Best Sandwich Shop

[civvver]

Anyone else notice the rise of the sandwich shop lately slowly replacing all the mcdonald's and burger king's around? 20 years ago as a kid I remember subway, a local place called tubby's and... that's about it! Along came quiznos, but I hadn't even heard of jimmy john's until college 10 years ago. Now I can name more sandwich places than fast food joints around my house and most are quite good. What's your favorite?

I put in the poll every national chain I could think of and have tried. I also put a spot for your own local shop and other if there's another chain you like not listed.

My favorite shop is a local one called Bronx Deli. They serve up amazing corn beef and roast beef brisket sandwiches on double baked rye from Detroit. Plus scratch made soups and hand cut fries, simply awesome food.

My favorite national chain right now is penn station. Really good toasted subs, lots of sauce and just more flavor than your average subway and potbelly in my opinion. Plus hand cut fries again and fresh squeeze lemonade!

Also I found this slideshow but haven't heard of over half the stores. I think it was done by votes and since subway is the largest chain by far it's way up there (cus it's definitely not the tastiest!)

http://www.thedailymeal.com/america-s-25-best-chain-sandwich-shops-slideshow

I personally think subway stinks. I mean it's fine and I'll eat it, but to me it's the equivalent of putting mayo and lunchmeat on a packaged roll from the grocery store. It's like what mcdonald's is to burgers, subway is to sandwiches. And it's not that cheap either for what it is. 6 in steak and cheese is like $6 now.

Panera too can be a bit overrated. Some of their sandwiches rock like the bacon turkey bravo with smoked gouda cheese on tomato basil bread, but their plain turkey and ham ones again, very, very boring and flavorless sandwiches.

 

[Leoreth]

Ike's. I really recommend trying it if you're in the Bay Area.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Groucho's Deli - a chain in NC and SC. Great sandwiches (my favorite is the Apollo or Big Dipper) and awesome sauce.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Best place I've been to that's still open is a local place called Campus Cafe. Best national chain that I've tried is Jersey Mike's, sometimes an Italian sub Mike's way is just what I need.

Best sandwich shop I've ever visited was a place called Juice-A-Rama, who also had decent smoothies, but sadly they closed several years ago.

 

[Antilogic]

Although Quizno's and Subway are closer to where I live and work now, my favorite "large sub sandwich" chain is probably Firehouse. I haven't seen any Jimmy John's or Jersey Mike's up here, but I have seen them while traveling. I'd put Panera pretty high in the category of "artsy sandwich" chains, along with Cosi. ABP is second to those.

Locally, there's this new shop called Bailey and Sage that has good salads and sandwiches. Like, their steak sandwiches have actual steaks cut thickly as opposed to shredded beef that is just heated in au jus. Clover, an all-vegetarian restaurant chain in Boston, also makes some pretty mean sandwiches.

 

[Kyriakos]

I don't know any of the eponymous ones in the poll

Way too 'Merican.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I will take this opportunity to once again state that sandwiches are horrible and that you shouldn't eat them.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I don't really have a local shop. My part of town is totally dominated by SubWay. The deli counter at my local grocery store is far superior, and cheaper as well.

 

[cybrxkhan]

While Panera is my favorite fast casual restaurant there's nothing particularly special about their sandwiches. I voted Potbellys just because, although usually I end up going to Subway the most since they have a decent variety of vegetarian options (well, actually, not many, but better than a lot of other restaurants). And I know some people don't like Subway, but I'm cool with it.

 

[Kennigit]

I will confirm that Potbelly (i believe that is the one im recalling) and Which Wich are the top 2 American style sandwich chains I've eaten at

 

[thecrazyscot]

I will take this opportunity to once again state that sandwiches are horrible and that you shouldn't eat them.

*gasp* How can you utter such heresy??

 

[Antilogic]

*gasp* How can you utter such heresy??

...because he's a sassy freedom-hating statist?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

...because he's a sassy freedom-hating statist?

