Fat Pats

Fat Pat’s started as a Manchester sandwich shop before running a Bethnal Green dark kitchen operation for London orders. It now has an actual shopfront on Hanbury Street, just off Brick Lane, with a handful of seats, though most people still order for collection or delivery rather than sitting in.

There are four subs and they don’t change often. The Philly cheesesteak and the hot honey fried chicken are the two that built the reputation, both packed into a milk roll that’s baked fresh each morning, big enough that one will do for lunch and dinner. A shrimp po’boy and an eggplant muffuletta round out the list for anyone not after meat.

What makes the sandwiches work is the bread. The milk rolls are soft enough to give when you bite but sturdy enough to hold steak, gherkins and sauce without falling apart halfway through, which is not a small thing when the fillings are this wet and generous. The kitchen is run by a chef with a fine-dining background, and it shows in how deliberately each sandwich is put together rather than just piled high.

The trade-off is that this is still a grab-and-go setup at heart. Don’t expect a sit-down restaurant experience, table service or much in the way of atmosphere. It’s a sandwich shop that happens to have a few stools, and it can sell out of certain fillings on busy days since everything is made fresh rather than stockpiled.

Worth knowing if you’re coming from further out: the Shoreditch shop is the only physical location, so anyone outside delivery range for the old dark kitchen now has to visit in person or order via Uber Eats.