Birley Sandwiches

Been seeing my colleagues getting coffee here for a few days, so thought I should try it out as well.
It’s a lovely nice little store, and the display fridge is full of super eye appealing sandwiches! Man, that salmon cream cheese bagel man! Looked soo awesome!
Coffee was decent but not the best I’ve had. It was a lot better than those chain competition coffee stores where you just need to push a button and some brown liquid comes out. Birley here they do tamper and do your proper coffee, but my initial experience was just only slightly above average.
I was quite bummed they didn’t give me a Birley cup today so I only had a plain cup to show.

There are SIX Birleys in Canary Wharf. I found out the hard way, and since I don’t want you to suffer the same fate, I’m going to tell you the differences.
DOES NOT SERVE SALT BEEF BRISKET or any carved meat
1. Canada Place: Birley Sandwiches — has no Unilocal placement and serves a variety of soup and sandwiches.
2. Canada Place: Birley Baguette kiosk
3. Cabot Place West: Birley Soups and Salad
4. Cabot Place West: Birley Sandwiches
5. West India Dock: Birley Sandwiches
}}}}SERVES SALT BEEF BRISKET AND OTHER CARVED MEAT{{{{
6. Canada Square: Birley Salt Beef Bar — this review you are reading now. This place does not serve soup or salad and is the one you are probably looking for, specializing in carved meat unlike any of the other joints who serve normal deli sandwiches. It is located next to the Reuters Plaza, in Canada _​SQUARE_​, not Canada Place.
A display case of 4 – 5 chefs carving the meat and making you sandwiches under heating lamps: Salt beef brisket, pork belly, scottish roast beef, roast turkey breast, new zealand lamb, and cumberland sausage. 5.50 GBP for a sandwich full of meat, 3.50 for a half sandwich full of meat.
They have breakfast sandwiches/​bloomers in the morning, some drinks, and some dessert, but no one cares. Come here for the hot juicy meat sandwiches. I tried the fluffy white bloomer bread with apple sauce and pork belly (and roasted crispy skin on top) (5.50 GBP) and the bloomer with salt beef briskets, English mustard, gherkins (5.75 GBP). No salad, no cheese (I’m pretty sure they’re not even options), just what I named. SO.GOOD. My boyfriend likes the pork belly more than the salt beef brisket. I could not choose. If there’s going to be one thing I will miss about Canary Wharf, it will be Birley’s Salt Beef Bar.
The queue/​line could get long, but it’s so fast you won’t even feel it. Service is sweet. You can pay by card without issue. If you like juicy meat sandwiches, this is the place for you. GO!

I had heard a lot about this place from friends. So went there for lunch yesterday and was disappointed with the salt beef sandwich after a long wait. I think I would go back to Ruebens on Baker Street as they probably do the best salt beef sandwich in London.

During my recent business trip to my company’s London office my colegues & I were looking for a quick grab and go type breafast stop. Reliable ‘Yelp’ pointed out an shop close to the office that would satisfy my ravenous morning appetite. They really didn’t disappoint.
I had their ‘Hot Sausage & Egg Bloomer’ and let me tell you it truly filled my ravenous morning hunger. This was a VERY pleasant surprise as I was uncertain if any of the English breakfast fare would satisfy my morning appetite. I passed this shop on my way into the office during my stay in London and saw the line of people taking away these great little packages of hearty sandwiches. It was mid week when I decided to give them a try and boy I was not disappointed.
If you’re ever in Canary Wharf you must try this place for your morning meal. Just make sure you are as hungry as I am in the morning because the food her was very filling

Roast pork belly sandwich, dig in, say no more. A must try to fatty meat lover, better than salt beef as my personal opinion.

Get here before noon, otherwise when the lunch hour hits the line builds up seemingly out of thin air; civil financial business-​men and –women going through the grind in Canary Wharf flock here and then snake around the imposed queue an orderly fashion. Reason why: you get nice cuts of freshly carved juicy meat and a slathering of sauce on thick slices of fluffy fresh bread. In a city that loves sandwiches (but tends to get stuck with a selection of malty, mayonnaise-​y things tucked into in cardboard triangles from the grab-​and-​go at the local grocery), this is a proper deli giving sandwiches their due respect.

This has been a great spot for years. The lunchtime meat sandwiches take some beating. Meat is carved and piled into really fresh soft bread in front of your eyes. When you think they can’t possibly add more meat, the knife goes swish and they cram it in. Gherkin on the side, and bam a great lunch for about £6.50. Recommend the salt beef and the pork with crackling.

