us, I’d say it took less than 15 minutes to place an order AND get our sandwich. It’s pretty good considered it’s right at the peak of lunch hour.

Efficient service gets you through quickly

Final Thoughts

The Porchetta Sandwich was excellent and I would order it again. Check out the Youtube clip above to find out how they make the Porchetta. I also want to go back and try their other sandwiches. Don’t be intimidated by the lineup at the door. And it would only get worse in the summer. But then, in my opinion, it’s worth the wait.

Meat & Bread(Pender Street)
1033 West Pender Street, Vancouver
meatandbread.ca