First Look: Tokyo Lamington Adds a Cheffy Sandwich Shop to Australia Street

As Keanu Reeves once said: life is good when you have a good sandwich.

Tokyo Lamington’s owners Min Chai and Eddie Stewart would likely agree with the actor – they’ve just opened a shop dedicated to nice things layered between bread. Located next to Tokyo Lamington’s Newtown cafe, the pair launched Australia Street Sandwich a mere two and a half weeks after getting their lease. That sounds quick, but Stewart says they’ve been joking about the place for “probably two years now”. And while they’re aware of how the name’s acronym sounds (the logo is suggestive, and the website implores you to “eat some ASS”), they take sandwiches very seriously.

They’ve enlisted Jia Chai, Min’s sister, to be “the brains of the kitchen”, says Stewart. She last worked with her brother over a decade ago when he ran N2 Extreme Gelato, and she brings fine-dining experience from Balmoral’s Public Dining Room, where she was the senior sous-chef.

The Australia Street menu is shaped by a shared list the trio worked on in their Notes apps, which sprawled out to 60 ideas. “We’re all throwing in crazy combinations,” Stewart says, remembering a Waldorf salad sandwich idea.

When Broadsheet visits, the suggestions are still surging – no app necessary.

“I want a char siu sandwich,” says Min. “That’s what I’ll be dying to get.”

“I know you’re brother and sister, but I think this is gonna test your relationship,” says Stewart. “‘I want this. I want that.’ And the eye rolling?”

Jia jokingly brings up the Hainan chicken sandwich both men were campaigning for. “But that would be a good idea!” Stewart says. “Yes, yes. Let me settle down first guys,” says Jia. After all, Australia Street Sandwich only opened last week.   

Its eight-item launch menu already has solid hits – including an egg sandwich that emerged from Stewart’s staff lunches for the Tokyo Lamington crew. It has the fresh bite of shallots, finely shredded cucumber and a creamy egg salad that’s garlic-charged with aioli. It tastes like a high tea egg sandwich crossbred with the kind you reach for in Japanese convenience stores. It’s now accessible to everyone, not just Tokyo Lamington employees.

Then there’s the slow-cooked beef brisket with onion jam, lettuce and a blitzed herb sauce Jia flavours with capers and lemon. Stewart reckons this one is like eating a steak sandwich with fancy bearnaise sauce.

Jia also serves mortadella from LP’s Quality Meats with ricotta, cherry tomatoes she’s semi-dried, and a pesto-like condiment loaded with pistachio, garlic and rocket. Poached chicken is layered with lettuce, honey mustard mayo and Acide’s pickled zucchini slices – the same ones that zing in the salad sandwich. Unlike the sad beetroot-sog that haunts your schooltime memories, the veggie-laden version here has the savoury punch of macadamia feta and matchstick carrots and cucumber – preventing lettuce overkill and beetroot leakage.

There’s a toastie that tests the melting properties of four cheeses. It’s currently pecorino, provolone, cheddar and manchego, but Stewart hopes to keep the cheesy line-up flexible – perhaps adding something you’d only ordinarily find in a finer restaurant in Sydney.

The toastie is sweetened with Jia’s hot honey. “The first batch I make, they’re like, ‘Hmm, not that spicy,’” she says. “I’m like, ‘Okay, you guys want spicy?’” She then upped the heat levels with Sichuan pepper, “lots of chilli” and Chinese five-spice – and Stewart jokes that the result is malatang hot honey.

“What an idea, a malatang sandwich!” Min says.

Fillings are tucked into your choice of loaf, ranging from Canterbury Lebanese Bread’s flatbread and Nonie’s gluten-free bread to focaccia from Tuga (whose owner Diogo Ferriera worked with Stewart at Black Star years ago).

The power play, we think, is creating your own Australia Street Happy Meal: a sandwich here, next door for a Tokyo Lamington drink, then around the corner for a Macca’s-inspired sundae from the pair’s Everyday Creamery. And for the Macca’s apple pie fans, Stewart hopes to add pies with ice-cream toppings as the weather gets colder.

Australia Street Sandwich
275 Australia Street, Newtown

Hours:
Daily 7am–3pm

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