WHAT Porchetta sandwich with rapini, truffle sauce and hot sauce
WHERE Porchetta & Co
TIME 1:45
RATING: NNNNN
It’s a simple meal – roasted pork on a crusty bun – but the sandwiches at this Dundas West shop pack a serious wallop of flavour. The fatty, tender pork and crunchy crackling create a stellar canvas for your choice of toppings – rich truffle mayo, sharp parmesan, bitter broccoli rabe. Food this good, naturally, takes plenty of time – but lucky for you, the meat is pre-roasted, and the staff can crank out a sandwich in two minutes flat.
TAKEOUT FACTOR The paper sandwich sleeve and brown bag don’t quite hold up in transit – the oil and mayo threaten to make things a little sloppy – but everything else sure does. The 4 ounces of pork stays impressively warm long after leaving the shop, and even the rapini remains pleasantly al dente.
$7.25 (toppings 25 to 95 cents), 825 Dundas West (at Palmerston), 647-352-6611, porchettaco.com
WHAT Carne asada, pork and grilled avocado tacos
WHERE Wilbur Mexicana
TIME 3:50
RATING: NNNN
At this King West taco joint, gleaming with white subway tiles and staffed exclusively by sexy 20-somethings, the hearty burritos might be the best-travelling menu item, but it’s tough to resist the siren call of the tacos. The pork, in particular, offers a tomatoey richness, and the Wilbur kitchen really livens things up with its array of house-made cremas and sauces, including a zippy pineapple salsa.
TAKEOUT FACTOR The soft tortillas hold up surprisingly well in the white paper takeout box – aside from the grilled avocado taco, which gets soggy, but it’s bland enough to skip anyway. A nice bonus: sealable to-go sauce containers at the famed salsa bar, which caters to all pain tolerances (ranging from pico de gallo to ghost pepper sauce).
$3.75 each, 552 King West (at Brant), 416-792-1878, wilburmexicana.com
WHAT Casino Queen sandwich
WHERE Sky Blue Sky
TIME 4:38
RATING: NNN
Sky Blue Sky’s sandwiches, famously themed around Wilco songs, are comforting and homey – the kind of elaborate sammies you’d make yourself after a particularly good trip to the grocery store. The Casino Queen, with turkey breast and bacon swathed in guacamole and onion marmalade, doesn’t skimp on the lunch meat, but the super-nutty whole wheat bread threatens to overwhelm all those gentle flavours.
TAKEOUT FACTOR After cooling off in a brown bag, the meat is still warm and the condiments gel ever so slightly into the bread. Everything on the menu, with the exception of the super-saucy Kingpin (pork) and Hey Chicken (take a guess) sandwiches, is built to travel (insert dumb joke about going on tour here).
$4.99, 333 King East (at Ontario), 647-350-3100, sbssandwiches.com, and others
WHAT Margherita capricciosa pizza
WHERE 180 Secondi
TIME 10:54
RATING: NN
Owners of this new pizza joint are so certain its oven can turn out a piping-hot pie in just 180 seconds, they named the restaurant for it. But on a dead weekend, the staff appear almost puzzled by my presence, and my prosciutto, mushroom and artichoke pie shows up almost 11 minutes later. The crust is lovely, cracker-like and featherlight, but the prosciutto, cooked with the rest of the pie, adds a wallop of salt and has a leathery texture – in my professional opinion as an Italian, a damn travesty.
TAKEOUT FACTOR After chilling out in a delivery box, the crust holds its crispness and airiness, and the once-chewy fior di latte is somehow easier to eat once cold, but the residual oiliness and tough prosciutto don’t redeem things. A different set of toppings might make for a respectable desk-side pizza party.
$15, 21B St. Clair West (at Yonge), 647-350-7180, 180secondi.com
WHAT Chicken Piri Piri sandwich
WHERE Brock Sandwich
TIME 6:55
RATING: NNNN
The sandwiches are all over the map (literally) at this Bloordale takeout counter, from schnitzel on a bun to prosciutto panini to seafood po’ boys. The menu’s cornerstone, however, is the crispy chicken, a beautiful, sloppy beast of a sandwich featuring a high stack of juicy, buttermilk-fried chicken breast, thick-cut caramelized onions, mild piri piri sauce and a few leaves of lettuce for decoration.
TAKEOUT FACTOR The fryer-fresh chicken emerges from the kitchen steaming and stays toasty thanks to a tight wrap in foil, with the breading only losing a touch of its crunch.
