Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Beef 'n Bread Food Review

Hot 'n Sweet Roast Beef Sandwich at Beef 'n Bread

The key to a great sandwich is (in no particular order) great bread, stacks of meat and a succulent sauce/toppings. Beef 'n Bread recently opened in Chinatown, promising the aforementioned mounds of corned & roast beef (and turkey) under an umbrella of modesty (even its name is simple.) The results? Good and bad, I suppose... with a side of potential.

Beef 'n Bread opened last September; but as usual, it's taken me this long to visit. Plenty of time to work out the kinks, but their nonexistent website is still parked at GoDaddy.com and evidently there's no proper way to spell their name (Facebook page/receipts = no hyphen, official logo = hyphen attached to "beef," paper menus = hyphen attached to "bread.") Seriously, how do you misspell your own name?

Metro Deli Hickory Barbecue Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

Silly mistakes notwithstanding, I'm more concerned with food, price and service. Meat sandwiches are $8.99 per ($7.49 for veggie versions.) That's more than reasonable, given the generous portions of roast beef on my Hot 'n Sweet Roast Beef. It comes with muenster cheese (I passed, of course) and a combination of jalapeƱo and sweet sauce, tucked inside a round, toasted sesame roll. I'd love to see some lettuce and tomato (as offered in the Chinatown, Cali Beef and DC Beef) but I'm sure they'd give it to you, if you asked.


Ordering is fast and fairly straightforward; but I found the service a tad "sterile," and far from friendly. I stopped by just after noon, and (lucky for me) in between rushes; so they can't use the excuse that they were too busy to say hello or thank you. Seating inside is limited; but the small space (located at the corner of 6th & H Streets, NW) is impeccably clean and surprisingly bright. There's a few seats outside, but I wouldn't dream of sitting there (busy, crowded sidewalk.) I asked for my order, to go.

Sandwiches are wrapped in foil, and keep pretty well. Once unveiled however, mine looked relatively pedestrian. The roast beef is tasty enough, but light on natural flavor/juices. I didn't get much sauce either, which produced an overall dry product (a tomato slice would have helped a lot.) On the plus side, it had a lot of meat, so don't worry about walking away half-full.

1.5 ounce bags of chips cost two bucks (that's steep) but Metro Deli makes one heck of a delicious kettle cooked potato chip, so it's almost worth it. I'm anxious to try one of Beef 'n Bread's four roasted turkey options; and their 6th Street Corned Beef (with onion rings) sounds sinfully delicious. Perhaps it gets better with each try. Only time (and repeat visits) will tell. I'm definitely up to the challenge: Here's hoping they are too.