Restaurant Review: Press'd
PRESS'D SANDWICH SHOP 10377 78th Avenue ~ pressdsandwiches.ca Instagram: @pressdsandwichshop ~ Twitter: @pressdsandwich Co-Diner: Tim Golem
Everyone enjoys a nice fresh sandwich made with beautiful ingredients. What's not to love? Opening in 2010, the first Press'd location made its debut right here in Edmonton with the promise of the perfect sandwich. Offering an alternative to the typical fast food menu, the restaurant has now expanded into a chain of nine locations in the Edmonton area and also restaurants in Calgary, Saskatoon, and Regina. Voted #1 Best Wraps 2018 by VUE Weekly, I looked forward to getting my hands on what Press'd has to offer. I popped into their Strathcona Junction location on a Saturday evening, which you'll find in the Strathcona Market shopping complex. The restaurant is very clean and simple with a nice colour palette of white and lime green, accented by blond wood. It's a pretty typical model but it looks nice. There are several tables, benches, and even some booths for seating. I really liked the word cloud mural made up of all of the different neighbourhood names in the shape of Edmonton! Very cool. I was happy to find mine on there. The people working were very friendly and happy to take my order. The menu at Press'd is pretty much what you would expect: There are a lot of sandwiches. There are also salads and wraps. In general, it all feels very healthy and it's as if they took the idea of Subway but made it fresher and more home-grown. I started my journey at Press'd with the Broccoli Crunch Salad ($3.89) from the Sides section. I also found the Giant Dill Pickle ($2.19) in this section and that was a big YES. Apart from these, they do soups as well, which sound pretty good.
This little salad was super delicious (like the container says) and was actually the best part of the whole meal! I loved the crisp green broccoli and I loved the different textures that created the crunch. Getting little bits of cheddar and bacon in there is always good and I enjoyed the creamy dressing. I would absolutely order this salad again because it was very tasty. The giant dill pickle brought me happiness as well. Sandwiches and pickles just go together! Super flavourful and packed with a blasting dill punch, there was nothing wrong at all with this big boi. Of course I was going to order a sandwich, because it's kinda the whole thing. There are many to choose from (19 in total) in several different categories like; Clubs, Basics, Plant Based, Signatures, and Classics. Any good sandwich starts with the bread, which Press'd bakes from scratch each day. There are five breads to choose from (including a gluten-free one) and you can pick any one that you want for your sandwich. They had a bacon cheddar bread (limited time only) and I knew that I had to try it. Lots of the sandwiches sound very good, making it difficult to pick only one. The California Club and Green Goddess both sounded good to me. But I had to order the Blazing Buffalo ($9.99 for 8" large) because I'm a sucker for buffalo chicken.
At first glance, I was a bit disappointed because the photos of their sandwiches look so packed with ingredients and this sandwich seemed a little flat and thin to me. I will say that I enjoyed the bread a lot. It was very soft and warm, and I loved the bright orange colour and bits of bacon within. The rest of the sandwich was decently flavourful and I did get the hot sauce + ranch vibe that I crave... However, I was really hoping for more. It just felt like there wasn't enough of everything. The chicken was fine, as were the vegetables, but it was missing some life. I need something bigger and bolder! Next, I was excited to try one the their wraps because they were voted as the best. Press'd offers four different types and I went for the West Coast Club ($10.09).
Sadly, I think that I enjoyed this even less than the sandwich. It wasn't that the ingredients were bad, this wrap simply suffered from the same problem where it felt quite skimpy and lifeless. A good wrap should be rolled tight and jam-packed with stuff and this one was a little sad. That said, the chicken, again, was fine and I liked the bit of crunch from the bacon bits. The veggies were fresh and I would have liked way more cheddar. I barely detected any guacamole at all. I really wanted to be a lot more enamoured with Press'd than I was. I'm always on the lookout for fast and fresh food options that won't make me feel like I just ate a pile of garbage. Press'd totally has the capacity to be that - and I think that they want to be that! I just believe that some quality control needs to happen to ensure that they are putting out the absolute best product every time. They've got good ideas and good ingredients, they simply need to execute them better. I would be happy to give Press'd another chance since they do have other sandwiches on the menu that sound good to me, I just really hope that they are able to tighten up their game.
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