Heroes Sandwich Bar

Heroes is my favourite sandwich bar in Oxford. The owner recently took over running the place and she’s really passionate about fast and friendly service.

Heros is my favourite café in Oxford. As a student who lives in the central Oxford, I have been to pretty much every café in the area. Firstly, the heros paninis and sandwiches are the nicest I’ve ever had! As someone who’s gone to probably 100 sandwich shops in my life on more than 2 occasions each that’s something! In particular, the Santa Cruz wrap, Mexican panini and mango and curry chicken ciabatta are amazing. Another great perk is that they offer 10% student discount, or a free shortbread if you buy a sandwich if you have a Oxford union card. Overall heros is an exceptional place to grab a quick lunch!

So we went back this summer. Uh, I think I had Hero’s confused with Henry’s (or is it Harvey’s?) which is on High Street. We ate the curry chicken sandwich here at Heros. It’s nothing to rave about. Watch your belongings while eating here. I had my purse stolen while eating at the bar.

DO NOT GO HERE. There are plenty of lovely cafes in Oxford where you can enjoy great food without having to be treated as though you are an absolute pain by the staff at this place. They do make up the sandwiches while you wait and in full view but this does not always mean it’s a good thing. Being vegetarian I did not appreciate having my sandwich made on a chicken-​strewn chopping board and cut with a knife used for slicing chicken. When I asked her to chop off the ends of the baguette with a clean knife — quite reasonable in the circs, I thought, she got really stroppy and banged about making me a new one with such bad grace it was quite embarrassing. Also a woman on the next table had an inedible stale muffin. Def one to avoid!

Hard to know what to say, to be honest; this is a good sandwich bar with lovely fresh bread and excellent sandwich fillings, and the menu is really varied, but when I’ve been in there, staff always seem curt and brusque and don’t really appear to give a toss about service. The area for eating in is tiny I don’t see why people bother, to be honest, unless it’s raining outside or something and the sandwiches are pretty expensive. They are made fresh in front of you (rather than earlier that morning, like at Morton’s) which is a bonus, butwell, the staff tend to put me off.

Ah, Herpes (as it is so often bedaubed). Victim of its own success. Has got a bit sloppy and chaffed of late. Was once the king of the Oxford sandwich shop (c. 2000) but has slowly declined to the husk of mediocrity it now remains. Like that guy who never finishes his PhD and has been hanging round college for years, it’s a good old friend but you can’t help feel that it could have achieved so much more if it had just tried that bit harder.

I agree with LLB85. It is a nice enough sandwich bar which was pleasantly empty and cool on a very hot lunchtime with newspapers to read and an enticing offer of filter coffee with free refills. Sadly the fact the staff seemed more interested in their own conversations seemed to slow down the production of my milkshake which was served in a plastic container even though I was eating in.

This place does fantastic sandwiches, including some lovely hot specials — try the mexican chicken, really tasty. All of the sandwiches are filled to bursting and are packed with tasty, fresh ingredients. The dressings in particular are lovely, give them a try.
There’s a nice range of cakes and drinks here too, which you can enjoy in limited seating — it’s quite a nice space, but I prefer a take away from here.
The only qualm that I have with this place is the speed — it takes some time to get your food. It’s also a bit more expensive than some of the other sandwich shops.