ON TOAST · 美式会客厅

Article By James Morrow

No.26, Lu Wei Xiang.
芦苇巷26号
180-9214-7447
10:30am-9:00am

Average Price per Person /人均消费: 34RMB

Agood sandwich can be hard to find. It wouldn’t seem like such a difficult thing to do. After all, a sandwich is little more than something placed between two pieces of bread. While there are infinite combinations of ingredients, fillings, sauces, and toppings, a good sandwich should have a bit of harmony to it. There is nothing sadder than buying a sandwich, only to find that the filling only goes a quarter of the way into the bread (I’m looking at you, convenience store sandwiches).

When a sandwich is done correctly, the bread, fillings, and other accoutrements all work together to provide you with a quick, comforting meal, that shouldn’t end up all over your pants. Luckily, there is a new place in town that might just offer one of the best sandwich games in town. It’s called On Toast.

This place, located on Fenxiang not far from the old Bar Street, opened up just recently, and offers a variety of sandwich offerings on house-made bread, including whole wheat breads, croissants, and bagels. That’s right, bagels. Though a few shops have attempted to make bagels in the past, often they are more bread that is shaped after the fashion of bagels, but that lack the chewy texture of the real deal. This is not a problem with On Toast, as they have gotten the texture near perfect. While we haven’t yet tried some of their other bread offerings, the fact that they got the bagels right is promising.

When it comes to sandwich selection, this place has a few interesting options, but not so many as to be daunting. The bagel sandwiches usually have a main protein, ranging from chicken and beef to shrimp and tuna, along with some vegetables and sauces. The bagel sandwich with shrimp and cucumber was a nice, light meal that came with shrimp, hardboiled eggs, cheese, lettuce, cucumber, and a pickle relish. The portion of filling was very generous.

Other offerings on the menu include the very simple, such as a turkey and cheese croissant, to the more adventurous, including what looks like a spaghetti with tomato sauce on a hotdog bun. In all, there were 14 different varieties of sandwiches on the menu, though this may increase or decrease in the future, depending on how things go. The sandwiches range in price from 28RMB all the way up to 45 RMB, but discounts and other meal deals are available through the Meituan app. The restaurant also offers a variety of hot and cold drinks, two soups, and the same pasta that appears on a sandwich available as a stand alone order.

We ordered delivery, as they had not yet opened up at the time due to the virus, so there is not much that we can report on the interior, though pictures of the place show it to be a relatively small place filled with quirky and interesting furniture and decorations. It is located on the first floor and there are large windows for people watching while digging into you meal.

If you are in the neighborhood and are looking for some lunch or a light dinner, then this might just be a good place to check out, especially if you are missing the taste of a good sandwich. You can also purchase their breads separately and take them home if you would like to concoct a culinary creation of your own. Either way, we hope that you enjoy the food as much as we did.

If you give this a try, let us know about your experience by messaging us at reviews@xianease.com.

James is currently living in Xi’an and loving it, from the food to the people.