Location: 36 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.alfies.ca/
Alfie’s is part of the recent wave of Italian sandwich shops sweeping the city. And hey, if all the sandwich shops can be this good, sure — open a million of them.
It’s hard to pick here. The menu is split into two halves (“classic” and “signature”) with 10 sandwiches each. And they all sound extremely tasty.
After some deliberation, I went with the Parma Classico: “24 Month Prosciutto Di Parma, Lemon basil Pesto, Artichoke in Oil, Truffle Aioli.”
Wow, it’s good. I mean, if you put a decent amount of high-quality prosciutto in pretty much any sandwich, it’s going to be tasty. And yeah, the prosciutto here is pretty fantastic.
But everything else in the sandwich complements it so well, from the zippy pesto to the generous amount of tender artichoke to the creamy aioli. I’m not really a fan of truffle oil, but it’s used sparingly enough that I didn’t find it particularly objectionable. Everything here just works.
It’s all served on some pretty great quality sourdough flatbread (“Alfie,” in this case, is the name of their sourdough starter). It’s crispy, chewy, and flavourful, and stands up quite well to the generously filled sandwich.
On another visit, I tried the Alfie’s Roast Beef (“House-smoked Roast beef, Sliced tomato, Chilli oil, Roasted Pepper, Baby Arugula, Rosemary and Roasted Aioli”), and it was just as good; the chili oil, in particular, really makes the roast beef sing.
Michael Eats 