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One of New York's most famous chefs just opened a delicious fast-food restaurant of the future — take a look inside

Ando launched a year ago as a delivery-only concept, but now it has a sit-down restaurant — here's what it's like.

David Chang's culinary empire continues to expand.

The influential chef of Momofuku fame launched Ando as a delivery-only concept in New York City in 2016, which received cautiously optimistic, if not tepid, reviews.

Previously, Ando existed only in the virtual world — all orders were placed through the restaurant's app, and the food was delivered via UberRush.

But now Ando has a foothold in fast-casual reality with an honest-to-goodness brick-and-mortar establishment.

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Business Insider reviewed an early iteration of the delivery service's menu before, so we decided to head down to experience Ando in person.

Ando's storefront is on 14th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue, just a few blocks from our offices.

The interior is cavernous — a counter and stools line the window wall, and a simple counter with several registers await.

The menu is varied enough to give options without being overwhelming; there's even a new breakfast menu that's excluded from the app during the week. The prices are within a reasonable range — at least for an NYC lunch.

Since the food is also prepared for delivery, there's practically no wait for your order — our food was ready within three minutes.

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We ordered the Powerhouse salad, the Hozon cheesesteak, the pork and pickles sandwich, and the Boom Boom 'Shroom sandwich — plus sides of sambal potato salad and spicy cucumbers.

The Powerhouse salad, with grilled Amish chicken (no word on what makes the chicken Amish), kale, pickled onions, carrots, frisée, pumpkin seeds, feta cheese, and dried cranberries, is a fairly filling mix. The coconut curry dressing is particularly good, and it brings a slightly aromatic quality to it — spiced, but not hot.

The feta pairs well with the dried cranberries — the classic play of salty and sweet, plus a textural shuffle with the pumpkin seeds. But, there's... a lot of frisée in there. Frisée is good, but like most things, it's best in moderation.

Ando's Boom Boom 'Shroom sandwich is, in essence, a vegetarian cheesesteak.

It's stuffed with King Oyster and shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, onions, and yuba, and slathered with Ando's special cheese sauce — it's a lot to deal with. It's an incredibly rich and messy sandwich that's prone to sogginess. The hot cherry peppers that come with it are essential to cut through the velvety cheese and mushrooms.

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Ando's menu is focused mainly on sandwiches that flirt with deli normalcy, but are tweaked just enough to make things interesting — that's where the pork and pickles sandwich lies. The deli-sliced roast pork is the centerpiece, and it's quite good, but the trappings are what really make the sandwich interesting.

Pickled cucumbers and bean sprouts add a tart, tangy bite, combined with a slight sweetness that lingers and melds with the just-spicy-enough dijonnaise sauce tinged with gochujang. With some pickled peppers and some mellow Muenster cheese added to the equation, it's a refreshing and piquant take on a hardy classic sandwich.

Ando's cheesesteak sandwich has been a favorite menu item since the delivery-only concept launched.

Shaved Angus beef and grilled peppers and onions are cradled by the restaurant's Hozon chickpea cheese sauce and pressed into a sturdy French roll studded with sesame seeds.

It's a greasy, cheesy, saucy, sloppy hero — pun intended. It's not as sloppy as the mushroom version, and seems less soggy, too. But as with its vegetarian counterpart, the hot little cherry peppers that accompany it are necessary to cut back on the decadence and richness of it all.

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There's a lot of heat packed into the sambal potato salad. It's a deliciously hot take on the classic side, and it's the right base, too — it's a potato salad that leans more to the vinegar side of things, instead of relying on mayonnaise alone. But that sambal packs quite the punch, so be forewarned: it's tasty enough to keep eating it until it's gone, but the heat will catch up with you.

A side for the more faint-of-palate, the spicy cucumbers are anything but — and that's okay. It's essentially a bowl of sliced and speared cucumbers and some pickled onions and chilis, doused in a smooth and creamy Caesar-esque dressing. It's a very refreshing side that's perfect to pair with a more spicy or heavy sandwich.

What started out as a delivery-only anomaly has now transitioned into a brick-and-mortar establishment — and perhaps it's a smart move. The saturated delivery app market is starting to experience natural selection, and some apps have fallen by the wayside.

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And while Ando still has its app and still delivers, now there's a physical place that customers in NYC can connect with and trust. It's a psychological move, in a way. And as long as the food keeps that David Chang flair, it should build a solid customer base and could even expand some years down the line.

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