My boyfriend and I sometimes have a hard time finding places we can both enjoy, I am a vegetarian and he is not!
We ventured over to Mr. Henry's because my boyfriend remembered a sandwich that he had in the past at Mr. Henry's, called the Breadboard, and remembered it fondly enough to want to try it again. I was pleasantly surprised by some promising sounding selections on menu for the veggie in us all. The appetizers were essentially ignored on this trip, most of the selections were deep fried, which wasn't too appealing to either one of us, and we had dinner plans that we were looking forward to, decided to just get a sandwich each. Which, for the record, two sandwiches, two waters, after tip - $30.
I am a fan of soup and thought about trying a bowl of soup instead of a sandwich, however, my boyfriend had previously had a bowl of the gazpacho that I was eyeballing when he had come in the past and didn't think much of it. He is a fan of gazpacho, a dish that he makes himself once a year or so, and he didn't remember their gazpacho to be anything to write home about or to experience again. He remarked that it seemed overworked. That gazpacho should be just a simple dish made with just a few, nice fresh ingredients, and he didn't remember the gazpacho at this restaurant meeting that standard. No worries though! The pub still had a few selections available - a garden burger, a Portabella burger, and a "Grilled Vegetarian on Rye." which was also the most appealing sounding item to me at the time, cheddar cheese, tomato, onion, fresh spinach and mushrooms on grilled rye. The BF ordered his behemoth sandwich, the Breadboard, hot corned beef, pastrami, Swiss cheese, Cole slaw and Russian dressing on rye. Sounds like meaty heaven. I have to say, that sandwich looked amazing, I wanted to put my face right in it, of course I didn't.
Perhaps my disappointment was triggered by my expectations of the sandwich. I loved grilled sandwiches; I love the crunch and texture of a nice buttery rye bread that has been grilled in particular. So, you can imagine my disappointment when upon first bite, the sandwich was already soggy on the bottom. Not just soggy, soaked. The sandwich was hot, and as it was already dripping wet, I supposed that it didn't matter if I waited for it cool down a little. I studied the sandwich a bit, trying to determine why the bottom piece of bread was so grossly wet. I found that the sandwich was comprised of wet, hot cooked spinach, and lava hot tomato that never really cooled down. The wet hot spinach had created the moisture that was derailing my preferred grilled sandwich experience. If you are ok with soggy sandwiches, you might love this one, but I was not in love. I ended up eating it with a knife and fork and avoiding the bottom piece of bread. Even with avoiding the bottom piece I was still generally unimpressed. I think in my mind I had hoped for a grilled cheese, with fresh spinach leaves, tomato and onion added after cooking to cut down on the initial moisture. I could hardly even taste the bread. And the hot vegetables had really lost any flavor. I ate the sandwich because I was hungry, but I was left highly unsatisfied with a typical feeling that the sandwich was thrown together without much consideration to preparation, whether or not it would taste good, or if it could have tasted better. My BF made a comment, after observing my apparent dissatisfaction with my sandwich, comparing the vegetarian fare of most restaurants to that of a kids menu, the option has been provided, and it's not really their fault that you decided to be a kid (or a vegetarian). I really think that leaving the veggies raw, or adding them at the tail end of the cook would have greatly improved this option.
Not to be overshadowed by my disappointment, he remembered his sandwich correctly. He very much enjoyed his lunch. He noted that the Cole slaw on the sandwich added a nice sweetness to it and countered the sandwich very nicely. He described the sandwich to be a nice meaty sandwich, that will not disappoint the meat lover. He did remark that the meat, appears to him, to not be prepped in house and is served in thinner slices than he would have preferred, but that is more a reflection on his personal taste, than a real criticism - this place isn't a real deli and according to him it was certainly a better a sandwich than one could find outside of a NY deli. Though the sandwich is piled high with delicious salty meat - even he agreed that the price was bit steep for what it is.
Some more positives for the place itself, the chips that were served with the sandwich were made in house and pretty tasty. The service was quick and friendly. All that being said, this will be a place that I'm sure he will visit again, because he enjoyed his sandwich.
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