[REVIEW] Borderi Panini Shop — [MODEL] appetite

Call me crazy but we waited 1 hour and 45 minutes for…….wait for it……..a sandwich. Well, a panini to be precise. After a pretty lazy start to the day we headed on over for a late lunch. Little did we know exactly how late it would be. Before we saw the name of the restaurant we saw the queue. Wrapping out around the side of the restaurant and down the street we were pretty confident we were in the right place. But how long could it take really? It was just a sandwich. “It could take 10 minutes or two hours. Depends how long her decides to talk for.” Is what we overheard the waiter was telling the people behind us. Guess we were in this for long haul.

Thankfully they were dishing out nibbles and tastings for the queue goers. An olive here and a slice of mozzarella there was not only enough to keep us going it was also enough to entice us to remain in line. The freshest, most flavourful ingredients and I couldn’t wait to devour more of them in one giant mouthful. I say giant but these paninis are probably better described as outrageously humungous. Ordering one each was possibly not the best plan of attack as one between two would have more than sufficed.

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It was a one-man band, he was in his 60s and he was seriously working the crowd. Obviously we had no idea what he was saying but he helped pass the time and was entertaining none the less, especially when he started doing impressions of Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump which basically consisted of him walking like a fat penguin and shooting bombs out of bazookas.

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Finally, we got to the front of the line and it was time to witness the makings of what I believe is one of the best paninis I’ve tasted. Fresh, soft ciabatta loaded up with practically half the deli. Prosciutto, mortadella, mozzarella, baked ricotta, pesto, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, lettuce, garlic and onion. Among a myriad of other things of which I can’t remember……We perched on the steps of the Cathedral and took our first bite. I fell into panini heaven whereas Georges was not so smitten. He thought there were too many flavours, however I loved discovering and exploring all the flavours on offer. Sadly, half the panini ended up on the floor as we struggled to open our mouths wide enough but what we did eat we (or I) loved. Needless to say we didn’t need dinner that night.