(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
L.A. is sandwich heaven. 37 of our favorites to try now.
- Home to two restaurants that both claim to have invented the French dip, L.A. has plenty of sandwich history to dig into.
- Alongside the stalwarts, new sandwich makers are wooing diners with Italian-style schiacciata and by re-creating iconic sandwiches with local ingredients.
Los Angeles may be a relatively young city, but it’s steeped in sandwich history. It lays claim to the French dip, with downtown dens Cole’s and Phillippe the Original both claiming to be the originator of the roast beef sandwich that comes on a French roll dunked in jus or with the drippings served on the side. The playfully dueling sandwich spots also represent two of the longest-running restaurants in the region, both founded in 1908.
Not only do the historic haunts disagree on who invented the French dip, but diners are often split on which spot makes the superior version. In fact, you’ll notice a similar argument around Langer’s, a Jewish deli in Westlake that’s been around since 1947, and the ideal modifications for its hot pastrami sandwich. That’s because the sandwich, universally beloved, is a highly personal and customizable dish.
“With a sandwich, you’re curating every single bite,” says Anna Sonenshein, who runs Little Fish, a seafood-centric counter in Echo Park’s Dada Market, with her partner Niki Vahle. “If you hand somebody a plate of food, they can figure out what gets on their fork. But in a sandwich, every bite is picked by us.”
Little Fish, which went viral for fried fish sandwiches modeled after McDonald’s Filet o’ Fish, is part of a new wave of sandwich makers harnessing nostalgia by re-creating iconic sandwiches with local, high-quality ingredients.
“A great sandwich is [about] balance,” says Brandon Kida, chef-owner of Go Go Bird, an L.A.-style fried chicken stand in Culver City’s Citizen Public Market. “There’s got to be a great balance of, obviously, the filling and the bread and then the particular condiments.”
Los Angeles is heaven for sandwich lovers. From longtime favorites to trendy newcomers, these are the best sandwiches to try right now.
Go Go Bird recently unveiled a new sandwich called the Reach, made in collaboration with Food Beast managing editor Richard Guinto — an homage to the original chicken sandwich at Burger King that Guinto ate with his grandfather growing up: the soft sesame roll, crumbly chicken patty, shredded lettuce and creamy mayo.
Alongside nostalgia-driven newcomers are sandwich makers translating the deli traditions they grew up with in various parts of the world, including a handful of Italian schiacciata specialists, a Wagyu tasting-menu restaurant offering its take on Philadelphia’s finest culinary import and a charming Silver Lake cafe where a staple Nowruz dish is tucked inside sesame-dotted barbari bread.
In this guide, L.A. Times Food staff writers highlight our favorite sandwiches across the city, including a couple of obvious heavy-hitters but notably skipping over a few. That’s not to say you shouldn’t come to your own conclusion regarding the two French dips, or try the seminal Godmother at Bay Cities (you’ll find the latter on columnist Jenn Harris’ guide to the best Italian subs). From soaked tortas ahogadas to meatball subs and a walnut shrimp katsu, these are 37 of (what we consider to be) the best sandwiches in L.A.
Showing Places
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Biscuit sandwich at All Day Baby
Silver Lake Eclectic $$
For The Times’ most recent 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. project, I wrote of All Day Baby: “The only constants at Lien Ta and Jonathan Whitener’s daydream of a corner diner in Silver Lake are change and the colossal biscuit sandwich.” I couldn’t know how even truer those words would be. Whitener, the restaurant’s founding chef, died suddenly and tragically on Feb. 7. The restaurant, under Ta’s continued leadership, has discontinued dinner service for now. What remains is the warm, steady, community-minded welcome of the place. And the buttermilk biscuit, a worthy morning — or afternoon! — indulgence. White American cheese melts picturesquely off fluffy folds of scrambled egg and sausage (or bacon, or both, which I prefer). A finishing spoonful of strawberry jam completes the dish, an effective inverse of sweet-savory traditions like sharp cheddar over apple pie.
