If I have to pick between a sandwich and a burger, I will always choose the latter. Sandwiches can easily contain the same awesome filling as burgers, but do they ever? And there is always something exciting about a circle-shaped patty ‘sandwiched’ between buns. The other one is just a sauce, a cheese or a meat snuck crudely between two toasts.
All that being said, my experience at Big Fat Sandwich (BFS) seemed to have changed my clearly presumptuous notion that sandwiches are boring. A couple of my friends and I recently visited its second and newly opened Hauz Khas joint (the Vasant Kunj one is the first). Located by a lane just off the bustling Hauz Khas road, BFS is quite conspicuous. It is well lit and decently sized and for coffee lovers such as I, equipped with a stellar surprise—Blue Tokai. For the uninitiated, Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters grows and brews some brilliant Coffea Arabica. So obviously, we began our meal with this caffeinated nectar—namely, the Nitro Coffee and the Cold Brew. Both cold variants, I enjoyed Nitro more even though I am the kind to prefer something milder like the Cold Brew. Of course, both were smooth, sapid and refreshing.
By now we had settled in among the hustle and bustle of the Friday-evening crowd, awaiting BFS’s main draw. I spent this short wait taking in the surroundings. The wooden counter equipped with swanky coffee machines, a dessert counter with the boutique Miam Patisserie’s macarons (more on them later) and tarts, and the many vibrant paintings and other decorative features that gave the place a very friendly and contemporary look. It certainly did not seem like your regular sandwich joint, but then again it wasn’t—the menu is filled with cereals, breakfast items, croissants and many other options to keep you spoilt for choice.
Soon enough, we were being fed sandwich after sandwich. The Sloppy Joe (ground chicken in marinara, cheddar, melting mozzarella and pickled jalapenos) was a great start, given its two kinds of cheeses contrasting well with the marinara sauce. I was initially a bit cynical of Mushaboom (thyme infused mushroom patty with cheese), given my usual aversion to vegetarian options (there is all that meat in the world!), but the soft patty made me forget about that.
We then moved to the Croque monsieur (baked chicken ham, two types of cheese, béchamel and hot sauce), the Texas massacre (with slow cooked pulled pork) and Bfs cubano (sliced pork marinated in orange, lime, cumin, mint, coriander and other items), all of which were delicious, of course, but made my friends and I tell BFS’s warm and energetic co-founder, Siddharth Manchanda, that we were way beyond our food capacity—maybe for months to come.
But surely we could make some space for Miam’s macaroons—we had the vanilla, the salted caramel and the passion fruit flavours. I particularly enjoyed the salted caramel, since salty and sweet were blending so well with each other.
After this final course, it was time to move on. With a very heavy heart and an even heavier stomach, the three of us made our ways home. Over all, everything had tasted splendid. If I now had to pick between a sandwich and a burger, I would still pick the burger. But if I had to pick between a sandwich at Big Fat Sandwich and a burger, I would pick the former.
The Information
Address: 15/A, Market Lane, Block E, Hauz Khas, New Delhi
Hours: 9am to 10:30pm
Meal for Two: About ₹800. The sandwiches range from ₹140 to ₹450 while the coffees we ordered were ₹130 and ₹140 respectively.
Contact: +91 99104 55699