Shokupan

At Shokupan in Basant Lok, two Delhi obsessions – Japanese food and sandwiches – come together in the form of the packed sandos, with quality ingredients stuffed between slices of pillowy milk bread, which lends its name to the shop. 

They began as a cloud kitchen, and served as the decoy face of the quite excellent speakeasy tucked away behind them, but now the place is done up beautifully. Lots of wood, Japanese inspired artwork on the walls, soft lighting; the door handles look like pieces of toast. And the same attention to detail is carried over to the food. 

The bread is fermented for 72 hours, which is what lends it that wonderfully soft, pillowy texture, and the condiments stay true to the theme, with tonkatsu slaw, kewpie mayo and yuzu aiolis. They’ve clearly got a dedicated customer base. In the time I was there, the kitchen was churning out sandwiches at a brisk rate, whisked away by delivery agents. The bread is also available for customers to buy, should they wish to whip up their own sandos.

What to start with is the truffle fries, served hot with generous shavings of parmesan over them. If you’re keen on your fungi, order the Mushroom Melt Sando, which comes with shiitake and button mushrooms folded into a silky truffle cream, with caramelized onions, all packed and layered within slices of the shokupan bread. For the carnivores, the Chicken Katsu Sando and the Chicken Krapow Sando are ones that’ll have you coming back, one with a perfectly crisp chicken katsu cutlet, kewpie mayo, kimchi jam and tonkatsu slaw, while the other has the classic thai minced chicken with chilli and basil, and some added pickles for a crunch to it. 

There’s even a loaded steak sando with chimichurri and caramelised onions for those who really like their meat. The salmon and cream cheese shokupan bites were underwhelming, but the Shokupan Honey Toast as dessert was nothing short of a revelation, with caramel and honey drizzled over toasted slices of shokupan, and topped with whipped cream and a mixed fruit compote. Wash your meal down with a beer or two.

Shokupan doesn’t necessarily blow me away with its sandwiches, nor is it reinventing the wheel with its menu. But what it does do, and do rather well, is serve as a little oasis in the bustling Basant Lok market, a place of comfort where you can unwind with a beer, a nice warm sandwich and perhaps dessert. And that’s what’s going to bring me back again and again.