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(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
Kuku sandevich at Azizam
Silver Lake Persian $
Kuku sabzi, a wild green mulch of herbs bound with eggs and resembling a frittata, is an essential part of Persian Nowruz celebration meals — but many of us hunger for it all year round. Cody Ma and Misha Sesar oblige at Azizam, the Silver Lake cafe they opened at the start of 2024 after several years of running a pop-up. A wedge of kuku sabzi anchors a tall sandwich on barbari (crunchy-soft, sesame-flecked flatbread baked in the restaurant) with tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes and a spread of garlic yogurt. The creation will deeply satisfy omnivores, though I can’t resist mentioning the other sandwich regularly on Azizam’s menu: layered kerchiefs of beef tongue with tomatoes, yogurt and a brightening spray of fresh herbs. It’s an Iranian classic; easterly living fans of Attari Sandwich Shop in Westwood, where the beef tongue is a staple, now can sate their cravings with a shorter commute.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Shrimp ahogada at Birote Deli
Paramount Mexican Deli $
Abandon all hope of spotless hands and clothes, ye who enter here: This heaped shrimp ahogada comes drenched in a salty, peppery, punchy bouillabaisse variant made from lobster stock, and it will run down your forearms after every bite if you’re not careful. (But even when it does, it’s well worth it.) The ambitious sandwich shop tucked into Paramount cafe Horchateria Rio Luna features just as much stealthy culinary technique as chef Jonathan Perez’s lauded taqueria, Macheen, and it’s the kind of place where barbacoa French dip sandwiches dunk into consomé and the pastrami is Oaxacan-spiced. The shrimp ahogada, with all its heat, bold shellfish flavor and pickled onions nestled into a crunchy-crusted birote salado — a sort of Mexican sourdough roll — is a unique take on the ahogada, and one that’s made all the better by Perez’s signature creative, global flair.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Chopped cheese at Bodega Park
Silver Lake Coffee Sandwich Shop $
Chopped cheese — or sometimes “chop cheese,” in New York parlance — is having a national moment, though the sandwich has the strongest ties to an East Harlem institution that operates under the name Blue Sky Deli but has been informally known as Hajji’s for years. A burger patty meets the griddle and, as it sputters, a cook minces the meat with onions and cheese. The half-molten hash lands on a hero roll, dressed with burger trimmings. In Silver Lake, Bodega Park chef-owner Eric Park draws on memories of his NYC days for his true-to-the-spirit version: ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce and a lava layer of American cheese that stretches into strands when you unwrap the beast and pull apart its cut halves. If you’re having a chopped cheese for breakfast, also try the espresso drink mixed with house-made misugaru (a malty Korean roasted grain powder drink) and topped with black sesame crema.
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(Shelby Moore/For The Times)
The Mozzarella at Bread Head
Santa Monica Sandwich Shop
Chefs Jordan Snyder and Alex Williams founded Bread Head as a sandwich pop-up during the pandemic, after losing their jobs at Trois Mec (which closed during the pandemic and never reopened). With financial backers, they opened their first storefront in June on a retail-dense stretch of Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. The Mozzarella, their star vegetarian creation, is an essay on balance. The lush elements: generous orbs of fresh cheese, creamy slivers of ripe avocado and a za’atar spread bringing crucial herby zing. The contrasts: perfectly employed alfalfa sprouts that rustle against the teeth and pickled onion for acid. These layers stand with sturdy poise between slices of medium-thin focaccia, engineered for slightly more crunch than squish. The bread’s recipe is just right for supporting this kind of careful construction. My Bread Head runner-up: a deceptively simple combination of Benton’s Tennessee country ham (the platonic ideal of this genre) and cultured butter.
