Australia’s best sandwiches

Pig’s ear sandwich, Uncle, Melbourne

Pig’s ears have appeared on plenty of snack menus around the place for some time now, but Uncle’s win is to put the crunchy, crackling-like ribbons of porky goodness onto a soft white roll with lettuce, peanuts and salty-tangy pickles. It’s a baby banh mi that should come with an addiction warning.

Uncle, level 1, 15 Collins St, Melbourne, Vic, (03) 9654 0829; 188 Carlisle St, St Kilda, Vic, (03) 9041 2668

Photography: Julian Kingma

The club, The Louise, Barossa Valley

Hotel club sandwiches are taken very seriously at Gourmet Traveller (hey, we’re the only media outlet to audit them annually). The Louise in the Barossa holds this year’s title for Australia’s best: a chubby brioche bun with charred chicken breast, Linke’s Barossa bacon and a mayo that’s been sweetened with crème fraîche and spiced with Newman’s horseradish.

The Louise, 375 Seppeltsfield Rd, Marananga, SA, (08) 8562 2722

Photography: Jonathan Van Der Knaap

Roasted broccoli sandwich, Brickfields, Sydney

Brickfields’ Simon Cancio packs an eclectic mix of influences into this creation: the chilli oil, lemon juice and parmesan are a tribute to a pasta dish he twirled as an apprentice at Sean’s Panaroma in 1995, and the chilli-mayo is inspired by the condiments in Portuguese chicken burgers. Add roasted broccoli and ciabatta and you’ve got a killer remix.

Brickfields, 206 Cleveland St, Chippendale, NSW, (02) 9698 7880

Photography: Rob Shaw

Berkshire bacon sandwich, Higher Ground, Melbourne

Higher Ground’s bacon and egg sambo is a classy affair. Stacks of Berkshire bacon and a HP-style brown sauce made in-house are joined by the egg – or in this case, a sauce gribiche lifted with capers, cornichons and parsley. Cram all that on Tivoli Road sourdough toasted in bacon fat and, boom, this is a sandwich you don’t put down.

Higher Ground, 650 Little Bourke St, Melbourne, Vic, (03) 8899 6219

Photography: Julian Kingma

Fried bug roll, Rick Shores, Burleigh Heads

Rick’s fried bug roll is hot, sweet, sour and salty in all the right places. Beer-battered Queensland bug tail, baby gem lettuce and mayo boosted by sriracha and kaffir lime are all enclosed in a soft, sweet brioche bun. Add ripper oceanfront views, replete with white-topped breakers and don’t stir.

Rick Shores, 3/43 Goodwin Tce, Burleigh Heads, Qld, (07) 5630 6611

Photography supplied.

Wagyu tongue sandwich, Monster, Canberra

If the vaunted yabby jaffle is the star turn at Monster, then the wagyu tongue sandwich would have to be the impressive understudy. Rounds of lightly char-grilled bread bind together slow-cooked wagyu tongue, sweet carrot and zucchini pickle, horseradish and mustard. More slider than sandwich in proportion, it’s tempting to make it a double.

Monster Kitchen & Bar, Hotel Hotel, 25 Edinburgh Ave, Canberra, ACT, (02) 6287 6287

Photography supplied.

Merenda, Bar Di Stasio, Melbourne

In Italy, a merenda is a light afternoon snack, and this sandwich – an escalope of veal, pounded flat, crumbed and fried, on buttered crustless soft white, then wrapped in tinfoil so the butter melts and soaks into the bread – is the stuff that after-school dreams are made of. And it happens to go brilliantly with a Negroni, too, so the kids might have to get to the back of the queue.

Bar Di Stasio, 31 Fitzroy St, St Kilda, Vic, (03) 9525 3999

Photography: Julian Kingma

Spanner crab and hash brown bun, Bodega 1904, Sydney

If a Filet-o-Fish and a lobster roll spawned an offspring it would be Bodega 1904’s shellfish slider. Buttery bran rolls, made across the Tramshed at Dust Bakery, are stuffed with avocado, hash brown, shredded iceberg, and spanner crab mixed with chunky salsa golf, the Argentinian take on Thousand Island dressing. And you can eat them for lunch and dinner seven days a week.

Bodega 1904, Tramsheds, 1 Dalgal Way, Forest Lodge, NSW, (02) 8624 3133

Photography: Rob Shaw

Fried chicken sandwich, Meat Candy, Perth

How do you make benchmark-worthy fried chicken? In Meat Candy’s case, you start with free-range chicken and – per Nashville tradition – marinate it in buttermilk and hot sauce before it hits the pressure-fryer. How do you improve on said chook? Cradle succulent thigh fillets between bouncy slices of white bread along with chopped salad, cheese and more hot sauce, then serve the lot with crinkle-cut chips dusted with smoked chilli.

Meat Candy, 465 William St, Northbridge, WA, 0412 632 758

Photography: Jessica Wyld

Tea sandwich, Africola, Adelaide

Could we call it dainty, this riff on the afternoon-tea standard? Crisp shards of roasted chicken skin are played against crustless fingers of springy white bread. Joining the party are flat-leafed parsley and a generous lick of chilli-spiked mayonnaise. As if that weren’t tasty enough, this greatest hit on Africola’s snack menu is delivered with a dish of hot drippings from the signature peri peri chicken. Dainty? Not really. Ridiculously delicious? Definitely.

Africola, 4 East Tce, Adelaide, SA, (08) 8223 3885, africola.com.au

Photography: supplied.

