Diego & Co. Traditional Italian Deli — Restaurant in Sydney

They make an excellent sandwich. Very artisanal ingredients (Salumi Australia pork products), paying great attention to detail, even taking care to put baking paper on the inside and making sure to turn it over to warm the inside side of each sandwich. Marvellous. However, it doesn't scale. That meticulous nature puts Diego as the centre of making every sandwich and he's the only one making it... slowly. I did not think with no line it would still be a 20 minute wait reaching over 6 minutes for 4 sandwiches. Now, I know this is not subway and I'm not expecting a huge turnover, it's the cost of doing things right. At the same time, most folks walking in are working in a surrounding building, likely in professions where a luxury lunch is not a thing, so I would expect that if the wait is more than 10-15 minutes it would be courteous to inform customers how long it would take before they commit. And, with 3 people excluding Barista I would hope they can scale by trusting at least one more person to help out making sandwiches when the orders back up. Or, the option of a few that are more premade and can have more preassembly before they reach the sandwich making station. Luckily Diegos fave is a great sandwich, with the smokey, fatty pancetta and fresh straciatella. I'll wait a bit before returning though, hopefully over time they refine...

Not sure why I haven’t seen more people talking about this place—because it was phenomenal. It’s a small, unassuming spot; I actually thought they weren’t open at first. But inside, they’re turning out seriously good sandwiches.

I had the Bologna with mortadella, pistachio, and burrata cream on toasted schiacciata, and it absolutely delivered. It came lightly toasted, with the schiacciata crisping up nicely on the outside while the filling inside stayed cool and creamy. The bread itself was excellent—loved both the texture and flavour. Crunchy on the edges and soft in the middle.

The burrata cream was bang on—super smooth and rich, and the pistachio added just enough crunch and nuttiness to break it up. The mortadella gave it that savoury kick and brought it all together. Balanced, simple, but full of flavour.

Honestly, so good. I’ll definitely be...

3/8/24 - 4 stars

Can't remember how I came across this place but thought it would be worth a try. It has cool hole in the wall vibe and centrally located.

The ingredients seem very fresh though many of the sandwiches were already assembled in the display. However, they were then pressed to order with sauces put in after.

Diego's Fav Flavour: S+, 8.5/10. I love nduja, prosciutto and mozzarella so this was really nice. A touch salty perhaps. The pickled wild broccoli was not what I expected and I think maybe some fresh veg would have been nicer.

Texture: S, 8/10. The specialty schiacciate was a bit crispy and fluffy like ciabatta. A little bit too gooey and greasy

Value: B, 6/10. $24 is a bit too expensive for my liking especially when there are other sandwich places doing it for...