Saint Dreux

Emporium Melbourne
LG 30/287 Lonsdale St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
http://saintdreux.co/

I’ve wanted to come to Saint Dreux for the longest time. It is one of the earliest adopters of the gourmet sandwich trend in Melbourne, opening a full year before we’ve even heard of COVID. But whilst the novelty has worn off, the dedication to quality at Saint Dreux has not. It embodies the Japanese culture of optimised simplicity, where each sandwich is about doing one thing, and doing it well. Even amongst the plethora of sandwich chips Melbourne boasts, Saint Dreux holds its own.

Rating: 13/20 – perfect katsu shokupan.
Must-order: pork katsu (not wagyu, though that’s good too).

The poster child for Saint Dreux is their luxurious Wagyu Beef Sando ($29). Featuring heavily-marbled wagyu striploin from NSW, the beef is thickly cut and lightly crumbed, before being fried to a textbook medium. The result is absolute decadence, the buttery beef showcased by the contrast of crunchy panko and airy shokupan.

To my surprise however, I actually preferred the Kurobuta Pork Sando ($19). Not only did it have all the quality of its wagyu counterpart, the meat was also next-level juicy and tender, and the fatty porky flavours paired wonderfully with the creamy mustard sauce.

With the quality of the sandwiches, I had expected the Matcha Castella ($8) to be phenomenal. Unfortunately this erred towards the dry and dense side, though I did appreciate the clean matcha flavour profile.