Based on price for quality, it seems Bread Head may have missed its target audience in Westwood.
The sandwich shop’s Westwood location, the chain’s third location after Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach, opened Nov. 1. Bread Head’s menu features nine cold sandwiches and a daily special for every weekday. Each sandwich comes in the store’s iconic custom focaccia, and although the sandwiches are evidently fresh and handmade, their simplicity and cost – between $14 and $17 per sandwich – make it hard to justify, especially for a college student.
The restaurant itself is quite small, with minimal seating, though it seemed the majority of its orders were to go. The large number of employees for the relatively small shop ensured the long line moved fairly quickly, keeping the interior from getting too crowded. With retro-style interior decorations, the place felt equally inviting to both students and the local working public.
With the large jug of complimentary water and more bottles of Zab’s hot sauce than there were chairs, the shop seemed like a good space to hang around in at first. However, the store’s small size and the great length of the order line that divided the seating area and restaurant in half, alongside the incredibly busy employees tending to that line, complicated this. The result was a confused feel, almost as though the restaurant could not decide whether it wanted customers to stick around a while or get out the door as fast as possible.
The first sandwich listed on the menu, the Calabrian Turkey, was rather skimpy on the turkey for a $15 sandwich, containing about three slices of meat. The sandwich consisted exclusively of that turkey, cheddar cheese, Calabrian mayo and a significant amount of lettuce, with even something as simple as a tomato requiring an add-on charge. While prepared with clearly fresh ingredients, the combination of too little meat and entirely too much lettuce made for a very underwhelming experience.
One of its $14 sandwiches, the Roast Beef, consisted largely of the same amount of meat, though it was saved from a lettuce takeover by having arugula as its greens. Despite being paired with crescenza cheese, shaved horseradish and garlic mayo, it was still a very bland sandwich. The garlic mayo was particularly perplexing, containing no garlic flavor whatsoever and having no discernible difference between it and the regular mayo.
The BLT sandwich was certainly the biggest sandwich of the three, with large beefsteak tomato slices, fresh lettuce, a fairly decent amount of bacon and more “garlic” mayo. The bacon, though described as “crispy Nueske’s bacon” on the menu, was not particularly crispy but nonetheless had a nice flavor. Both this and its turkey sandwich, however, were more lettuce than anything else – very nice, crisp lettuce, but entirely too much of it for an even balance.
Bread Head’s focaccia was once again clearly freshly baked – but simply a bit plain. Since the loaf is cut in half to make up the two slices, the result is a very thin, fairly hard bread that is altogether an odd choice as a base for some of its ingredients, especially in tandem with its ingredient ratios. The sandwiches were not very filling, either, particularly as they consisted mostly of lettuce and a small amount of meat, but especially with their thin bread.
Featured in the center of the menu on the restaurant’s wall is an encouragement to try its sandwiches with a dab of Zab’s hot sauce, which is complimentary whether you choose dine-in or take-out. Given the bland flavoring of its sandwiches, this and the incessant pushing of the sauce on the part of the employees seems to make sense. The hot sauce itself has a nice, strong flavor that, while not overbearing, has a decent amount of kick to it, perfect for someone wanting to spice things up. That being said, one has to wonder which of its sandwich options this is intended to pair best with.
Dark chocolate coffee cookies, the shop’s only sweets option, seemed to have their “coffee” gone by the way of the garlic in their mayo. Three cookies for $4, which, at about two inches in diameter each, feels rather steep. While they consist of a moist, almost brownie-like texture, the most powerful flavor comes from the sea salt. The chocolate taste was pleasant but not particularly bitter for dark chocolate, without a single hint of coffee to be found. Like the sandwiches, the cookies were fine enough – but certainly not worth their price point.
As a whole, Bread Head’s sandwiches are at best boring but decent, and at worst a bit of a protein-lean disappointment that, in either case, left for a less-than-satisfying experience. The quality of the ingredients suggests potential that the final product simply does not fulfill, leaving a sense that they could be great with just a bit more substance and intention. But the consistently lopsided ingredient ratios and lack of flavor make it hard to justify the pricing, especially for Westwood clientele.
Bread Head is certainly not a stop to avoid, but it is difficult to find a reason to rush back.
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