All'Antico Vinaio, Sydney Review. Florence's Famous Sandwich Shop Opens in Sydney

All'Antico Vinaio has just landed in Australia with its very first Sydney branch. The iconic Italian sandwich shop with the enormous queues has 61 stores around the world. Find out what is on offer at the Sydney store!

It's a rainy Thursday, the day before the grand opening of All'Antico Vinaio. All'Antico Vinaio is located at 50 Pitt Street around the other side of another famous Italian brand L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele.

MasterChef judge Andy Allen is in the store along with his staff who are doing practice runs creating the sandwiches the brand has become known for. Allen's involvement with the Australian store started two years ago when he was in Florence. After posting pictures of the sandwiches at All'Antico Vinaio, he was approached to become a business partner with Jonny Stewart and Ali Mattar of Fladgate Hospitality Group, bringing the brand to Australia.

It's strictly takeaway only in this small store whose kitchen produces all of the fresh sauces, condiments and fillings for each sandwich made using locally sourced produce. The cheeses, salami and olive oil are imported from Italy.

On the menu are 15 sandwiches, including the Favolosa aka the original sandwich created by the founder Tommaso "Tommy" Mazzanti, made identical to the original recipe. The Paradiso is their best seller with folds of mortadella, stracciatella, cheese and pistachio pesto. The menu also includes one local special sandwich called the "Sydney Special".

All of these are served on the schiacciata bread that Executive Chef William Baffoni is overseeing. He was formerly the head Chef and master pizzaiolo at Fratelli Fresh. This bread is made using Italian Caputo flour and is baked the day before and left to crisp up overnight.

William explains that the recipe changes according to the seasons and the humidity. Each large slab of bread makes six sandwiches and all of the meat is sliced to order, just like in Florence. Mazzanti himself visited the Sydney store to give it his tick of approval and four staff from Italy will spend 2 weeks before and after opening to ensure a smooth transition.

We start with the classic Favolosa with Sbriciolona salami, pecorino cream, artichoke cream and spicy eggplant. The Sbriciolona salami is a Florentine salami made with wild boar and plenty of fennel seeds and garlic that gives this the sandwich its distinctive flavour. This is also Mazzanti's favourite sandwich.

The Paradiso is the best selling sandwich and so far this year All'Antico Vinaio have sold 250,000 of these sandwiches in just Europe and the UK alone. It features a fantastic mortadella, stracciatella cheese, pistachio pesto and chopped pistachios for crunch.

The Inferno is for spicy lovers and is moderately spicy. While the salamis and cheeses are imported from Italy, new laws don't allow importing fresh meat so the porchetta is made with local pork that is thinly sliced and paired with Nduja cream, spicy eggplant and rocket. I would love this even more spicy and so I take half of this home and spread some extra Muraca hot cream peppers and mayonnaise on it and it really pops.

Another best seller is the Boss with prosciutto di Parma DOP, semi matured pecorino, truffle cream and rocket. Some of the sandwiches can be on the drier side but this one has a generous amount of aromatic truffle cream and this really adds so much flavour and aroma to this sandwich.

Last but not least is the local sandwich called the Sydney Special. This is filled with Papandrea's award winning wagyu bresaola, thick shaved parmesan and rocket. The key to this sandwich is the wagyu bresaola with its high 8-9+ marbling score that means that the bresaola just melts like butter. And after trying all of these sandwiches, this might just be my favourite!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried these sandwiches? Which sandwich would you order?