At lunchtime today, a quarter of a million sandwiches will be consumed by office workers at their desks. But if two enterprising brothers have their way, the sandwich might yet lose its steely grip of our daytime diet.

From Monday, office workers in the city centre will be able to bypass the lunchtime sandwich bar to choose instead to savour take-away sticky pork belly served in corn-starch plates, slow-braised salt beef with sauerkraut and mustard, Thai chicken thighs or sweet potato and coconut milk soup, all made to order by an in-house chef and eaten with wooden cutlery from renewable sources. They will also be offered unwaxed lemon posset, filtered tap water in reusable bottles, single-estate filter coffee in ripple-wrap cardboard cups, organic wheatgrass shots and smoothies made with seasonal fresh fruit. All will be made to order by an in-house chef and are designed to be eaten at the office. And, though handmade sandwiches made with special recipe bread will also be on offer, they come second to the hot home cooking.

Sounds great, but is Glasgow ready for it? Looking at the lunchtime queues at Greggs, Subway and Pret a Manger, it's tempting to think not. But Allan and Hector MacRae, two brothers from Uig on Skye and the sons of a retired Portree GP and a home economics teacher, believe the time is ripe to start catering for our changing, and increasingly sophisticated, tastes.

"The idea that Glaswegians only eat deep-fried Mars Bars is a complete myth," say the pair, who also own the First Coast neighbourhood bistro in Edinburgh. "We've yet to find a Glaswegian who is not cosmopolitan in taste and well-informed about food. People don't give them credit for that."

On top of that, they have identified Glasgow as the city with the highest footfall outwith London, "so we're going where we're needed most".

The fact remains that full-time employees in the UK work the longest hours in Europe and 55% of us never take a lunch break. A recent survey of 500 workers across Europe undertaken by Burger King revealed that 40% of those who do take a lunch break only spend half an hour, and only half of them said they had lunch away from the office environment.

As a result, Britons have become the biggest consumers of sandwiches in Europe. Last year we bought approximately 1.8 billion of them, mostly from supermarkets and sandwich bars - and more men than women are buying them. Yet it's estimated that up to 15 million of us suffer from wheat intolerance, and 1% have coeliac disease caused by gluten in wheat.

The MacRaes' new takeaway venture, Sand, named after the Wester Ross village that was home to their favourite uncle, will take the city's London-based sandwich chains head-on in both price and choice. When Pret a Manger opens its fifth outlet in Buchanan Street this summer, Glasgow will have the highest number of branches in any British city except London. The MacRaes intend to up the ante yet further.

"We're taking good homemade Scottish food to the masses. It's similar to the street food you find in New York, the Far East and Europe, and we find it strange that nobody has done this before," says chef Hector, 40, who lives in Glasgow and has been head chef at Glasgow's Stravaigin and Air Organic, sous-chef at the Ubiquitous Chip, and second head chef at the Michelin-starred Aird's Hotel in Port Appin. "It's almost as if we've totally forgotten how to do food properly."

Not every dish makes the perfect fast food and the boys have been busy experimenting to discover which ones best lend themselves to being pre-cooked and kept at temperature.

Chicken breast, for example, dries out too easily and eggs take too long, while pork belly that has been cooked for three to six hours keeps on going and retains its juiciness.

Refreshingly, the menu will be kept deliberately small - another departure from the dizzying choice normally offered by fast-food outlets. There will be only four dishes in the hot section. "If you offer too much the chef can't possibly do every dish properly and freshly. By cutting back you can do it well," says Allan, who lives in Edinburgh and has worked as a chef de partie at the Witchery in the capital. "In any case, too much variety can force you into making bad choices."

Sand, 115 Hope Street, Glasgow, opens at 7am on Monday.

  • Fed up of the sandwich?
     Here are some other excellent alternative takeaway lunch options:

    The Baked Potato Shop, 56 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh (0131 225 7572).
    This vegetarian cafe offers fillings ranging from basic cheese and beans to vegetable curry and chilli.

    Wagamama, 97-103 West George Street, Glasgow (0141 229 1468).
    This highly popular chain does a range of Japanese dishes to take away, including chicken and beef dishes such as chicken katsu curry and chicken yakitori.


The Beautiful Mountain, 11-13 Belmont Street, Aberdeen (01224 645353)
This takeaway is light years from the average fast-food outlet. The winner of several awards serves a range of unusual lunches including the customers' favourite, the chickpea fritter.


Crepe a Croissant, 1 Ashley Street, Glasgow (0141 353 2170).
As well as serving a large variety of crepes, including chicken tikka and cheese, Crepe a Croissant also offers a variety of baked potatoes.


Appetite@Rowlands, 42 Howe Street, Edinburgh (0131 225 3711).
This catering company's take-away service has long been one of the best. Its range includes curries, Thai chicken skewers, meat and fish pies, and salads.


Entrading, 88 West Regent Street, Glasgow, (0141 332 2424).
The cute little cafe attached to the UK's first eco shop offers light and interesting vegetarian food including a daily soup and salads.


Khartoum Cafe, 6 Gillespie Place, Edinburgh (0131 228 9797).
A cheerful and bright taste of East Africa, the main dishes include flat bread wraps with traditional African fillings such as falafel, baba ghanoush, fuul and tahini.


Juiceling, 3 Gordon Street, Glasgow (0141 248 7657).
In addition to its fantastic range of fresh fruit smoothies, Juiceling has become the latest outlet to offer Stoats Porridge shots, a blend of organic oats slow-cooked in a mix of milk and water and available in a host of flavours including white chocolate and hazelnut, rhubarb and ginger jam, whisky and honey, cranachan or just plain salted.


Topkapi Turkish Kebab House, 109 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh (0131 229 2747).
The secret Ciloglo family recipe for salad dressing and chilli sauce combined with the generous portions makes Topkapi a delicious and original alternative to a sandwich at lunchtime.


Additional reporting by Gregor Cubie.