Saint Dreux

It’s a simple concept. Soft white bread, Panko-crumbed fried meat, mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce. In Japan it’s known as a katsu sandoitchi ("cutlet sandwich") and it’s found in all sorts of places, from vending machines to restaurants. Saint Dreux is dedicated to it.

Your sandwich arrives inside a simple black box. Inside, a pair of crustless white cross-sections are ready to be removed with one hand. There are five choices: egg, chicken, Kurobuta pork, prawn and Wagyu (which has a marbling score of 7–8 and is served medium rare). While $29 at the most may seem excessive for a white-bread sanga, a lot more work is happening behind the scenes than at your average sandwich shop – but that also means a 30-minute wait is not unusual.

To drink, you’ll find matcha, black sesame and hojicha (Japanese green tea) varieties. Espresso comes from Acoffee and pour-over beans come from Japanese roastery Onibus Coffee.