MANILA, Philippines—Healthy diet and delicious food seem hard to reconcile these days. For every strip of bacon, a piece of ham or roast beef, one can’t help but worry about the added calories. Another is the affordability of having a healthy meal if one is to follow a diet program.
With all these concerns, there’s The Sandwich Guy.
Since 2008 with several branches in Metro Manila, The Sandwich Guy has been giving health-conscious individuals with affordable, healthy and mouth-watering choices of sandwiches, pasta, potatoes and salad.
“We offer affordable healthy alternative. People here want healthy food but also delicious and affordable” says DJ of The Sandwich Guy.
Fresh, healthy, delicious
The Sandwich Guy’s bestsellers include the classic HBLT (ham, bacon, lettuce, tomato) for the meat lover, Country Tuna (Pacific Tuna in Brine and Pineapple) for the seafood addict and Veggie Delight (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and cheese) for the super health conscious.
The Sandwich Guy has their unique hexagon wheat sandwiches. They bake their own whole wheat bread and uses only fresh and organic ingredients.
“HBLT, Country Tuna and Veggie Delight were the first sandwiches we introduced. Instead of French fries, we were the first to offer baked potatoes. We offered it slowly, then we introduced our unique pasta and veggie salads,” DJ added.
For the pasta, The Sandwich Guy offers Tommy Boy (pasta in Fresh Tomatoes and Garlic Sautéed in Olive Oil), Spaghetti La Tomato (Sweet Blend Red Sauce with Ham and Ground beef), Creamy Carbonara (Special White Sauce with Ham and Cheese), Pesto (Basil, Garlic, Nuts in extra Virgin Olive Oil) and Chicken/Seafood Pesto (Pesto with Either Chicken or Crabstick). The prices range P50 to P75.
Baked Potatoes have two choices: Chili Con Carne (mildly spiced ground meat in tomato sauce over marble potatoes) and Cheezy Bacon Potato (bacon and melted cheese over thick potato slices). Prices range from P70 to P75.
For the Veggie Salads, they have Caesar Salad, Mango Banana Salad, Tuna Salad, Egg Salad and Chicken Salad. Prices range from P55 to P80.
DJ said based on the location of each branch, their bestsellers may vary. Besides HBLT, Country Tuna and Veggie Delights, they have other wonderful choices of sandwiches.
They also have Grilled Cheese (premium cheese with lettuce & garlic sauce), Beef Pastrami (all natural beef pastrami & salami with lettuce & cheese), Grilled Tender Chicken (grilled chicken, lettuce & Caesar dressing), Italian Style (juicy Italian ham, pepperoni & cheese), Chicken & Eggs (Polo Rosmarino with egg lettuce & cheese), Ultimate Roastbeef (prime roasted beef with cheese, mushrooms, lettuce & unions) and BBQ Chicken (stewed chicken with special BBQ sauce).
Also on their sandwich list is Crabstick & Mangoes (crabstick & fresh Mango slice with seaweeds), Pink Salmon (Salmon with Basil Lettuce and Cheese), Mushy Bacon (bacon, beef and mushroom melt) and TSG Bigtime (three deli choices & three slices of bread).
“The pricing is affordable without sacrificing much of the quality. We’re alternative to the common. We’re helping the nation to eat sandwiches. We serve fresh and healthy sandwiches daily,” says DJ.
The products’ major come-on: Fresh not fried.
“Admittedly, we’re not yet a sandwich-eating nation. We’re still into rice. With affordable, mouth-watering sandwiches we offer, we’d like people to know we’re already here and they have choices,” he adds.
Based on his experience, DJ said sandwich could be very hard to market, in terms of the number of customers. He said people are at first curious of the outlook and name of their stores.
But people come back again, many times a day. It helps that their stores all over the metro run 24/7.
How did it all start?
“Ever since, I love making and eating sandwiches at the house. I just want to get better alternative to burger,” says DJ.
“We created our own patented hexagon wheat sandwiches. We figure out the size would basically fill you up but not too much. It’s kinda enough though our sandwiches are bigger than others,” he adds.
As an afterthought their hexagon sandwiches are bigger than normal.
The first branch opened in January 2008 at Robinsons Cybergate. It was followed by the McKinley Branch in Taguig City in the middle of 2008.
When 2009 kicked in, branches sprouted all over the metro and it has been unstoppable ever since.
“Our stores are open for 24 hours. We basically cater to working people, especially those office people who hardly have time to be health conscious,” DJ says.
So what’s next for The Sandwich Guy?
“Make tons of sandwiches, worldwide,” says DJ.
And as more Filipinos crave for something new to their palate without the calorie guilt and without hurting much their pocket, The Sandwich Guy could be the next big thing.
For the meantime, checking out the nearest branch and trying out their sandwiches, pasta, potatoes and salad is the next best thing to do.
For more, visit www.thesandwichguy.com or add them on Facebook. Depending on the branch, they also offer home or office deliveries. (advt)
