Browns of Heslington

Used to have the best jacket potatoes and cakes around at reasonable prices, recently visited and oh how the mighty have fallen! Ridiculously overpriced (£8 for 2 cheese and bean jacket potatoes which used to cost £4.40!!!) which were absolutely horrible and the staff are miserable as anything. From gorgeous food at reasonable prices and friendly staff to disgusting overpriced rubbish and poor customer service! Safe to say I won’t be returning!

I love the place. Forget the sandwiches the jacket potatoes, pies, pasties, pizza slices and quiche are second to none! People come from all over York for them! The convenience store side is good and has good posh treats. Expensive yes but please can you tell me what village store isn’t? Residents of the village grumble because so many people crowd the village shopping there!

The reviews about sandwiches are mainly by students, who seem to have missed that Brown’s is mainly a convenience store, including grocery, some fruit & veg, and a bakery. I’ve just moved to the area, and I’ve shopped in Brown’s once. I won’t go there again because the person on the till tried to overcharge me on 4 out of 5 items. She was quite annoyed by the time we got to the last item, and I had to point out that the small pot of cream was clearly marked 75p, not the £1.25 she tried to charge for it. Other residents in the village say the overcharging has been going on for years. They advised me to count my change before leaving the shop, and I would advise you to do the same. I dare say the happy students have never tried counting theirs, or they might not be so happy.

I’d have to say that other reviews of this place on Qype have been rather unfair.
Yes, the service isn’t great. A lot of them can be moody/​distracted by a phone call, but it doesn’t really matter in a sandwich shop does it? I mean, it isn’t excusable, but as Vurt says in his review below «there is little alternative in the area». It is with this lack of alternative in mind that I’d advise, against the other reviews on Qype, to eat here.
There is something refreshing about seeing the owner’s varied sandwiches. Yes, some of them are bad, but if you keep a logical approach to which ones you think will be good (i.e. avoid mayo heavy sandwiches or boring, err towards the unusual fillings) then Browns is fantastic.
The thing that is key, and I must emphasise this, is that you must arrive between about 11am-12.30pm. It is at this time that the more unusual sandwiches are on sale. With examples being Duck Pâté and Bree, or Nacho and Mexican Cheese. Technically the sandwiches are on sale from something like 11am-​4pm, but if you get there after 12.30pm, 1pm on a quiet day, all the sandwiches worth the £2.50 are gone, leaving you to look like a wally, wandering in endless circles around the sandwich counter seeing if maybe the eighth time you go around a new batch of Mediterranean Veg sandwiches will have magically appeared.
They also sell some essentials like bread and milk but I’ve never paid enough attention to this to know if it’s good value or not. If I was the shop owner I’d just give up on this side of things and focus on your reputation as a sandwich shop.
If you like, what I would, in an elitist tone, call «boring sandwiches» such as ham and cheese, or egg and cress, this isn’t the place for you. If you can be bothered making the journey go to Mr £andwich on The Shambles where you will get something similar for £1.
Parking:
All over Main Street in Heslington, but people from all over the East/​South side of York flock here to buy lunch, so parking in The Charles XII or Deramore pubs is also an option if it’s busy (if it isn’t busy you aren’t there at the right time).
Overall:
Expensive, odd sandwiches which can be amazing, poor service

Billed as ‘Probably the best sandwiches in the world’ it is anything but.
There is a decent range on offer however 90% of the sandwiches are drowned in mayonnaise with scraped shredded meat. Its often hard to identify which meat is being used.
The prices are also high for what is on offer. They are capitalising on the fact there is little alternative in the area.