Jimi Famurewa reviews Sons + Daughters: Knockout sarnies prompt inexpressible joy

A textural frenzy: The egg miso mayo sandwich with truffle crisps at Sons + Daughters
James Ramsden
Jimi Famurewa @jimfam10 October 2019

Food: 4/5

Ambience: 4/5

Is it weird to admit that some of the most intensely enjoyable moments of my eating week generally involve a Lego-strewn kitchen table in south-east London and something hurriedly crammed between two bits of bread?

Because, honestly, it’s true. There may be enlivening excursions to hypey food courts, dazzling pub residencies and innovative new restaurants but, ultimately, there is a specific chamber of my heart that can only be accessed by fish fingers, a smear of mayo and some cornichons on slices of soft, thick-buttered tiger loaf.

My point, I suppose, is that a truly great, home-made sandwich can be quite a profound thing; a lustful melding of elements that feels balanced but also possesses a degree of fridge-raiding, experimental chaos. I thought of this, more than once, over the course of lunch at Sons + Daughters: a new all-day sandwich shop in King’s Cross where a come-hither menu (sriracha salt French fries and egg miso mayo butties piled with truffle crisps) is delivered with poise, attentiveness and flair.

Phenomenal: The 'Merguez S+Dwich’ sandwich at Sons + Daughters 

There is a spiritual similarity to London stalwarts such as Max’s Sandwich Shop and (the weirdly close-by) Bodega Rita’s. But the founders here — James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy, who also gave us Hackney’s Pidgin — have clearly been influenced by a particular sort of gleaming, generous, New York counter operation. Arriving at Coal Drops Yard for Friday lunch, me and my pal Joe found a dazzling, pristinely tiled modern diner, splashed with cool blues and greys, and stocked with craft beer and cocktails. The place was lightly abuzz with intrigued hordes either sitting down or cradling hefty takeaway orders, tight-wrapped in sexy brown butcher’s paper.

These bulky packages were our first clue that the sandwiches here practically have their own gravitational field. And yes, when it arrived, the ‘Merguez S+Dwich’ was a daunting, forearm-length baguette, loaded with lamb sausages, a lavish fistful of fries and fluoro loops of pink pickled onion. But beyond the brutish exterior there was nuance and careful engineering; the airy, yielding crunch of fantastic bread giving way to the muffling squish of fried potato, zinging gremolata and a bewitching, rolling tide of robustly spiced meat. Phenomenal.

And there was similar cleverness beneath the thick-cut bonnet of the ‘Chicken S+Dwich’: a toasted white bloomer, loaded with a knockout textural frenzy of flavoursome Swaledale bird, crackled chicken skin, gem lettuce and crumbling sheafs of soy-aged parmesan. If I have a note, it is that the condiments — green sauce and miso mayo — were perhaps crowded out by the parade of other elements. But it is a small niggle. There were some capable side dishes as well: a ‘pickle plate’ of baby fennel, carrots and more steeped in a strident, electric pink brine; crunchable plumes of gem lettuce with a dribble of avocado and cucumber dressing plus gorgeous, rough-cut Isle of Wight tomatoes that seemed to have been added erroneously. We made sure to save room for soft serve ice cream that read as both conventional (peanut butter and jelly with croissant crunch) and lightly challenging (focaccia vanilla with olive oil and rosemary).

Gleaming counter: the main room in Sons + Daughters 

Made with properly creamy Poco Gelato and trickled Newton & Pott preserves, they were smart, diverting fun. But if you go to S+D — and you must — then you are there for sandwiches; structurally precise monsters that only cost a bit more than their Pret equivalents, prompt inexpressible joy and tend to be physical acts of antisocial concentration. Ramsden and Herlihy have created something that spills over with lively imagination and a detectable, dogged urge to satisfy. I suggest we grab it with both hands.

Sons + Daughters

1 Merguez £9

1 Chicken £9.50

1 Pickle plate £2.50

1 San Pellegrino lemonade £2

1 Flat white £2.50

1 Gem lettuce £3.50

1 Focaccia soft serve £3

1 PBJ soft serve £3

Total £35

Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, N1C (sonsanddaughterslondon.com)

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