The best place in Canary Wharf for lunch. Hands down. With all the Prets and Eats and junky pre-​made mayo-​filled sandwiches you can get in the area, Birley’s is a shining star. I go to this one in Canada Square any time I want a good, made-​to-​order sandwich. Seriously, coming from NYC, the one thing I really truly missed was a good deli where you could go up to the counter, tell the guy what you wanted — bread, meat, cheese and all — and boom, it was there for you. This is it. They don’t skimp on the meat or the cheese or the dressings, for that matter, and it’s all in a budget-​friendly price range.
There are many Birley’s locations out in the Wharf and all of them get crowded around lunchtime, but don’t be alarmed, the queues all move relatively quick. This is my sandwhich place. I go to the Birley’s at Churchill place (near the post office) when I want a good salad or a soup. And when I want a quick pre-​made but not refrigerated sandwich, I go to the baguette stand across from the HSBC in the mall.

This is the place to come if you are still feeling a little ropey at lunch following a heavy night out the day before. As the name suggests, Hot Salt Beef is to the fore but the other meat options (turkey, pork and sausage) are equally good. Slices of your choice of meat are piled into your choice of bread with all the appropriate condiments on offer. Nothing could be more delicious.
As other reviewers noted this outlet is cash only and has no vegetarian option. So, not a place to bring friends who are not dedicated carnivores.

Sandwich here melts in your mouth, seriously. Inexpensive, top quality, perfect portion and great servers.
Cash only

Delicious roast beef sandwiches. I got the roast beef sandwich for 5.50 pounds. They slice the beef right in front of you, so you know its fresh. Its very tender too. They customize your sandwich too, you can choose to have mustard, pickles, horseradish etc.

When I used to eat meat I really loved this place. The salt beef is right on the button and the lamb is delish. They also serve pork joints and sausages. The counter has several prep boards (about 6) — you place your order and can watch them make your sandwich: slicing the joint, choping the pickles…
There are NO non meat alternatives so veggies needn’t pay any attention to this place (to be honest, I would still avoid if there were as there’s a lot of meat handling). I still pass by here to pick up a treat for a lazy friend and have a chat with a couple of staff members that I’ve grown to know over time — they’re very friendly and a few are very generous with their servings.
During the peak lunchtimes you’ll find a snakelike queue formed, which mainly consists of men :-)
There are a few seats to the right of the counter, which get occupied really quickly during peak times.

My foray into the British tradition of hitting the pub for a few rounds after work left me in a somewhat weakened state the next morning. Determined to regain my winner mojo, I wandered the maze of underground shopping underneath canary wharf and discovered the Birley egg bloomer ($ 2.50 + $ 0.50 for cheese). For non-​Brits, egg bloomers are egg sandwiches, and Birley doesn’t mess around in this arena.
Truly a breakfast of champions (and the spinach to my Popeye), my sandwich had two freshly fried eggs, several slices of melted real cheese (not that there’s anything wrong with American cheese) on top of a delicious toasted baguette. Despite only having 2 eggs, the sandwich was enormous and intensely satisfying.
PARTING THOUGHT: after breakfast, I put on a cape, flexed my newly enormous biceps and conquered the world…

You know how some sandwich places give you something with just a couple slices of paper thin meat? The ones where the volume of salad on the bread greatly outweighs that of the meat? Ok, well Birley’s Salt Beef Bar is the complete opposite of that. Unless you’re a fan of roast meats on your sandwich, and not much else, you’re not going to want to come here. The sandwiches are essentially meat, bread, meat, sauce, meat and then a bit more meat. Just how I like it :)
The sandwiches are made to order. If you’re going for lunch, either get there early or late. Otherwise you’ll end up in a twisting and turning queue tortured the whole time by the sights and smells of the amazing roast meats being assembled into mammoth sandwiches.
As you arrive at the counter your order is taken. You have your choice of four or five fresh crusty breads and baguettes to begin with. I generally go with the rye. They hack two thick slices directly off the loaf and throw them down on the thick butcher block which is their carvery workspace.
Next comes the meat. Your choices are salt beef (from which they obviously get their name), leg of lamb, roast beef, gammon, turkey or a sausage. Let me tell you, they are all damn good. I rotate amongst the roasts, but generally gravitate towards the lamb. Once you choose your meat, the carver deftly spears the roast of your choice and slides it front and center. And begins to carve. …and carve. …and carve. The first time I ate here I thought to myself «hmm… he must just be cutting extra meat off for another salt beef sandwich that he’s sure someone will order.» Nope, it was all for me. Wow.
Finallly you get to choose how to dress your sandwich. No lettuce, tomato, cheese or anything like that here. Simply a sauce and perhaps some coarse salt and ground pepper. Each type of roast has a default sauce that comes with it. Salt and roast beef is horseradish mustard, lamb is a mint sauce, turkey is a cranberry spread. However, you can request whatever you’d like. I generally go with horseradish mustard, mint, salt and pepper with my leg of lamb.
At the end of the process you have an assembled mountain of meat sandwiched between a couple thick slices of moist, chewy, crusty bread with a swipe of sauce to keep it interesting. Throw in half a gherkin on the side and something to drink an you’ve got an incredible lunch on your hands. This is clearly a four star sandwich for me.