Balaji Sandwich Stall in Egmore is older than I am. It’s also probably older than most people reading this article. With age, comes experience and with it finely tweaked recipes. Forgive my pun, but their breadwinner (quite literally) is their simple bread omelette; two clean slices of bread that come together to sandwich the perfect omelette, glazed with their signature green chutney, served to you after being toasted gently. It is as yummy as it is quick. The stall is also well equipped to handle large orders, just give them a day’s notice and they’ll have as many as you want packed and ready.
And there are nearly 60+ kinds of sandwiches to pick from. With that much choice, it was hard for me to choose what to get, so I opted to ask Vijay, the culinary extraordinaire at Balaji Sandwich Shop for a recommendation. I was made to start with a Chicken Cheese Toast, yummy and tasty, but I was still hungry. So I asked him if he could recommend something else, and two minutes later I found myself wolfing down a Cheese Bread Omelette. The green chutney was divine. It was so good, I decided I wanted both those sandwiches in one and got the monster Egg Chicken Cheese Bread Omelette.
Fed to the gills, I proceeded to ask Vijay about the intricacies of running the store. The sandwiches are made with freshly-bought ingredients every day. To give you a sense of how crazy folks are about these sandwiches, five copycat sandwich stalls have opened just 20 feet away from Balaji Sandwich Stall. When asked if they pose a threat to his stall, he confidently said that his patrons choose him over the others. So I pressed on and asked him what does pose a threat to his store, and he regretfully said that with the growth of modern, large-scale eateries, stalls like his don’t attract as many customers as they used to, simply because people don’t hear about Balaji Sandwich Stall as much.
We recommend you go ahead and check out Balaji Sandwich Stall just outside Alsa Mall. It’ll be the best INR 100 you spend on food, and you might even make Vijay’s day if you tell him you went there based on this recommendation.