May 7th, 2011 Meat Cheese Bread

Meat Cheese Bread

1406 Southeast Stark Street, Portland, OR

(503) 234-1700

www.meatcheesebread.com

Monday-Saturday 7 AM – 7 PM

May, 7^th 2011

I was lounging around that day when my friend Erik texted me asking if I had gone out and had my sando yet.  Since I hadn’t, this was the perfect opportunity to go out and enjoy one with some company. We agreed to meet me over at Meat Cheese Bread.  I have always enjoyed MCB  and I thought it unfair to leave it out of the sando tour just because I’ve been there many times. The day had become a wonderful spring afternoon so it was nice to get out of the house and enjoy the weather. 

I arrived and took note that they were able to set up their outside tables. I love being able to sit outside with my sando and enjoy a beer with it but unfortunately they were occupied at the moment.  Erik arrived shortly after I did, so we went in and poured over the menu for a minute.  I’ve always loved their kitchen set up. It’s very small but direct and to the point with functionality.  As my mind wandered looking at the set up Erik turned to me and said, “I’m going for my regular dude. Ham & Cheese with an egg on it.” This of course sounded excellent.  I however went with the Pork Loin sando with greens and pickled carrots. 

With our orders in and time to kill we went towards the back where a mutual culinary associate runs his business of making chocolates.  He was hard at work, chocolate coating some Olive Oil caramels but was able to chat about this and that until our sandos were ready. For those of you who haven’t tried Xocolatl de David yet I strongly recommend that you do so. He sells his goods at quite a few places around town as well as Meat Cheese Bread.  Delicious.

Erik and I sat down with our food that was just begging to be eaten. As we were both willing to oblige we spoke about the sando tour, where I had been so far, and what was ahead on the schedule when the two girls next to us seemed to gain interest in our conversation. They explained that they too had a grading scale for sandos and shared it with us as such.  It was a bit of an odd scale and Erik was unimpressed but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Almost immediately afterwards they asked excitedly if I had been to Big Ass Sandwich yet, to which I then joined in my friend Erik’s’ annoyed disposition and said,” Yes. It made me want to take a Big Ass something else afterwards.” After an awkward laugh and goodbye from the fellow sando diners, Erik and I had a good laugh about it and turned our attention back to our meal.

Afterwards, totally satisfied, we went out and enjoyed the day Portland was having and wandered through downtown. Can’t say it could have been any better.

Rating:

Bread:

A gentleman who uses the kitchen in the morning for his own small business of bread making and provides MCB with their grainy goods makes the bread in house.  The bread on the Pork loin sando was a hearty roll that was just enough chewy and had a fantastic griddled inside that added a great crunchy texture to the product.  The Ham & Egg was on a softer roll that was buttery and lovely with a nice griddled inside. It was not as crisp as the pork loin was but just fine for the Ham & Egg.

5/5

Filling:

The Pork Loin had soft mix greens tossed with a mustard vinaigrette, and pickled Carrots. The pork was delicious and moist with a great spice coating on the outside.  The greens with the Mustard vinaigrette was very nice and the carrots were just pickled enough to have a nice crunch left to them.  The only thing I wish it had was a simple aioli on it to keep the whole thing moist all the way through.

The Ham & Egg sando had Smoked ham (duh), Gruyere Cheese, aioli, and of course the egg.  Delicious.  Don’t change a thing. It was Moist, Smokey, and rich.

4/5

Price:

The Pork Loin was $7. I think this is a great price. It’s a very filling sandwich that will satisfy your dining wants.  The Ham & cheese sando was $5 but with the egg added it was $1 more. For a total of $6 you can’t really beat it though a side might be good with it to really fill you up. 

4/5

Customer Service, Sides, Drink Selection:

They are always really nice over at MCB. They make sure to grab your name to call it out later for your order.  They have a great bottled beer and soda selection to choose from so if you’re thirsty, you’re in luck.  Their sides are also excellent.  With chips, slaw, potato salad, pickles, salad, and soup you can’t really go wrong with your decision. 

5/5

Over all Rating: 18/20 points

Repeat Visit?

Yes. Hell I went yesterday.