Review Location:825 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario
And the last chapter of my first food crawl with Andrew (@_aneb), Justine (@foodigatorJ), and Chieu (@chieunghi) takes place at a small sandwich shop in the Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood.
Porchetta and Co (@PorchettaAndCo) serves exactly what you think it does: porchetta. And that's pronounced "porketta" as Andrew would emphasize. The recipe for this traditional Italian pork roast at Porchetta and Co starts off with a 24 hour marinated pork shoulder. It's wrap it in prosciutto, then again wrap in cured pork belly, and roasted until crispy on the outside. This masterpiece is finally carved to be placed on sour dough buns. Sound amazing? Well it kind of is, so keep reading.
Porchetta & Co
Their logo is the most adorable thing ever. Almost makes me not want to eat the little pig. Almost.
Ordering counter
Specials Menu
Off to the side there is a chalkboard that lists seasonal specials that they have. It was grilled cheese for us, but they also have a soft shell crab sandwich that Andrew claims to be out of this world.
Next to their ordering counter there is a display that shows all their sides as well as their prized porchetta. We got here just before they were closing so there wasn't much left on display to look at, but luckily there was still one roast of porchetta left. Can you imagine that cut up and served on a bun? *drools*
Sandwiches made right in front of you
Like many grab and go sandwich spots, Porchetta & Co is very tiny, setting up to be mainly a take out spot. There is a small wooden ledge near the window that would fit about 3 visitors, so don't bank on getting a spot if you come during high traffic times.
Porchetta Grilled Cheese ($6.45) - with crackling,, caramelized onion jam
It was actually ridiculous how good this Porchetta Grilled Cheese was. We cut it up into quarters for sharing purposes, but each small little square was jam packed with cheese. The outside is grilled so crunchy that I had to do a double take to ensure it wasn't actually fried. And while I usually don't order grilled cheese since it's something I can so easily make at home, this one was able to blow me away with the onion jam gave. It gave it an interest flavour and extra oomph. Very very good.
Porchetta Sandwich ($6.45) with Truffle Sauce ($0.75)
Taking my first bite into the Porchetta Sandwich made me realize how much the meat resembled Chinese roasted pork. The skin isn't as crispy, but the meat is definitely more tender and succulent. The truffle sauce is an add on, and to be honest I couldn't specifically isolate the flavour of it, and don't know if it really added all that much to the sandwich. I think next time I'll try it with some other things they have on the menu, like mushrooms (+$0.75), rapnini (+$0.75) or mozzarella cheese (+$0.95).
Believe it or not, we anticipated more stops for this food crawl. But no question about it, after these sandwiches the last of our stomach space was exhausted. While we were heading home, Andrew mentioned that Porchetta and Co has a soft shell crab seasonal special that is out of this world. I will definitely be returning to try this! :)
