RT Harris, W1W 7DA
- Gt Titchfield Street (map of this place)
- W1W 7DA
When I first started working in the area I was surprised to see that whilst a lot of the generic italian, congealing-sludge and stale ciabatta sandwich shops were empty, RT harris had a long queue snaking out of it.
It soon became clear why - these are the best sandwiches in London.
There are 3 main reasons for this - the atmosphere, the quality and the quantity.
The owner is a genial, twinkling middle aged Italian man who banters with the customers and flirts jokingly with female ones. There's no hurry to eat fast even at its busiest and the staff always seem to want to help you, check to see if you're ok or fetch you something else.
The food is outstanding - all the cheeses and meats (of which there is a large variety) are fresh cooked and whole - from the roast chicken to the salamis and hams to the beef, both roast and salted. When you decide what you want these are sliced in front of your eyes onto a choice of breads (fresh ciabatta, white crusty, brown crusty or baps and rolls) and then heaped with salad and optionally toasted.
And I mean heaped. If you ask for meat and cheese (I've always liked the Mortadella and Pecorino) then you'll get about 4 slices of each on either side of a lengthways sliced ciabatta. Then add on fresh rocket or iceberg, tomatos, avacado. I'm practically droolign thinking about it. Salads are equally, if not more, impressive and seem to be real works of art created with love.
Sandwiches are probably slightly more expensive than normal - the aforementioned Mortadella and Pecorino with salad will come to about 4 pounds but considering the quantity and quality it's well worth it.