The Carvery: Serving some of the best sandwiches in Surrey
Tucked away in a business park beside an auto glass repair shop is one of the best sandwiches you’ll find in Metro Vancouver. The Carvery Sandwich Shop debuted in February of 2016 and has been supplying South Surrey with some incredible sandwiches ever since.
Dished was able to visit the sandwich shop and try some of these legendary sandwiches. And let us tell you, it’s well worth the drive down to South Surrey.
We also sat down with owner Bryan Mendiola to chat about his restaurant, what makes his sandwiches so good, and how COVID-19 and recent inflation have affected his business.
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Why the name “The Carvery”?
“Do you know what? It’s just one of those things,” Mendiola laughed. “You can see I’m very meat and protein-heavy. I’m not a vegan. I’m not gluten-free or vegetarian. That’s not my expertise. I don’t claim to be that.”
However, vegetarians can rest assured that The Carvery does offer a vegetarian sandwich and the odd vegetarian soup here and there, but Mendiola said it’s not his specialty.
Marco Ovies/Dished
“It’s no different than me if I was to walk into a salad place and say, ‘Hey, look, we want a burger.'”
Mendiola did reassure us that they do cater to customers with dietary restrictions but simply said where The Carvery shines is with its meat sandwiches. “All we’re trying to say is this is what we do best.”
The star of the show (the sandwiches… duh)
During our visit, Mendiola invited us behind the counter to watch him make three of the Carvery’s Sandwiches. He started with the famous Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich (which we practically begged to sample during our email correspondence).
“The inspiration for it is when Popeyes and Chick-fil-A did a ‘who had the best sandwich,’ and I’m like, ‘You know what, we’re gonna do that.’ And it was pretty successful. Obviously, it’s hard to compare because mine is a lot bigger than a fast-food sandwich. It’s a lot bigger.”
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And a lot bigger it is. What makes these chicken sandwiches so great is they are deep-fried twice to get that ultimate crunch. The Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich is only available on Wednesdays and the first Saturday of every month because it is part of the daily changing sandwich features.
“All our features sandwich are really creative,” said Mendiola. “[It’s] not something that you can just go down the road and say, ‘Hey, I want this sandwich.’ It’s something special that we make. I personally take pride in creating specifically for my clientele.”
Plus, everything is made fresh to order, right down to the slaw put on the sandwich. We watched Mendiola grab the greens and mix it with the sauce right in front of our eyes. This freshness carries its way all the way down to the bun and sauce, which is made in-house.
“Our brioche comes from our local Cobbs Bread,” shared Mendiola. “They make it specifically for us. The same goes for our Philly.”
And speaking of the Philly, what an incredible sandwich. These sandwiches are a meal and a half chock full of meat.
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“I don’t want to mention names of who makes the sandwiches, but we all know who they are. You get probably 25% worth of deli meat in your sandwich, and the rest is filler, where I’m using one whole muscle of meat,” said Mendiola.
And we can confirm that you get a heck of a lot of meat in your sandwich. Just picking it up and feeling its weight is enough to convince you.
While the sandwiches are definitely the stars of the show, we’d be remiss not to mention the soup. Every day there is a rotation of three to four different soups. We were lucky enough to visit when the famous chowder was on the menu, and we promise that it does not disappoint.
The inspiration
What we enjoyed the most was hearing the reasoning behind each menu item. Each sandwich was accompanied by a story that inspired Mendiola to add it to the menu.
“One of the best Philly’s I’ve ever had was not in Philadelphia; it was in Las Vegas,” laughed Mendiola.
“In you’re a traditional Philly cheesesteak sandwich, you’re using cheese whiz. I’m a real cheese guy. So what we actually do is replace the cheese whiz with shredded mixed cheese, which is a three cheese mozza, edam and cheddar.” He continued to talk about how a traditional Philly doesn’t include vegetables, while his version by default has sautĂ©ed onions, green and red peppers, and mushrooms. Then it’s finished with garlic aioli, one of the staple sauces on The Carvery’s menu.
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But while a lot of the sandwiches have a story associated with a trip, one sandwich had a more local flare.
“Remember Tsui Hang in Granville?” he asked us. “3 am was the magic time when you come out of the club and there’s that hole in the wall where you can order barbecue pork and rice. I will never forget that barbecued pork. So, what I did was I made my own barbecue pork, combined that with a banh mi, and I kind of did my own version of it with pickled daikon and carrots.” The sandwich is finished with The Carvery’s garlic aioli, jalapeños, and that fresh bun.
This sandwich is only available on Friday, so we were unfortunately unable to sample it (but we definitely have plans to come back soon).
Running a restaurant post-COVID-19
“People think that the COVID thing is over,” said Mendiola. “Yes, the COVID thing is over. But the aftermath of the COVID thing we’re seeing is worse than ever before with record inflation.”
“People need to realize that inflation is the byproduct of COVID,” he continued. “It’s worse than it’s ever been. Oil used to be $20, and I’ll tell us right now my jug of oil is $47.”
“We haven’t made money since COVID, even though we’re busy,” said Mendiola. “2024 will be a very rough year for a lot of small businesses. We’re lucky.”
“I feel like Forrest Gump on that shrimp boat,” he laughed.
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But despite pandemic struggles, The Carvery was able to persevere and even give back to the community.
Mendiola was one of the founders of Lunches for Healthcare Workers, a program designed to provide free meals to frontline workers.
“I fed nurses in front of frontline helpers, and it went viral,” he said. “I gave all my food, cooked all my food, and fed the nurses and frontline workers.”
“I actually ended up opening up a GoFundMe, which raised like $8,000,” he said. “I used that money to buy food from a pizza restaurant that was struggling to give to the nurses. So it was a double help. I helped some places keep afloat during the hard times and fed the nurses at the same time.”
Additionally, Mendiola mentioned he loved being a part of the community and said we’d see him and The Carvery at this year’s Cloverdale Santa Claus parade.
To put it simply…
To put it simply: The Carvery is serving some great food. Whether you’re looking for a warm bowl of soup or one of its many amazing sandwiches, there are few places better than The Carvery.
The Carvery is open Monday to Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm. Be sure to follow The Carvery on social media to stay up to date on the daily feature sandwich.
The Carvery Surrey
Address: #102-2430 King George Boulevard, Surrey