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(Brent’s Deli)
Black pastrami Reuben at Brent's Deli
Northridge Delis Jewish Cuisine $$
I strive every visit to Brent’s Deli, a Northridge institution since 1967, to find a different sandwich to love: chopped liver, a French dip variation with hot pastrami, a brisket melt with green chiles and jack cheese. Still, nothing beats the black pastrami Reuben — the restaurant’s most popular menu item for every good reason. Its secret is the right amount of cracked pepper coating on the brisket. Its familiar bite cuts through the richness of Russian dressing and Swiss cheese and tempers the funk of sauerkraut. Medium-thick slices of grilled rye hold it all together. This paradigm of deli culture needs little more than a side of chips to complete the meal.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Meatloaf sandwich at Bub and Grandma’s
Glassell Park Bakery Sandwich Shop
The meatloaf sandwich at Bub & Grandma’s, Andy Kadin’s Glassell Park bakery and restaurant, feels like my childhood crammed between two slices of challah that are far superior to the ones I learned to make in Hebrew school. That nostalgia may be what gave this sandwich the slightest edge over the restaurant’s tuna, another favorite. I’m a sucker for a fat wedge of iceberg, and the tuna sandwich delivers that crisp lettuce crunch like no other. But I digress. The meatloaf tastes like the kind my mom made, hearty but not heavy and with a sweet glaze. She used ketchup, mustard and vinegar. Kadin’s version features an orange pomegranate glaze with a nice citrus tang. The loaf is layered onto sweet pickles and a slice of challah well lubricated with mustard and mayo. On top of the meat are crumbles of potato chips and a buttermilk fennel salad. It’s a full meal between two piece of bread, complete with a bag of chips in the middle. I was always the kid who crushed my chips and shoved them into my sandwich. I’m still that kid, and if I could experience a kinship with a sandwich, this would be it.
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(Betty Hallock / Los Angeles Times)
Turkey sandwich at the Butchery
Newport Beach Butcher Shop Sandwich Shop $$
Sometimes I want a sandwich by the ocean. When driving along the coast between L.A. and Orange County, I occasionally stop for one at the Butchery on Pacific Coast Highway at Crystal Cove. The Butchery’s a small chain of classic butcher shops with three locations in O.C., the kind of place where customers can shop for their favorite cuts of meat, burger blends, sausages and fancy Wagyu hot dogs, along with cheeses, condiments, bread and beer. Order from a short menu of sandwiches at the butcher’s counter at the back of the store. Lately my favorite is a comfort-food sandwich of sliced deli turkey, fromage blanc and locally made pepper jam on a white roll from a bakery in Santa Ana. The sweet-savory pepper jam and creamy fromage blanc for some reason give post-Thanksgiving vibes, but sans any particularly “holiday” flavors, so it’s an all-seasons snack. A picnic area in the parking lot next to the highway overlooks the waves along Newport Beach. If I’m lucky, I’ll catch the sunset on the horizon in a perfect SoCal sandwich moment.
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(Cindy Carcamo / Los Angeles Times)
Wild Flower sandwich at the Cheese Shop at the Mix
Costa Mesa Cheese Shop Sandwich Shop $
For years now, the Wild Flower at the Cheese Shop at the OC Mix has been one of my favorite sandwiches when I’m in the mood for an indulgent treat. The gooey, double cream from Fromager d’Affinois, paired with wildflower honey and Marcona almonds, is a sophisticated medley inside a gratifyingly crispy-outside, soft-inside French baguette. The mild and buttery cheese plays well with the sweet honey and the salty and crunchy almonds. While the sandwich is certainly decadent, it’s also pretty light and airy. You may want seconds. You order the sandwich at the full-service cheese shop stocked with domestic and imported farmstead and artisan cheeses that are cut to order.
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(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
The Macellaia at the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills Italian $
Italian sub sandwiches are works of art, striations of meat in varying shades of pink, dressed like a salad on a roll. Depending on my mood, I might crave the specific zing of the hot peppers on the Godmother at Bay Cities, or the simplicity of the paper-wrapped sandwich at Roma Market. The one I’ve been craving all summer is the Macellaia at the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, where some of the best restaurants in town source their meat, cheese and other specialty items. The sandwich, whose name means “the female butcher,” is a collection of proteins you’d find on an artisanal salumi board, with ribbons of prosciutto cotto, finocchiona, coppa and spicy ventricina. The shaved Parmesan is nutty and sharp. The meats and cheese are piled onto a crusty roll with shredded lettuce, good olive oil and vinegar. All together, it’s just the right amount of moisture, porky funk and crunch.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Meatball sub at Cricca's Italian Deli
Woodland Hills Deli $
This is a monster of a meatball sub, a multimeal behemoth and an exercise in rationing napkins. Cricca’s has been a mainstay of its small Woodland Hills strip mall since 1969, but the recipe for its meatball sub is even older, dating back roughly 70 years from the deli’s original owner. The present owners and stewards of Cricca’s, husband-and-wife team Kevin and Marla McHenry, keep the recipe and tradition alive by simmering house-made marinara each day starting at 6:30 a.m. and rolling, then baking all-beef meatballs before plopping them in the red sauce. They spoon the soft, gargantuan meatballs and marinara into a long loaf of garlic bread, then smother them with Parmesan and gooey mozzarella that pulls away in strings with every bite. This is a soul-satisfying meatball sub that’s big enough to share — if you want to give up half of a sandwich so perfect.
