A good sandwich can be a thing of beauty, but it is also surprisingly easy to get wrong. Too often, places pile in endless ingredients and forget the basics. At Freddy's on Quay Street however, the approach is refreshingly simple: start with excellent bread, use simple, quality ingredients and let them do the talking.
It is clearly a formula that works. Earlier this year, Freddy's took home the Sandwich of the Year award at the Irish Takeaway Awards. Having recently called in to sample the restaurant's focaccia sandwiches, it is not difficult to understand why they impressed the judges.
The three focaccia options on the menu are all priced at €11.50, and come in very generous servings. The House Ham sandwich combines ham with buffalo mozzarella, rocket, fresh apple and a slightly spicy dijon mustard-flavoured mayonnaise.
The ham itself is slowly cooked in-house with seasonal vegetables for approximately two hours and is glazed with mustard, honey, and bay leaves. The meat was very tender and delicately-flavoured, and paired excellently with the mild heat from the mustard.
The Chicken and Basil sandwich, packed with roasted chicken, zingy basil mayo, tomato, red onion, rocket and Parmesan shavings, was also a big hit with the snack assessment department in Advertiser Towers, who said that the chicken itself was very flavoursome and that the ratio of filling to bread was perfect.
The vegetarian intern in the Advertiser also appreciated the fresh Mediterranean flavours of the Peperonata focaccia, featuring slowly cooked al-dente peppers, vegan pesto and rocket.
The real standout, however, was the focaccia itself. Made fresh on site every day, the dough undergoes an eight-hour cold fermentation before baking. The result is excellent: thick and lighlty-salted slices that are soft and airy on the inside, while remaining warm and satisfyingly crisp on the outside.
Those looking for something a little more substantial can add soup or fries to their sandwich. The minestrone soup, which changes throughout the year depending on seasonal produce.
The fries were also good, but we would really recomend pairing them with with one of the home-made aioli dips - we particularly liked the basil aioli.
Overall, the sandwiches at Freddy's were excellent and we also found the service to be genuinely welcoming, knowledgeable and attentive. To quote a certain character once played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, "I'll be back."
