It has been on the menu since the very beginning, it has never been pulled, and according to co-owner Mack Bowers, it remains one of his personal favourites. The eggplant sandwich at Sunny Side Sandwiches is quietly making a case for being the best vegetarian sanger in Brisbane, and it deserves a lot more attention than it typically gets.
What Is Sunny Side Sandwiches and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?
If you spend any time on food-focused social media, Sunny Side Sandwiches will likely feel familiar. The brand has built a steady following across its now three Brisbane locations, having launched its Windsor store in 2021, added Paddington in 2023, refurbished Windsor in April this year, and opened an East Brisbane outpost in June. The neatly branded stores have developed a reputation for sandwiches that are, by most accounts, very, very good.
The business is run by married couple Mack Bowers and Charline De Conto, who have refined and tightened the menu over time. One of the most significant upgrades has been the introduction of house-made Hokkaido-style shokupan bread, a pillowy Japanese-style milk bread that underpins everything. It is baked in-house, sliced thin, and maintains its structure without falling apart under the weight of the fillings.
The undisputed flagship is the classic chicken schnitty sandwich, which is widely regarded as one of Brisbane's best sandwiches. But Bowers is quick to point out that the eggplant sandwich, while vegetarian, is no consolation prize.
The Eggplant Sandwich: What Goes Into It
"The eggplant sandwich has been there since day one," Bowers says. "It has all the best bits of the classic schnitty, but for vegetarians."
A serious amount of preparation goes into producing it. The eggplant is sliced, bathed in salt water, and coated in panko breadcrumbs. Rather than going directly into the fryer, the crumbed slices are frozen first. Bowers explains the reasoning: at room temperature, thin slices of eggplant can break apart in the fryer, but freezing them first helps them hold their shape through the cooking process.
Once fried, the sandwich is assembled along the same lines as the chicken schnitty. Two slices of crispy eggplant go in, with optional American cheese pressed between them. That is followed by chopped iceberg lettuce dressed in Japanese mayo with dill, parsley and chives, plus bread and butter pickles, all tucked into slices of the house shokupan. The finishing touch is a "magic sprinkle" of the shop's signature seasoning blend, which includes salt, nutritional yeast, Korean chilli flakes and, as Bowers puts it, "a few other little secret herbs and spices."
The result is a sandwich with remarkable range: crispness from the eggplant, crunch from the iceberg, brightness and acid from the pickles, richness and herbaceous tang from the mayo, and a deep, lingering umami from that seasoning blend. The shokupan, sliced thin but structurally sound, holds the whole thing together without overwhelming it.
Should You Order It Even If You Are Not Vegetarian?
Bowers thinks so, and it is hard to argue with him. "It's something that you should definitely try once," he says, "because once we've prepared it, it really has as much going on as the chicken schnitty, but in this different format."
The eggplant sandwich was perhaps never going to outshine the schnitty in terms of raw popularity, but as a standalone dish it is genuinely impressive. The power move, if you are visiting with someone, is to order both and split them down the middle.
The eggplant sandwich is priced at $18.80 and is available at the East Brisbane store at 1007 Stanley Street East, as well as the Paddington location at 173A Latrobe Terrace. The Windsor store rounds out the three-location setup.
For a city that takes its sandwich culture seriously, this one is well worth going out of your way for.