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(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Mamma Mia at Dan's Super Subs
Woodland Hills Deli $
The submarine sandwich menu at Woodland Hills institution Dan’s Super Subs is encyclopedic. There isn’t any one favorite here. I come for the splendor of choices. One time, the cashier told me she eats the Surfer Boy every day, so I ordered that one: smoked turkey, avocado, provolone, lettuce, tomato, pickle spear, onions, mayo, yellow mustard — classic. The Mamma Mia is a bestselling Italian grinder with five kinds of cold cuts and double the cheese. But the most popular is the L.A. Street Pastrami with pastrami, bacon, provolone, grilled onion, chopped pickles and jalapeño. Each sandwich is so stuffed that the squishy buns are butterflied and the subs are served in an open-faced style. An entire section is devoted to Reubens. And party subs are available — up to 6 feet long.
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Falafel at Falafel Arax
East Hollywood Middle Eastern $
Kebabs and shawarma round out the menu at the East Hollywood neighborhood staple founded by Ardo and Sosi Ohanessian in 1980 and run now by their children Tony and Natalie. I’m here for the namesake falafel. True to their Armenian-Lebanese culture, the family recipe uses both chickpeas and foul in their batter to achieve exterior crispness and an interior that’s both fluffy yet textured. Cumin is the dominant spice, with a backbeat of garlic. As when I’m ordering shawarma elsewhere, I ask for the falafel sandwich to include only one side of the Arabic bread; I prefer the thinner proportions to better taste the falafel cradled with beet-stained pickles, tarator (tahini sauce) and a slick of red chile sauce.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Artichoke sandwich at Ferrazzani's Pasta & Market
Pasadena Italian Deli
While an Italian deli is always a destination for sandwiches packed with cured or simmered meats, in Pasadena a veggie version has my heart. Earlier this year Semolina Artisanal Pasta owner Leah Ferrazzani rebranded her fresh pasta and pantry shop into Ferrazzani’s, which is bringing the neighborhood deli vibes with an expansion of sandwiches, Italian ice and other ready-made treats. There’s an excellent mortadella sandwich, and there’s prosciutto and salami, but the marinated artichokes spilling out of a fresh baguette and dripping seasoned oil onto wax paper is the one that keeps cycling through my mind. It’s light, bright and citrusy thanks in large part to a thick smear of lemony pistachio pesto, while a slick of creamy, dreamy stracciatella keeps things just the right amount of decadent. Grab a few napkins and an amaro soda too, for best results.
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(Go Go Bird)
The Reach at Go Go Bird
Culver City Fried Chicken $
Los Angeles-style fried chicken that blends the Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Americana flavors that chef-owner Brandon Kida grew up with is the prized item at Go Go Bird, a stall at the back of Culver City’s Citizen Public Market food hall. You can order Sichuan-spiced Jidori wings or tempura-crunchy tenders, as well as a sandwich with an extra-crispy tender, pimento cheese, lettuce and house pickles pressed in a squishy potato bun. But the sandwich I’m here for is the Reach, made in collaboration with Food Beast managing editor Richard Guinto, and inspired by his memories of eating Burger King’s original chicken sandwich with his grandfather growing up. I was also a fan of Burger King’s chicken sandwich as a kid, and found myself similarly intrigued by the idea of a souped-up version with high-quality ingredients. Kida’s take on the nostalgic sandwich, which is on the menu indefinitely, features a long sesame seed bun spread with tangy yuzu mayo, shredded butter lettuce and a hefty chicken tender that’s tossed in chile oil and encased in a crumbly panko batter. It comes with an order of hand-cut fries, and when you add a yuzu lemonade to complete your order, it more than rivals the spicy chicken sandwich meal from a certain national chain with a cow as its mascot. Another bonus? Go Go Bird is open on Sundays.
