Sandwiches are everywhere now (hence the invention of this very column). But not every fancy sanger is created equal.

To find the best, you usually want to look for a sandwich shop opened by a chef – those years of training count, even when slapping a few ingredients between a couple of bits of bread.

So it perhaps follows that two of Brisbane’s best katsu sandos can be found at one of the city’s best restaurants.

Sangers at a restaurant, you ask?

Honto has licence, though, given its Japanese-inspired menu. And talking chefs, the talent behind this place is intimidating. Head chef Tom Jack is backed by Anyday group owner Ben Williamson and group chef Adam Wolfers, both of whom have national reputations.

Not one, but two killer sandwiches

Honto’s two sandos are part of a menu that sprawls across sushi, raw plates, snacks and dishes cooked on the hibachi. So they need to be good to justify their place in the offering. And they are.

“The pork katsu sando is probably one of the top-five selling items at Honto,” Wolfers says. “It’s a go-to for regulars and just a really good representation of a popular style of sando.”

Honto’s pork katsu sando is indeed a thing of beauty, the chefs eschewing cutlet to instead ground down pork shoulder, pork neck and pork belly into a sausage mix, to which they add pepper, garlic, soy and a touch of seasoning, and set it “almost like a burger patty” before adding the crumb.

The result is one of the slickest pork sandos you’ll ever sink your teeth into, the seasoning in the sausage mix matched by its soft texture, making it a joy to eat.

Honto’s whiting sando

Still, for us it plays second fiddle to the restaurant’s crumbed whiting sando, which is one of the best fish sandwiches we’ve eaten in Brisbane.

Wolfers explains that it’s an evolution on Honto’s original lobster katsu sando, which was an immediate hit after the restaurant opened in 2018. The whiting comes squeezed between two slices of super fluffy shokupan bread produced by Breadtop to Honto’s specs with the requisite shredded cabbage, but sets itself apart with the addition of fermented onion and a tea-pickle gribiche.

“It’s like a Japanese version of gribiche,” Wolfers says. “Instead of cornichons, we use a fermented daikon mix. It’s got house-made mayonnaise with dill and chives, which is along the lines of a classic gribiche, but we chop in soured onions.

“It has this really great texture to it.”

The chefs use whiting to keep the fish as local and fresh as possible, before applying what Wolfers reckons is a “foolproof crumb”.

“We’ve developed a mixture of fresh panko and dried panko, a ratio between the two,” he says. “We also use a bit of buttermilk in the batter and then egg white powder as opposed to egg, so it’s not too wet and binds well with the bread crumbs … I’ve often found that when I panko crumb something, the panko comes off and doesn’t cover the whole fish. But with this method, when it cooks, it sets super crunchy on the outside and keeps the moisture of the fish on the inside.

“It’s almost a bit like a fried chicken batter with the buttermilk, but it works really well.”

“I’ve often found that when I panko crumb something, the panko comes off and doesn’t cover the whole fish. But with this method … it sets super crunchy on the outside and keeps the moisture of the fish on the inside.”

Anyday group chef Adam Wolfers

For the bread, Honto uses a yamagata-style shokupan, which is baked lid off, allowing it to stretch upwards in the oven to develop its light and fluffy texture.

The final result is a low-key thriller of a sandwich – a Swiss-precision combo of texture, flavour and temperature, the shokupan giving away to the crunch of the cabbage and the luscious, viscous gribiche with its pops of dill and chive, and then the crisped panko and nuttiness of the whiting.

It’s cinch to eat, too, the gribiche holding everything together, meaning it doesn’t get messy like some of the lesser sandos around town. In a few bites it will be gone, but not soon forgotten.

“Both sandos are really easy to eat. They’re very clean and you don’t make a mess of your plate or get it all over you,” Wolfers says. “They’re a really good representation of Honto as well. They’re light and don’t fill you up, which is good when we have such an expansive menu.”

Where to get it

Honto’s crumbed whiting sando is $17 (as is the pork katsu sando). You can get one on Alden Street in Fortitude Valley – turn left off Wickham Terrace at The Wickham, then turn right and look for the door at the end of the street.

It’s open Monday to Thursday, 5.30pm until late, and Friday to Sunday 5pm until late. For Christmas, it’s opening for lunch Thursday through Saturday until December 21.

This is the latest instalment of Sandwich Watch, a column dedicated to the Brisbane sandwiches you need to know about.