Best Old-School Sandwich Spot: Submarine Center (San Francisco)
In West Portal, dive into Submarine Center’s large selection of sub sandwiches. While the name sounds more like a place you would pick up a snorkel and flippers, it’s actually one of the best places in town to drown yourself in carbs and thinly sliced meats. It has been around since 1981. Aside from their traditional sandwiches made with roasted or cured meat, we love their open-faced pizza sandwich and sandwiches made with rich meatballs and hot links.
Best Pastrami: The Refuge (San Carlos)
The Refuge is a deli with a location in San Carlos and San Mateo that makes our favorite pastrami in the bay. Our CEO, Matt Cohen, and Guy Fieri attest to their pastrami’s superior quality. You can sample their pastrami yourself in the form of a sandwich, burger, or loaded fries. We also love that they grind their meat for their hamburgers and use high-quality ribeye in their cheesesteaks. We love coming in to hang out with a group of friends and pairing a reuben with a glass of Belgian beer.
Best Fusion Sandwiches: Toast N Egg (San Francisco)
Toast’N Egg is one of our favorite new sandwich spots. Its opening received attention from Eater SF. Their toast is perfectly golden and there’s a ton of options ranging from mushrooms to shrimp. We love coming here with a group and splitting the wagyu toast, avocado and egg toast, and the Curry Up Now crunch chicken.
Best Unique Creation: Ok’s Deli (Oakland)
Ok’s Deli, located in Oakland’s temescal district, is a can’t miss sandwich stop for fans of experimental sandwiches. While the shop offers classics such as BLT and Ham & Cheese, they’re elevated to new heights by their milk bread, mayo, and vinaigrettes made in house. We’re huge fans of their Filipino-inspired sisig bolillo (only served on weekends). The bolillo it’s served is super crunchy and the pig’s head incredibly tender. The savoriness is stacked on with soy sauce and yellow onion while a spritz of lime and sliced chiles balance it with freshness. Our favorite is their Sichuan hot chicken sandwich perfumed with numbing peppercorns and drizzled with a sesame ginger vinaigrette.
Best Dutch crunch: Little Lucca (SF)
Little Lucca has two locations — one in South San Francisco and one in Burlingame. We think they have one of the best dutch crunch rolls in the entire Bay Area. You don’t want to miss their fire-roasted steak caesar made with prime rib, caramelized onions, and caesar dressing. It’s an umami bomb that pairs well with acidity in the form of hot sauce or pepperoncini peppers. Their most popular item is the Lucca ultimate that loads on turkey, ham, bacon, and cheese. They have a selection of eight cheeses and over a dozen additional toppings to choose from.
Best Falafel Sandwich: Deli Board (SF)
Deli Board is known for their unique sandwich creations. The Zoe is a falafel sandwich filled with hummus, muenster, red pepper, pickled onions, and sprouts on a french roll. We love the porky filled with black forest ham, bacon, American cheese, pickles, and mayo on a garlic french roll.
Our Favorite Sandwiches at Off the Grid
Capelo’s Barbecue is the only restaurant to land in Yelp’s top 100 barbeque spots in the nation. A sandwich is the ideal way to enjoy their smoky meats without getting your hands dirty — well, less dirty. The brisket sandwich is topped with just pickles, onions, and a sweet or spicy sauce. The simplicity of the sandwich allows you to savor the meat without any other ingredients competing for the spotlight. The pulled pork sandwich is paired with a sesame slaw and custom porklicious sauce that provides an umami boost.
I love cheesesteak offers five types of cheesesteak sandwiches all served on a toasted french roll. The classic “Philly Cheez” is made with angus, caramelized onions, bell peppers, and cheese sauce. Their Korean barbecue sandwich uses bulgogi beef and adds freshness using green onions. The hot date tosses in some cherry peppers for bursts of heat and fruitiness.
Satay by the Bay serves up halal Singapore street food bursting with aromatic flavors. They’ve been covered by Munchiez and Eater. They serve several types of sandwiches infused with Singaporean flavors. You can try their satay skewers in sandwich form. It’s filled with grilled marinated chicken, peanut sauce, mayo, cucumber, jalapeño, and cilantro. Don’t miss out on the chili crab sandwich made with real crab meat combined with cucumber, jalapeño, sweet n’ spicy sauce, cilantro, and fried onion all served on a Dutch Crunch roll.
Sam’s Chowder Mobile serves up high quality seafood including four unique sandwiches. Their lobster roll was named one of the top 5 sandwiches in America by NBC’s The Today Show. It’s a simple combination of Maine lobster tossed in butter and served in a toasted bun. The fried shrimp po’ boy has incredibly crispy shrimp, lettuce, tomato, and a special sauce on an artisan bun. The andouille po’ boy features smoky Cajun pork sausage. We love the fried fish sandwich with crisp, lacy edges and a bright flavor thanks to the beer batter, tomato, and tartar sauce.
Curveball specializes in sliders which are tiny sandwiches so you can feel less guilty about eating multiple in one sitting. Their curveball slider is filled with braised pork belly, American cheese, grilled onions, chipotle mayo, and housemade barbecue sauce. The fastball is a mini cheeseburger with beef, ketchup, and grilled onions. The screwball is their take on a fried chicken sandwich with celery slaw, red onions, buffalo sauce, and bleu cheese. Their vegetarian option is the mushroom melt made with roasted crimini, grilled onions, swiss cheese, herbs, garlic, and truffle oil.
Cookies n Cream serves up the sweetest sandwich on this list. Mix and match cookies and ice cream flavors to make your own unique creation. They’re set apart from other ice cream sandwich vendors due to the high-quality of their ice cream. Their macapuno is made with real shredded baby coconut and the blackberry is made with fruit imported from Oregon.
