Harvey's Hot Sandwiches, Parramatta

Harvey's Hot Sandwiches is a fast food sandwich shop that also looks like a New York Diner. Located at Parramatta Square, there are around a dozen sandwiches on offer from a Pastrami and Brisket that you can make "sloppy" to Nashville Hot Chicken to Beef Dip to a Muffaletta.

Ironically it's a very hot day when Laura and I decide to make the drive out to Parramatta to try Harvey's Hot Sandwiches. Laura, always to look on the bright side says, "Bread is cooling...right?" as she steers Mini.

The day is made even hotter when we are walking around with google maps being more a hindrance than help when trying to locate Harvey's Hot Sandwiches somewhere in Parramatta Square (tip: it's right next to the train station exit and undercover).

Having located it, we grab a table and order a few subs plus drinks and sides at the counter. The strawberry mint fresca is very sweet while the strawberry float is nostalgic and made with a regular commercial syrup. Also a note for vegetarians: there is only one option on the menu and it isn't the most interesting sounding option as it's just a salad sandwich.

My favourite sandwich is the Nashville Hot Chicken. We ordered it medium hot (aka "damn hot") and I think that we could go even hotter (aka "WTF! HOT"). It full of tender, golden crunchy crumbed chicken tenders plus a delicious vinegar based slaw, pickles and come-back creamy sauce. We both adore this sandwich and I would order this again just upping the chilli level one nudge.

What I really liked about the sandwiches is the bread which is soft and smooshes (technical term ;) ) down easily so that it isn't dry with thick bread. You can get your sandwiches on either white or wholemeal and we ordered the parmigiana with wholemeal. It has a thick herb crumbed chicken breast fillet, roast garlic butter, marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. The sandwiches do need a little salt added to them.

I was told that the Philly Cheesesteak was one of the most popular along with the beef dip below. It's nice and there's plenty of shaved scotch fillet steak, grilled onion, provolone cheese and hot pepper spread with slices of green capsicum.

The beef dip is said to come with dipping gravy but there's none which is a shame. It's grilled beef fillet, horseradish mayonnaise (very light in horseradish), grilled onions and provolone cheese. I actually really like this but it would be even better with the dip of course.

The salt and vinegar potato salad needs a bit of salt added to it and it strikes us more as a dill potato salad than a salt and vinegar one. I do like the mixture of chunks of potato and mashed potato for different textures.

The crinkle cut fries are tasty as they are dusted in chicken salt although my issue with a lot of fast food fries is that they're quite cold which these are.

We also order the dill pickle which comes split in two and wrapped in parchment. They make their own dill pickles here and you can taste it.

There are sweets on the menu in the form of ice cream sandwiches and sundaes but given that we've ordered four sandwiches between two girls, we'll save that for another time.

So tell me Dear Reader, are you a big fan of sandwiches? Do you have a favourite filling?

This meal was independently paid for.

Harvey's Hot Sandwiches

Parramatta Square Shop 4, 05/12 Darcy St, Parramatta NSW 2150
Monday to Friday 10:30am–8pm
Saturday 11am–9pm
Sunday 11am–8pm
Phone: (02) 9169 0838
harveyshotsandwiches.com