Urban Deli, City Centre

On the rare occasion I find myself in town of a weekday lunch time I like to meet James for lunch, often making him starving hungry as I expect him to meet me about an hour and a half after he would normally eat.

James and his work friends have told me about Urban Deli before, so last Friday that's where we headed.  There was a number of menus, one for takeaway and one for sitting in.  The sit in menu is extensive, but a little over priced for a quick lunch.  There is a classic sandwich menu and a twist sandwich menu.  They offer soup, jacket potatoes,salads and also a number of hot sandwiches.  The hot sandwich menu was in chalk, implying it gets changed but I don't know how often.

James was adamant he was having a hot sandwich, so he chose Moroccan lamb.  By the time we got there, there wasn't a great selection of breads left, so he had it on olive bread.  The meat was thick, juicy and moist.  It was delicately spiced and there was plenty of it.  There was quite a bit of fat on the meat but it being lamb, I guess that's expected.  I know most people aren't as fussy as I am when it comes to fat on meat.

I took aaaages perusing the menu, I often find it tricky to decide what I want.  The classics menu was still varied and a little different, but the twist menu wasn't as unusual as the name suggests.  It all looked appetising, but I went for the chorizo, brie and black olive on tomato bread.  The bread was a good choice.  The chorizo gave a tang of heat and the brie was thick and gentle.  The black olives are the perfect accompaniment to add salt and offset the mildness of the brie.  However it only worked for four bites as there were only FOUR OLIVES.  On a six inch sandwich.  So whilst the sandwich itself is a delicious mix, the majority of the sandwich was far too cloying, with the chorizo unable to hold it's own against the cheese.  As you can see, I was dreadfully unimpressed by the olive fiasco.

I like that they still have a bar-style seating area for the takeaway menu, and there is a huge amount of choice.  I would have given it a 7.5, but my obsession with equal ingredient distribution has let the place down.  So it's a 6.  I would recommend it, but I suggest you keep an eye on how generous they are with the salad.