Casual Dining - The Bread and Meat Co

http://www.breadandmeatco.com/

If you're like me and keep your ear to the ground about cool new places to eat, then you will have no doubt heard about the Bread and Meat Co in the Valley.  When looking for dinner last weekend we'd had a bit of a mental block and really didn't know what we wanted for dinner (see post here).  We ended up meandering through the valley looking for interesting dining options and one of those spots was the Bread and Meat Co.  Our only problem was that it wasn't open for dinner, despite Urbanspoon clearly stating they were open Sunday until late.  That was a bit frustrating for us but we just shrugged our shoulders and continued on.

This weekend we were better prepared and with opening times in hand we walked into the Valley for Saturday lunch.  The Bread and Meat Co is located in the TCB building, just off the Brunswick Street Mall, which has seen its fair share of shops rotating through.  The mall itself is also going through a bit of a transformation and if you haven't seen it for a while, it's just a torn up mess.  Knowing this, we actually entered from the Chinatown Mall side, which was just as easy.

It was still pretty early in the day when we arrived and the Bread and Meat Co was pretty quiet, which gave us a bit of an opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the menu.  Short and sharp, the menu pretty much reflects the name of the joint: simply put there's a few choice cuts of meat, stuffed into fresh bread and then served up on a breadboard.  There are three real options on the menu and then a trio board, which is a sample of all three sandwiches, especially designed for those who can't make up their mind!  Feeling quite decisive, we opted for two sandwiches and a side, which would leave us with something to check out the next time we came.

While we were waiting for our sandwiches to arrive, our side of chilli cheese fries was delivered and by the look of the serving size, we were going to struggle with the amount of food coming our way.  The bowl was huge and filled with hot chips, heaps of shredded cheese, a lovely mild chilli sauce that had heaps of meat and a final coating of sour cream.  I'm not normally a fan of chilli fries and I was planning to leave the whole bowl to SC, that was until I tried it.  Boy, it was amazing!  The chilli was fairly mild but still had a little bit of heat but what was great about the chilli cheese fried was the combination.  The chilli was a bit runny and the whole mess started to run together and that was when it was at its best.  I think I'm a convert!

While we were munching happily away on the bowl of chilli fries, our BBQ pulled pork with fresh coleslaw on a brioche bun was delivered on what's fast becoming the most popular delivery method lately, a wooden board. The two brioche buns were much smaller than I'd anticipated but they were crammed and overflowing with sloppy pulled pork and coleslaw.  The pork was a little wetter and sloppier than I'd normally like, but it was full of flavour and was quite sweet.  I enjoyed the pulled pork a little more than SC, who found them a little too hard to eat and a bit runny.

We'd also ordered the beef brisket with Swiss cheese and a horseradish aioli, which looked a little less appetising than the pulled pork sliders.  While the brisket didn't look great, it tasted amazing and was some of the best brisket I've had (but not quite as good as the Gerard's Brisket see post here).  The brisket came with a crispy french baguette and even though it looked a little dry, was full of flavour and quite moist, in fact, a we made a mess of our bread board with all of the meaty juices flowing from the sandwich.  I really liked the choice of Swiss cheese and the horseradish aioli was nice, but I think we could have used a little more to give it an extra punch.

The Bread and Meat Co delivers exactly on it's name, you essentially get bread filled with meat!  It's such a simple concept but it's not always done well but it wass done fabulously at the B&M Co.  It continues a trend of American style foods completely taking over in the Valley, there are now so many US style food offerings, its hard to keep up.

It's a pretty simply laid out store with seating options inside and also out in the TCB mall but the thing that was most striking for me was the barbed wire light fittings.  They were fairly unusual but fitting, given barbed wire like that is used to keep cattle in their enclosures world wide.

There  isnot a huge selection of meats available but it looks as if the Bread and Meat Co subscribes to the theory that it's better to do a couple of things really well.  In this they have it nailed!  What's really good is that they do catering and deliver, even into the CBD.  That could be quite dangerous because I might just take them up on that little offering.  Dangerous because the food is completely yummy, but I'll be honest, there is so much of it, it can't be good for your waistline...

@FoodMeUpScotty

The chilli fries were amazing, almost worth going for on their own

These were a little sloppy and hard to eat without making a huge mess - kind of fun still

Meat in a roll - good but I still think I like PJs Steaks a little more

Barbed wire is used for light fittings - pretty unique

I don't know what to say about this!  I'm hoping that we didn't eat the rest of him

Lots of fresh bread

Big kitchen with a lot of knives!