Only In New York…
It was a food story that went viral on social media for very good reason – all about a wildly popular sandwich with oxtail, macaroni ‘n’ cheese and oxtail gravy! So of course I had to eat it!
As the terrific food site “EaterNY” reported, this phenomenon started last year:
“In February, Joshua Dat was handed a million-dollar idea. A customer walked into his corner store in Hollis, Queens, and asked for its signature dish — a Jamaican beef patty filled with macaroni and cheese. But could she add oxtail gravy to that? “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Dat says. Neither had the person who was next in line; he overheard that conversation and ordered one, too.
Eater continues:
“Half a year later, the “mac patty” is on t-shirts and talk shows. It has TikTok videos with millions of viewsand fans bookmarking them in Turkey. To make the dish, Dat cuts open a Jamaican beef patty on one end and piles on American cheese, baked macaroni, and meats like braised oxtail and curried goat. It becomes a sandwich when he puts the stuffed patty inside of coco bread, a slightly sweet Jamaican bun”.
Well, you don’t have to ask me twice – I’m headed to New York’s lower east side, where a second Datz Deli is now open and serving up the “Mac Patty!”
The sandwich board outside says exactly what you can expect:
I wanted my coco bread stuffed with a Jamaican patty and then mac’n’cheese and oxtail – plus oxtail gravy!
So let’s go inside and order that!
I made this video showing the process used to make the sandwich – from packing the coco bread burger with mac’n’cheese and oxtail meat, to adding the gravy and wrapping it all up!
Here are pics to show it being made as well… the sliced coco bread has a beef patty and cheese already on the top half, then LOTS of mac’n’cheese is piled on!
After adding oxtail meat to the bottom, the oxtail gravy is ladled over the meat and mac’n’cheese and it’s packed up to go!
After slicing in in half, the sandwich is packed in a plastic container to take away…
I took mine home to taste, and after carefully unwrapping it from the wax paper, here is what I got:
Look at that sandwich: that is a chunk of oxtail meat amid the oxtail sauce and the hamburger patty all blanketed by mac’n’cheese – and the coco bread has a slightly sweet taste and is soft as a pillow!
For $17, I got a sandwich that I ate over two days: the Jamaican seasoning on the oxtail is slightly hot and spicy, and it works perfectly against the very cheesy macaroni…the oxtail gravy made the bread nice and juicy, without soaking it to the edges…there is aplenty of everything and all of it wa delicious!
Of course, iconic Deli sandwiches in New York are my favorites, and one day I walked almost 5 miles to try a legendary one in Harlem!
Behold The “Chop Cheese!”
What is it you ask? Click here for the answer!
I walked to East Harlem last year and bought one from another iconic bodega…with a very unique ordering method!
Click here to find out why this slip of paper is the order, and what came to me afterwards!
I love eating the food of New York!
I also shared these incredible burgers from Hackensack New Jersey!
This delicious burger has a very unique cooking method – click here to see how they make this incredible burger!
If you enjoy these posts, why not subscribe and never miss out? It’s easy, and there are NO ads of any kind, just stuff I like – from music to movies, books, travel, food and more…click on the main page and “follow” me on the upper right…
“Bite! Eat! Repeat!” is your site for all things food – from these step-by-step cooking directions – if you enjoyed my review of the “Mac Patty”, please share on social media – thank you!
Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Chef memoirs, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Fast Food, Food, Food Pictures, Food Porn, Food Travel, Recipes, Restaurants, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
The research you do to find these unique restaurant dishes is incredible. NYC certainly has everything for anyone.
Thank you for the comment! I find the history of food to be fascinating, and in this case, someone who took an idea and ran with it – and has become a great success – bravo to them!
Incredible if its there you will find it…I am amazed at the sandwich combos something for everyone in NY…
I would be ordering that and asking, “Hold the gravy”. I am not a fan of food that is too ‘wet’. 🙂 Just me.
Best wishes, peet.
No idea where ‘peet’ came from! Pete.
Hi John, what a sandwich this is. Amazing 🤩