Best of three: Enormous baps

Hot Roast Beef, Mushroom, Pepper and Onion Binlid in Chilli Sauce, £3.65. The Richmond Deli, Richmond Street, L1. Tel 0151 708 9729

How big is big? The daddy of them all. A whopping 10-inch monster that had to be cut into quarters and then would easily have fed a family of four, or 18 anorexics.

How long to build? A couple of minutes. With queues going out of the door everything is on hand and everything is quick

The bap: The Richmond Deli's baps are quite flat. This one was wholemeal. A little on the dry side in texture, it soon absorbed all the liquids from the filling, making it a saggy and sadly soggy bap.

The filling: Thinly sliced bits of too-chewy beef, accompanied by lashings of well cooked onion, mushrooms and green pepper. The most memorable thing about this was the salt. It was as if the Dead Sea had been emptied into it and a good couple of litres of water was needed to knock it back. Chilli sauce had a nice heat to it, and there wasn't too much. But they will pour gravy onto it, or oyster sauce, or barbecue sauce, maybe all of them, and that might be too much.

Verdict: Blood pressure planet. 4/10

Hot Chicken and Mushroom in Cajun Sauce Binlid, £3.80. The Filling Station, 19 North John Street L2. 0151 227 1995

How big is big? A substantial seven-incher.

How long to build? Five minutes in which you can look at the scores and scores of imaginative sandwich combos on offer in here, or just the straightforward offerings like a very pleasant Stilton salad binlid we had another time.

The bap: It might be enormous, and it was after lunchtime when we ordered it, but the baps were still firm and springy to the touch. This one was white, from a choice of that or brown, and marged to stop those nasty seepages seen earlier.

The filling: Big chunks of hot chicken are combined with a token amount of thinly sliced mushrooms that have been fried off. So far so good, and it would be good to tell you that they tasted of something, but mixed together with vast quantities of an extremely sweet cajun sauce we will never know, and our tester was unfortunately forced to adjourn proceedings half way through.

Verdict: Less of the sauce. 5/10.

Turkey Salad Extra Large, £2.50. Hole in the Wall Cafe, School Lane, Liverpool 1. 0151 709 7733

How big is big? It's all about the filling, this one, and there is so much of it that they actually have cut into the lid of this affair to crown it with extra wedges of cucumber and tomato. You would need a Cherie Blair sized cakehole to negotiate it in one, such is the overall volume of this particular stack, but, hey, anything is possible.

How long to make? A good five-minute wait if you are starving, but worth it.

The bap: A generous and very soft floury granary number, fresh as a daisy and offered as a choice of that or white, which you can specify buttered (marged) or not.

The filling: Large breast of turkey slices were thick, moist and actually tasted of something approaching turkey. The salad leaves (two different kinds), were crunchy and fresh, plenty of sweet red onion, the aforementioned just-cut tomato was forgettable and cucumber had lots of bite. Every bite of this was to savour. No frills, just good ingredients and plenty of them to fill you up all day.

Verdict: No guilt, all pleasure. 8/10