Lunch Hour: Favourite Fillings
This week, Lunch Hour takes you to the unpretentious yet beloved Favourite Fillings in our effort to find the best places in the CBD to grab a bite to eat on your work break.
This is one of those “if you know, you know” kind of places. So if you don’t know, let me tell you that Favourite Fillings goes so hard. On the day I go to visit, there’s a line lingering outside the door of the small shop, which is tucked in a corner spot on Gawler Place, next to Anytime Fitness.
Favourite Fillings is of the same ilk as Vili’s Family Bakery or those corner stores you would visit in the late 90s and early 2000s. It’s proudly stuck in a time when sandwiches didn’t have to solve the world’s problems, where instead they’re just a simple lunch option.
Co-owners Mario and Kathy Cavuoto told Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith on Instagram they’ve been around for over 25 years and Kathy said “I didn’t think we’d be here this long and doing this for so long”. I can only imagine very little has changed from when they first opened the doors all those years ago.
This is my favourite part about Favourite Fillings – its unpretentious nature. This place was dropped in from the past, and hasn’t succumbed to the sando-renaissance that’s happened in Adelaide over the last two years (the price point also represents this).
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The glass walls have the logo – the words Favourite Fillings and an F F square design written in blue and yellow in Comic Sans – lining the entrance. The Monjava Coffee branding is also on show. Inside, there are racks with packet chips and other modest goodies available for purchase, and yellow and blue tiles cover most of the interior.
If you’re one to be indecisive about your food choices, then Favourite Fillings might not be for you.
The 20-plus item sandwich menu – written on a chalkboard above the counter – can be intimidating to some. However, a trusted foodie friend of mine gave me recommendations, so I felt less intimidated than most. Let me be that friend for you, dear reader.
Firstly, have a read of the sandwich board through the picture attached below; when you rock up to Favourite Fillings, you will have some kind of an idea of what you want.
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Apologies… sandwiches 25 to 28 have been cut off, but you get the gist.
I was recommended the number three – the super salad – or the number 13 – a smoked turkey concoction.
I had every intention to walk into Favourite Fillings and pick out the three or 13 (after thoroughly studying the picture supplied above), but instinct and cravings took over. I spotted a cream cheese, lamb and a sweet chilli sando concoction and switched my mind late in the game.
It came to $12 and was stuffed to the brim in a large Turkish roll, made right in front of me. I was a happy girl. I also bought a packet of salt and vinegar crinkle-cut Smith’s chips for the walk back to the office.
If you’re after a hit of nostalgia and want to be taken back to a time when a sandwich was simple and the price didn’t break the bank, then you must hit up Favourite Fillings during your Lunch Hour.
What’s your favourite CBD Lunch Hour spot? Let me know.
Favourite Fillings Lunch Bar is located at 111 Gawler Place, Adelaide.