$9, 1260 Bloor West (at Emerson), 647-748-1260, brocksandwich.ca
WHAT Braised beef and pork belly bao
WHERE Mean Bao
TIME 3:45
RATING: NNN
The Queen and Bathurst sister location of the Grange cafeteria doles out savoury sandwiches wrapped inside Chinese steamed buns. The braised beef and pork belly versions, dressed with sprinklings of cilantro, cucumber and peanuts, are among the most popular. There’s flavour to both meats, but maybe not quite enough to stand up to the doughy-sweet bao, which tend to dominate every mouthful.
TAKEOUT FACTOR You’d think something as delicate and puffy as a bao would toughen or collapse after a walk around the block, but they’re are still as fluffy and chewy as ever when I crack open the cardboard takeout box.
$3.60 (for pork belly) $3.55 (for braised beef) 167 Bathurst (at Richmond), 416-862-7737, meanbaotoronto.com
WHAT Lemongrass pork banh mi
WHERE Banh Mi Boys
TIME 1:55
RATING: NNNN
The Vietnamese joints on Spadina might be more authentic (and even easier on the wallet), but Banh Mi Boys’ sandwiches make the perfect lunch, thanks to the marriage of sweet hoisin sauce, a touch of mayo, and cilantro and veggies that provide just enough freshness and crunch to make you think you’re eating healthy. The pork is precooked, but it’s tough to argue with a two-minute lunch.
TAKEOUT FACTOR The toasted baguette gets a little chewy post-cool-down in waxed paper and brown bag. Still, there’s enough meat inside that the sandwich holds onto some heat, and the carrot and cucumber are still crisp and crunchy – no harm done.
$5.49, 392 Queen West (at Spadina), 416-363-0588, banhmiboys.com, and others
WHAT P&L Burger
WHERE P&L Burger
TIME 8:25
RATING: NNNN
The counter guy tells me all of P&L’s burgers take roughly five to 10 minutes to make, so I stick with the namesake, which comes finished with cheddar and savoury-sweet bacon jam. It’s a winner. The patty is just charred, its ample juices melding with the preserves and melted cheese to create a dozen or so bites of messy heaven. It’s not the quickest takeout spot in town, but some things are worth the wait.
TAKEOUT FACTOR Some foods get soggy and gross after they’ve been sitting a bit. Others get soggy and awesome. After 10 minutes in a foil wrapper, the burger’s still warm, while the edges of the egg bun have sucked up all the flavours from the toppings. Delicious – though you might want to be careful about eating it at your desk.
$9, 507 Queen West (at Vanauley), 416-603-9919, thepnlburger.ca
WHAT Hemp and sunflower burger
WHERE K&K Food Stand
TIME 3:45
RATING: NNN
The sister eatery to Kupfert & Kim dishes up tacos and burgers to the meat- and gluten-averse in the PATH. This most popular example of the latter dresses up a falafel-like baked patty with classic burger toppings on an excellent gluten-free bun. (There are even gratis sides like crunchy kale slaw and caramelized, if slightly toothsome, roasted root veg.)
TAKEOUT FACTOR The precooked patty and side veggies aren’t piping hot to begin with. But even as they cool way, way down in the compostable takeout container, the bread keeps its spring and the burger remains crumbly and chewy.
$11.06, 50 King West (at York), 416-260-7777, kupfertandkim.com
WHAT Chicken breast laffa wrap
WHERE Me Va Me
TIME 9:08
RATING: NNN
Shawarma and gyros abound in Toronto, but at this Mediterranean eatery’s Queen West fast-foodery, meats are rolled onto hand-stretched, fresh-baked laffa flatbread instead of the usual bagged pita. Ordering the grilled chicken breast needlessly inflates the wait time the real stars of the show are the toppings, including bright pickled vegetables and creamy baba ghanouj. Instead, get the shawarma, which is precooked on a rotisserie, to speed things up.
TAKEOUT FACTOR Skip the optional tahini, or fall prey to the inevitable leaky bottom (the fatal flaw of every lunch wrap). Though the gloriously malleable laffa stiffens a bit after a few minutes, the cylindrical foil wrap keeps heat in well, and a walk around the block gives the flavours a chance to mingle.
$8.95, 240 Queen West (at John), 416-546-3770, mevamekitchenexpress.com, and others
