About this list
San Diego is a sandwich town. Italian subs in Little Italy, tortas in Barrio Logan, surf-shop turkey-pestos up the coast, pastrami in North Park, fish off the boat in La Jolla. Nobody had a single place that took the whole thing seriously, so my cousin and I started keeping notes.
That was a few years ago. The notes turned into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet turned into a Google Doc we'd argue about over beers — he wanted bread weighted higher, I wanted the room to count more — and eventually somebody said you should just put this online. So here it is. It's the first website I've ever built, so be nice.
Heads-up on photos: a chunk of the older reviews don't have any yet. Back when this was just a list for us, we weren't bothering. I'm revisiting every spot this year to take fresh shots, but they'll be amateur pictures, taken with whatever phone I have on me while I'm trying to eat. If you want professional food photography, this isn't the place. If you want a sandwich worth driving across town for, hopefully it is.
How we score
- Bread (33%) — texture, structural integrity, freshness. A sandwich is a bread delivery system; it has to deliver.
- Filling (33%) — quality, ratio, balance. Too much of any one thing is its own kind of failure.
- Vibe (34%) — service, room, the whole experience. Where you eat the sandwich is part of the sandwich.
The rules
- Two visits minimum before scoring.
- We pay for our own sandwiches. Always.
- Spots can move week-to-week. The list is alive.
- Disagreement is encouraged. So is a lunch invitation.
Anonymity
We stay anonymous on purpose — not because we have anything to hide, but because we want to be treated like everyone else when we walk in. If we know the owner sees us coming, the sandwich isn't the sandwich anymore. So please don't ask who we are. Send us a tip on the submit page instead.