After working from home and enjoying the luxuries it bestows on an individual for 7 years, Knutsfood has moved into office space in Knutsford and after overcoming the first obstacle of having to dress respectably (and actually dress) everyday, I had to find an alternative to being able to jump downstairs whenever hunger struck and raid the fridge for my perfect lunch. I have many choices I Knutsford, I chose five (one for each day) that I thought could become my regular lunchtime haunt. I didn't go to Booths, or the petrol station, or to the pub, instead my quest led me to the sandwich shops of the independents.

I've decided to try and choose something exotic, or rather as far away from cheese or ham salad as I could, so as my choice everyday might seem a bit random, this is just to get a nice colourful spectrum of Knutsford between two slices of bread.

	Monday : The Sanwich van - Chattwins http://www.chatwins.co.uk My first day on my sandwich quest and what should roll up at the offices but the good old sandwich van. Years of working on Business Parks has taught me to be a bit wary of these mystery machines but I have to take my chances. Today's choice was Wensleydale cheese, carrot and onion fruit chutney on multi-seed bread. I thought this sounded good, regional produce, with unusual accompaniments so I paid my £2.40 and had a bit of a chat about the weather and went back to my desk. I'm not to keen on triangles in plastic, but I could tell this was freshly made so I put my prejudice aside and ate it. The sandwich was really nice, you could really taste the Wensleydale which was really well complimented by the sweet chutney, the bread was great as well. I just wish it hadn't been triangular!
	Tuesday : Cranford Café To be honest, I though this would be my winner before I went on this mission. I've eaten here before a couple of times over the years and had a good experience all round. When I went in on Tuesday it was busy, queuing out of the door but it didn't take long before I was asked for my choice. Luckily Cranford have put their posh sandwich menu where the end of the cue is and the everyday menu where you pay so I chose from the posh menu, how could I not. I had Pastrami & Caramelised Onion on white baton (£2.60). But, it was all a bit manic in there, Naively thinking I would be asked if wanted salad, mayo, tomatoes, I got caught up in the hectic lunchtime panic and accepted my sandwich without. I shall know next time to ask for these extras because without them, there was no crunch, it was dry but it was a great sandwich. The bread was tasty, pastrami was nicely complimented by the caramelised onion, it just needed something else.
	Wednesday : Cake & Coffee Shop - King Street. The menu looked great, all the obvious choices, everything and salad, exotic delicacies from asia and then there was a specials menu. Wednesday was Meatballs, which reminded me of the disgusting subway special being advertised on the tele so I didn't go for that, even though the people in front and behind me all had it. I remember wishing I'd been in on a Monday but I can't remember why, so I went for Smoked Salmon and Cream cheese and salad (no Tomatoes) on a white muffin £3.75. It did say from £2.50 on the board, so I couldn't work out if I was short changed or if I just chose too big a balm cake. I have to say this was a good sandwich but, not an amazing sandwich and definitely not pretentious, but fresh and tasty and filling. The only downfall was the bread, a bit stodgy and heavy, I was stuffed after it and there wasn't any real taste or texture to the bread, just bread and I'm not a big fan of iceberg lettuce either which seems to crop up again and again in the sandwich world so I suppose I'll have to live with that but I can't remember asking for egg! As for service, the shop was busy but I didn't have to wait long, they have a good system of scribbling orders on empty bags, popping them through the hatch and coming back full. Not too many smiles going around though, it was all business.
	Thursday : Beatties Sandwich shop Today I went for a more exotic sarnie, Chicken Tikka, Mango and Mint Yoghurt, salad (iceberg) and black pepper on a Granary Baton (£2.60). They make the sandwich in front of you here, and there's a running commentary of the choices you have with you basic foundation: salad? Onions? Mayo? Black peper? Bag? Etc. I had a few of these, regrettably the black pepper as there was a bit much but I shall remember for next time to say no. The sandwich was good. The bread was really nice, there was just enough filling, good combination of flavours, nice crunch of salad (I still dislike iceberg) and filled me up. The presentation wasn't up to much though but then again, it was all nicely wrapped before I unravelled it all for the photo. Beatties is a nice little sandwich shop, probably what I've always liked about sandwich shops. Here theirs is the small business feel, the conversation and the choice and quality.
	Friday : Made my own I woke up a bit earlier anticipating the chore of making my own sarnie to take to work, so juggling getting my little girl ready for nursery with breakfast and making myself respectable I stuck my Tesco's bake at home baguette in the oven for 11 minutes and carried on with the chores. Today's delight from the fridge was peppered salami, Lancashire cheese, mayo, lettuce (not iceburg) and cracked black pepper. This was of course the perfect sandwich, but it's downfall was that the temptation to eat it at 11 o'clock was too much leaving me hungry later on and of course there was no human interaction or distraction from work while choosing.

So to the verdict. I shall be going to most, if not all of these sandwich shops again, just to give them another chance to make a better sandwich if nothing else or rather for me to choose something that they can make to my exact specification. The one place I did feel the most comfortable and I think had the best sandwich because of this was Beatties. Being made to feel like you're their best and favourite customer is priceless in distinguishing these places from McD's and the other chains. So if the sandwich shops of Knutsford are reading this, smile at the bloke who asks for salad without tomatoes and we'll give you a good review.