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I'm a Brit living in Canada and I concur, in general the British are terrible at sandwiches. However, I would say that outside of Subway and arguably Mr. Sub, N

I'm a Brit living in Canada and I concur, in general the British are terrible at sandwiches. However, I would say that outside of Subway and arguably Mr. Sub, North Americans aren't a whole world better at making them. I'm a firm believer that if you ain't putting any love into making the sandwich, it's not worth eating. The only exception where you need simple is butter and salt and vinegar crisps. Everything else requires lettuce, tomato and cucumber, salt and pepper and depending on the meat a proper condiment for that meat - Ham & Mustard; Turkey & Cranberry Sauce; Chicken & Mayonnaise; Beef & Horseradish Sauce.

mc32 9y ago
Italian delis run by Italians often have very good and tasty sandwiches some are Americanized (pastrami on rye) but you find great Italian sausages and peppers, Italian meatballs, as well as traditional American Reuben sandwiches. But you gotta find the places that make their stuff in-house, rather than buy wholesale from some provisioner. Razzano's in Glen Cove, is a good example, if you're on long island, NY. Molinari in SF is okay.
- balabaster 9y ago
  I had an amazing meatball sandwich the other day on ciabatta with cheese. It wasn't British enough though (on account of it being Italian), so I added some crunch by putting some ready salted crisps in it. Delicious ;)
- wj 9y ago
  Bay Cities in Santa Monica and Gioia's in St. Louis are two of my favorite. One thing I have found, and hadn't realized until I had left LA, is that the quality of the bread can really elevate the quality of a sandwich.
  - mc32 9y ago
    True; bread is pretty important. In SF sourdough is pretty prevalent --and that's ok, but it's not my preference. It's too tough --at times a bit like leather, so I prefer other types of crunchy loaves. Dutch crunch or baguette-style or even kummelweck.
  - balabaster 9y ago
    The quality of bread is everything. Portuguese buns are the best, put them in the oven to crisp them off at 350 for 10 minutes. You get the light fluffy inside and a nice crispy outside. One thing Americans aren't great at is your definition of "crusty" bread. Crusty is supposed to mean that when you bite into it, the outer crust crunches before you get to the soft fluffy bread inside. If it doesn't crunch like chips (crisps) crunch, it's not crusty, it's just bread.
adventured 9y ago
> I would say that outside of Subway and arguably Mr. Sub, North Americans aren't a whole world better at making them You've gotta try some more places then. The US is regionally overflowing with spectacular sandwich shops. Subway is at the bottom of the list not the top. Try these guys if you ever get the chance: https://www.jimmyjohns.com https://www.jimmyjohns.com
- OJFord 9y ago
  Also Subway is available in the UK anyway...
- foldr 9y ago
  Those are actually pretty gross-looking from a British point of view. We generally don't have so much sliced meat and mayo in our sandwiches.
ghaff 9y ago
Subway? (You seem to be saying that it's an example of a good sandwich place.) It's arguably the US fast food chain that manages to be much worse than it seems it ought to be. I'm not sure any widespread chain is especially good. And certainly nothing pre-packaged. I go to way too many conferences and I've pretty much just stopped taking lunch boxes with sandwiches.
- balabaster 9y ago
  Ironically I wasn't saying that Subway is good at all. I'm saying that in my experience, they're the only ones that are merely tolerable. Pretty much like my impression of tea down there. You guys are horrendous at both. I bring my own tea and cup with me when I come down there now because trying to get you guys to make tea during road trips is ridiculous. It's horrible trying to find anywhere that will make a cup that I can bear. When I find myself thinking "A Tims, a Tims, my Kingdom for a Tim Hortons," you know it's bad.
empath75 9y ago
Subway is complete garbage. Try potbelly’s.
- eropple 9y ago
  Potbelly's is the best chain I've run into, and here in New England pretty much every pizza place and convenience store will make you a drool-worthy Italian (or grinder or hero, depending on who owns the place).
balabaster 9y ago
LOL at the downvotes, I guess the truth hurts XD

mc32 9y ago

Italian delis run by Italians often have very good and tasty sandwiches some are Americanized (pastrami on rye) but you find great Italian sausages and peppers, Italian meatballs, as well as traditional American Reuben sandwiches. But you gotta find the places that make their stuff in-house, rather than buy wholesale from some provisioner. Razzano's in Glen Cove, is a good example, if you're on long island, NY. Molinari in SF is okay.

balabaster 9y ago
I had an amazing meatball sandwich the other day on ciabatta with cheese. It wasn't British enough though (on account of it being Italian), so I added some crunch by putting some ready salted crisps in it. Delicious ;)
wj 9y ago
Bay Cities in Santa Monica and Gioia's in St. Louis are two of my favorite. One thing I have found, and hadn't realized until I had left LA, is that the quality of the bread can really elevate the quality of a sandwich.
- mc32 9y ago
  True; bread is pretty important. In SF sourdough is pretty prevalent --and that's ok, but it's not my preference. It's too tough --at times a bit like leather, so I prefer other types of crunchy loaves. Dutch crunch or baguette-style or even kummelweck.
- balabaster 9y ago
  The quality of bread is everything. Portuguese buns are the best, put them in the oven to crisp them off at 350 for 10 minutes. You get the light fluffy inside and a nice crispy outside. One thing Americans aren't great at is your definition of "crusty" bread. Crusty is supposed to mean that when you bite into it, the outer crust crunches before you get to the soft fluffy bread inside. If it doesn't crunch like chips (crisps) crunch, it's not crusty, it's just bread.

adventured 9y ago

> I would say that outside of Subway and arguably Mr. Sub, North Americans aren't a whole world better at making them You've gotta try some more places then. The US is regionally overflowing with spectacular sandwich shops. Subway is at the bottom of the list not the top. Try these guys if you ever get the chance: https://www.jimmyjohns.com https://www.jimmyjohns.com

OJFord 9y ago
Also Subway is available in the UK anyway...
foldr 9y ago
Those are actually pretty gross-looking from a British point of view. We generally don't have so much sliced meat and mayo in our sandwiches.

ghaff 9y ago

Subway? (You seem to be saying that it's an example of a good sandwich place.) It's arguably the US fast food chain that manages to be much worse than it seems it ought to be. I'm not sure any widespread chain is especially good. And certainly nothing pre-packaged. I go to way too many conferences and I've pretty much just stopped taking lunch boxes with sandwiches.

balabaster 9y ago
Ironically I wasn't saying that Subway is good at all. I'm saying that in my experience, they're the only ones that are merely tolerable. Pretty much like my impression of tea down there. You guys are horrendous at both. I bring my own tea and cup with me when I come down there now because trying to get you guys to make tea during road trips is ridiculous. It's horrible trying to find anywhere that will make a cup that I can bear. When I find myself thinking "A Tims, a Tims, my Kingdom for a Tim Hortons," you know it's bad.

empath75 9y ago

Subway is complete garbage. Try potbelly’s.

eropple 9y ago
Potbelly's is the best chain I've run into, and here in New England pretty much every pizza place and convenience store will make you a drool-worthy Italian (or grinder or hero, depending on who owns the place).

balabaster 9y ago

LOL at the downvotes, I guess the truth hurts XD