Abalone katsu, Cutler & Co, Melbourne

This is not Andrew McConnell’s first sandwich to approach cult status (hello, Supernormal’s lobster roll) but it’s arguably his best. Crumbed baby abalone with just the right amount of crunch and chew, sweet and tangy Bulldog brand tonkatsu sauce, chopped white cabbage and fluffy white rounds of bread, sans crusts, are a blissful combination. It’s a little bit posh but very satisfying.

Cutler & Co, 55-57 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, Vic, (03) 9419 4888

Photography: Julian Kingma

Tokyo 7/11, The Dolphin, Sydney

The egg sandwich at The Dolphin is an ode to the irresistible packaged tamago sando found at Japanese convenience stores. Boiled egg is mixed with a hefty squeeze of Kewpie mayonnaise and spread liberally on slices of pillowy white bread. It’s only available at lunch on weekdays but The Dolphin has enlisted the help of Foodora to deliver it straight to your desk.

The Dolphin Hotel, 412 Crown St, Surry Hills, NSW, (02) 9331 4800

Photography supplied.

Porchetta roll, Victor Churchill, Sydney

While the wagyu brisket rolls at Victor Churchill’s younger sibling, Vic’s Meat Market, are also worthy of applause, nothing beats the Woollahra original for a show. Walk past the cases and dry-ageing rooms and front up to the rôtisserie, where from 11am till 3pm you can have slices of salty porchetta layered into a milk bun with Dijon and a lightly pickled slaw. And all with the finesse and ceremony you’d expect from Sydney’s finest butcher.

Victor Churchill, 132 Queen St, Woollahra, NSW, (02) 9328 0402

Photography: Rob Shaw

Steak sandwich, Bread in Common, Perth

If you listen to conventional wisdom, more is more when it comes to the steak sanger. But Scott Brannigan, chef at Fremantle’s perpetually buzzing bakery-mess hall Bread in Common, has gone the other way by cleverly downsizing this Aussie pub classic. Starring tender minute steak, cos, Comté and crème fraîche in house-baked ciabatta, this lunchtime-only sandwich is a win for the less-is-more approach.

Bread in Common, 43 Pakenham St, Fremantle, WA, (08) 9336 1032

Photography: Jessica Wyld

Fish and chip sandwich, Continental Deli, Sydney

Born from a craving that Continental manager Mikey Nicolian had one day at work, this “fish and chip” sandwich is pure after-school cool. The fish is a whole tin of Ortiz sardines, and the chips? Smith’s classic thins. Enriched by Pepe Saya butter, mayo and hot sauce, it all comes together in a ciabatta roll with slices of dill pickle. Extra points for the accompaniment, too: the Ortiz tin filled with more chips swimming in sardine oil.

Continental Deli, 210 Australia St, Newtown, NSW, (02) 8624 3131

Photography: Rob Shaw

Poached egg and salad sandwich, Cornersmith, Sydney

A staple at the original Cornersmith – and also available at its vego spin-off in Annandale – the poached egg sarnie is a seasonal showcase of the veggie patch that not only highlights local producers (the roll is from Marrickville’s The Bread & Butter Project) but also the café’s DIY ethos (it’s made with soy-milk aïoli). The winter edition has a cavolo nero, radicchio and persimmon salad with a green tomato relish.

Cornersmith, 314 Illawarra Rd, Marrickville, NSW, (02) 8065 0844; 88 View St, Annandale, NSW, (02) 8084 8466

Photography: Rob Shaw

Butter-poached chicken sandwich, Sweet Envy, Hobart

Everything tastes better when it involves butter and Alistair Wise’s butter-poached chicken sandwich makes a solid case for it. The flavoursome chicken is a great start, but it’s the addition of bacon, lettuce, hummus, mayonnaise and hard-boiled egg that elevate this sanger to epic. And then there’s the exceptional bread (Wise calls it “ciabatta-ish”), inspired by New York’s Sullivan Street Bakery and fermented overnight.

_Sweet Envy, 341 Elizabeth St, North Hobart, Tas, (03) 6234 8805_

Photography: Luke Burgess

Smoked brisket and duck-egg gribiche, Chu the Phat, Brisbane

It’s the almost indecently rich salted duck-egg gribiche, generously lathered over a slab of smoky low and slow-cooked brisket and crisp fried kale, which kicks this chewy torpedo-shaped potato bread roll to the next level. Confusingly, it’s included on the menu as part of Chu The Phat’s bread selection, but it’s definitely a sandwich and packs a powerful punch for $10.

Chu the Phat, 111 Melbourne St, South Brisbane, Qld, (07) 3255 2075

Photography supplied.

The Reuben, Pickett’s Deli and Rotisserie, Melbourne

Scott Pickett treats his wagyu brisket to a brine for a few days, then lets it dry before giving it a dry-rub, cold-smoking it and finishing it on the rôtisserie. The whole process gives the meat a beautiful textured crust. In the Pickett’s Deli Reuben, the meat joins Swiss cheese and pickled cabbage (sometimes red, sometimes white) in bread that’s sourced from neighbouring stores at the Queen Vic Market. A classic executed with panache.

Pickett’s Deli & Rotisserie, 507 Elizabeth St, Melbourne, Vic, (03) 9328 3213

Photography: Julian Kingma

Ice-cream sandwich, Shobosho, Adelaide

Adelaide’s new north Asian eatery, Shobosho, is whipping up adult-friendly ice-cream sandwiches with a Japanese twist. Large shards of wood-roasted chocolate biscuit envelop rotating combinations of ice-cream and toppings. One week it will be matcha ice-cream and choc-mint mousse, the next thick salted caramel and yuzu ice-cream. Shobosho has a more freestyle approach to the dessert sandwich, so tackle these with a spoon.

Shobosho, 17 Leigh St, Adelaide, SA, (08) 8366 2224

Photography supplied.