I’m starting to regret not having visited this little stretch of sandwich shops at the foot of Dundas Street, before now, as based on my visit to Club Sandwich, today, and Lezzetli, the other day, I’ve been missing out on a considerable array of treats.

Exterior

Club Sandwich is quite a curious little place. It’s so narrow that it’s practically just a food corridor, with enough room for a snaking queue to circulate round it like the caterpillar tracks of a tank. They manage the constraints of the space really smartly, ensuring a constant throughput, at busy times.

They make items to order, at the counter, but they have a wide selection of sandwiches on their shelves, so I was pleased to be hooked in by one that sported corned beef and pastrami.

Roll

They proudly boast of having “the largest selection of fresh soup in Edinburgh (probably)”, so I was interested to see whether this was true or not. Up until now, the six options on offer at both Union of Genius and The Square led the field in daily variety, but with a whopping EIGHT choices, I can confirm that this place has the widest selection I’ve come across.

I chose the eighth option from the chalkboard selection, which was an intriguing sounding potato and Double Gloucester cheese. Soups come in three sizes (I opted for the middle one), so you can in theory get a total of 24 different permutations of soup. This pleases me, greatly.

"Exceptional" soup

Once I’d hiked back up the hill to work, I am delighted to report that the soup was of exceptionally good quality, too. It joins the “exceptional” category on Soupquest, swelling that club to 15 members. With a beautifully velvety texture, the excellently judged potato potage was given flavour explosions by the tangy cheese. It really was a joy to eat.

The baguette was pretty flippin’ good, too. I was having a long conversation with work colleagues, the other day, about the pleasures of corned beef, so it was delightful to find this somewhat maligned meat gracing the menu here. The baguette itself was fresh and crusty, and each element of the filling, comprising the corned beef, pastrami, gouda, jalapenos and mayo, came together well in satisfying bites.

So overall, it’s another one in the win column for Dundas Street. Given that they have a branch of the New Town Deli, just round the corner, this little parade of shops now boasts three “exceptional” Soupquest soups, giving solid credence to the notion that this is may be emerging as a second Edinburgh “soup district”.

I know that the area near to the university, with Union of Genius, Elephant Juice and Peter’s Yard had been, to my mind, Edinburgh’s home of soup, but there is definitely a pretender to the crown. Vive les quartiers de soupe, I say.

Scores

Blythe scores Club Sandwich
4.5/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
3/5 for setting
3.5/5 for service
giving an overall 14.5/20

Today’s quester was: Blythe

I ate: potato and Double Gloucester soup; corned beef, pastrami, gouda, jalapeno baguette

I drank: nowt

I wore: warmest available suit

Total bill: £4.50