Surry Hills has to be the sandwich-shop epicentre of Sydney, where competition is fierce when it comes to nailing the relatively simple lunchtime staple. Sando Bar is the newest place doing sandos (Japanese sandwiches), an all-day breakfast menu and coffee by Little Marionette.
Inside the industrial-looking space you'll find black-topped tables, including one that doubles as a mini ping-pong table, so you can battle it out on the paddles before you dive into a sando. Try and nab a seat at the kitchen bar, where you can take in the scents of the kitchen and hear the sizzle of chicken thighs on the grill.
The pork katsu sando ($14) is the star here and comes served with crunchy lotus root chips – a nice touch that reminds us of getting a small pack of crinkle-cut crisps in our lunch box. The pork wears a crisp, golden brown shell and a perfectly juicy, just-pink interior. Bitey mustard breaks down the cabbage ’slaw, while just-sweet tonkatsu sauce brings it all together. It’s all pinned together by crustless white bread (you can also get in on wholemeal or oddly, ciabatta) and you can get it to have in (the service is super friendly, so why not) or take away to (it comes in a cute bento style takeaway container). The curried egg sando here is just $7 – if they could change up the egg-to-spinach-ratio (on our visit there's triple the amount of greens to creamy egg, meaning the curried flavour gets lost), this would be an top-value lunch – hard to find in Surry Hills.
Unfortunately, ramen here doesn’t pack much punch – the light shoyu broth is not super complex – but the noodles are firm, the chicken is grilled well, with a seared, teriyaki-flecked skin. They are called Sando Bar for a reason, so for now stick to the namesake, because that’s what they are doing very well here indeed.