Meat & Bread — Restaurant in Vancouver

Have you ever been hungry, eating but bored while eating?

My first time today. I ordered the Meatball Sandwich, and before I even started eating I knew from the look of the meatball that it was very very dry (see pic). It almost looked like it had been boiled ( I hope no Italian grandmas are reading this). The first bite, my suspicions were confirmed. They were so dry and chewy that I had to make an effort to swallow them down and I stopped after two bites and left the rest. Disappointing.

What was also interesting was that there was nothing to the sandwich nearly 14 bucks later....It was just ciabatta bread, dry meatballs, kale and aioli ...that's it. Too plain. Now, if the meatballs were juicy, well seasoned simmered in cherry tomato sauce and fall-apart delicate like every meatball should be....then it would've taken centre stage and the simplicity would've just been a subservient escort. Unfortunately, that was not the case. It was just three dry meatballs on a sub. That's it.

As for the service....I think there's a new breed of eateries these days. I call them "in-betweens". They are not a restaurant nor a fast food place, but something in-between. They call themselves restaurants but with fast food service.....so, kind of like a "Fastaurant".

Well...tried this...

I love meat and bread gastown. Love it. Was really looking forward to having a location closer to where I work. Unfortunately after 3 consecutive days eating here I can say this joint doesn’t measure up to the standard set by the Cambie location. It’s like the staff has never been to or eaten at the original. The service is a little all over the place and almost standoff-ish. They are definitely not prepared. More disappointingly the sandwiches themselves aren’t the same quality as the Cambie location. At the Cambie location each sandwich is an experience. Even the daily specials taste like they were created by culinary experts. Not so much at the new location. The souvlaki I had at the Cambie location was hands down the best souvlaki ive ever had. The souvlaki at the robson location literally tasted like a roast chicken from Costco. I’m hoping it will improve because meat and bread is just so damn good. I’ll Update this review again as I know I’m still going to eat here relentlessly, but c’mon I know you can do better guys!

*UPDATE 19/02/05 - Still nowhere near as good as the original location. They even skimp on the meatballs in the meatball sandwich compared to the original. My honest advice is to walk the extra 6 blocks to the cambie and pender...

Fresh, tender, juicy, hot, almost instant, and always yummy. It's better than a homemade sandwich because you can get a hot sandwich anytime of the day without waiting for the meat to be heated up, etc. Their concept is very simple, they pack a hot meal into a sandwich. I noticed that the Robson location is more consistent in how they 'pack' their sandwiches, you won't get a skinny one there. We've made the Robson location our regular lunch spot now. We bring along hand cleaning wet towels because it is quite a messy affair – the Robson location now provides towellettes. We prefer the Robson location because we don't have to wear "kitchen" clothing – the Pender location left kitchen smells on our clothing. We tend to go on the days when their daily feature is chicken or turkey – simply because the daily feature tend to be more balanced – with some veggies. Their signature sandwich is of course porchetta. Piled with freshly roasted melt-in-your-mouth porchetta, chopped crackling, and salsa verde. And today, I decided to try that instead of the daily special. It is as good as I thought it should be. If the line-up is not long, you can watch it being made which...