AFAIK even freedom hating statists eat sandwiches.

 

[CaptainF]

Jimmy John's is great in a pinch.

 

[Zkribbler]

While I was still in Los Angeles, I had my choice of Subway or Quiznos.

Subway was less espensive and had fewer calories.
Quiznos was better tasting, but they called me a "guest." When I have guests at my place, I don't charge them to eat.

Here in the Phil's, there's an idenpendent called "Cup of Jo." The owner/operator is fanatical about quality. Best bread I ever had; delicious ham and steak on the sandwiches.

 

[CaptainF]

Lately around my local region Banh Mi sandwich shops and food carts have been popping up with frequency. Apparently Banh Mi itself just refers to the type of bread used in the sandwich, but the term is now synonymous with the sandwiches themselves...

...which are yummy.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Lately around my local region Banh Mi sandwich shops and food carts have been popping up with frequency. Apparently Banh Mi itself just refers to the type of bread used in the sandwich, but the term is now synonymous with the sandwiches themselves...

From my experience, depending on context, Banh Mi can refer to bread in general; sandwiches; or specifically those type of Vietnamese sandiwches as pictured above. Anyways, it's spreading outside of the Vietnamese-American community - I've heard that it's very popular among Hispanics for some reason.

Quality varies depending on store to store of course. There's even a fast food chain specializing in banh mi, called Lee's Sandwiches. Personally, Lee's Sandwiches tastes okay in my opinion - though it's miraculously not that Americanized, I think. As a vegetarian, though, there's also the issue that my options are rather limited when it comes to banh mi, as most stores only have one variety of vegetarian banh mi each. The one at Lee's has a weird dry texture and tastes too sweet. Some vegetarian banh mi have tofu as the main star; others have mushroom; some have nothing really; oddly, for some reason, few have imitation meat. There is one store in Little Saigon whose vegetarian banh mi my dad really likes and I'm pretty cool with, but I forgot its name; oddly, my dad has a suspicion it might be a hidden front for some S. Vietnamese criminal organization, but they give him good sandwiches so he doesn't care.

 

[Antilogic]

Lately around my local region Banh Mi sandwich shops and food carts have been popping up with frequency. Apparently Banh Mi itself just refers to the type of bread used in the sandwich, but the term is now synonymous with the sandwiches themselves...

Spoiler :

...which are yummy.

Would you describe them as... pho-nominal?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Would you describe them as... pho-nominal?

Nominally.

 

[CaptainF]

From my experience, depending on context, Banh Mi can refer to bread in general; sandwiches; or specifically those type of Vietnamese sandiwches as pictured above. Anyways, it's spreading outside of the Vietnamese-American community - I've heard that it's very popular among Hispanics for some reason.

Quality varies depending on store to store of course. There's even a fast food chain specializing in banh mi, called Lee's Sandwiches. Personally, Lee's Sandwiches tastes okay in my opinion - though it's miraculously not that Americanized, I think. As a vegetarian, though, there's also the issue that my options are rather limited when it comes to banh mi, as most stores only have one variety of vegetarian banh mi each. The one at Lee's has a weird dry texture and tastes too sweet. Some vegetarian banh mi have tofu as the main star; others have mushroom; some have nothing really; oddly, for some reason, few have imitation meat. There is one store in Little Saigon whose vegetarian banh mi my dad really likes and I'm pretty cool with, but I forgot its name; oddly, my dad has a suspicion it might be a hidden front for some S. Vietnamese criminal organization, but they give him good sandwiches so he doesn't care.

Yeah, quality control has yet to be established across a wide area. I'm not a vegetarian myself but I have noticed the meatless options to be rather lacking. The town where I live has a few decent Banh Mi outlets but the best ones I've had thus far were from food carts in Portland.

And it's not totally out of the realm of possibility for a Banh Mi restaurant to be a criminal front...it would be a great place to launder money I suppose!

Would you describe them as... pho-nominal?

Pho-sho!

Nominally.

om nom nom nom