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(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
Chicken parm at Jemma Hollywood
Hollywood Italian American $$
Envision a parm sandwich: A gloppy, gloriously sauced stack probably comes to mind. While a massive, messy variety is rightly the standard, “Top Chef’s” Jackson Kalb created a lighter, brighter and lunch-perfect chicken parm hero that fits into his menu of Cal-Italian hits at Jemma — and one that won’t leave you incapacitated the rest of the day. The ingredients are simple, but the attention to detail is what makes this sandwich great: The crispy Jidori chicken gets fried in clarified butter while the bread — squishy, soft and absorbent of all the sauce — is baked in-house daily. There’s a choice of vodka sauce or tomato passata, which use local Roma tomatoes that simmer long and slow for a clean but developed slick of flavor, and it all comes draped in just the right amount of melty provolone. To taste a version made with pizza dough instead of the soft bread, try the parm at Kalb’s new Jemma outpost in the Palisades.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Walnut shrimp katsu at Katsu Sando
Chinatown Japanese
A photo of this sandwich has been my cellphone’s lock screen for years, and it isn’t just because the fried shrimp patty dripping with slaw and candied walnuts is pretty. Daniel Son might garner more accolades for his Korean-inspired omakase at Sushi Sonagi, but the chef-owner’s casual Japanese sandwich shop, Katsu Sando, is worthy of just as much praise as he crams house-made toasted milk bread with fried-golden pork, mushrooms, chicken and more. My years-long favorite is the walnut shrimp katsu sando, made in ode to the restaurant’s locations in Chinatown and San Gabriel The classic Chinese dish gets reimagined into sandwich form with a meaty shrimp patty coated in imported panko, topped with house-candied whole walnuts, a hand-shaved cabbage slaw in miso-mustard dressing and a tangy house-made katsu sauce that’s sweet with the taste of long-simmered plum tomatoes. Bright, salty, crunchy and undeniably shrimpy, this is a sandwich beyond worthy of a lock-screen background — and even better with a side of house-made Wagyu curry for dipping.
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(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
No. 19 at Langer's Deli
Westside Jewish Cuisine $$
Few L.A. sandwiches are more iconic — or satisfying — than the Langer’s No. 19. A veritable mound of the flakiest, most tender pastrami gets crowned with a single slice of Swiss cheese and scoops of soft coleslaw, all teetering between two pieces of fragrant rye bread that’s been twice baked for optimal flavor and softness. The pliant, fluffy rye almost drapes around the stack, which is so formidable that each half a sandwich always requires two hands to hold it. Salty, creamy, hot and cool, and a shining example of L.A.’s Jewish deli culture, this is a piece of the city’s history in sandwich form. The gem of Westlake has been serving this specific sandwich for roughly 75 years, a testament to its greatness. Long may it reign.
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(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
Fried fish sandwich at Little Fish
Echo Park Seafood $
During the pandemic, when Little Fish owners and partners Anna Sonenshein and Niki Vahle were offering fried fish paired with farmers-market sides from the kitchen window of their home, word quickly spread of the fried fish sandwich that’s modeled after McDonald’s Filet o’ Fish (which they made to satisfy a customer’s request). The sandwich has since become a staple menu item, holding steady as the concept evolved from Smorgasburg vendor to its current outpost in Echo Park’s Dada Market. The secret to this simple sandwich is not just the shio-koji-marinated Pacific striped bass that’s sourced from an aquaculture farm in Baja California but the ultra-crispy beer battered crust that was perfected when Little Fish was takeout-only. The golden-fried fish sits on a steamed potato bun with Kewpie mayo, dill pickles and a slice of Kraft American cheese melted on top. Somehow, even though I was always too spooked to try anything with seafood from the clown-fronted fast-food conglomerate, Little Fish’s sandwich hits the perfect nostalgic, high-brow/low-brow balance, especially when paired with crispy potatoes flecked with nori salt and served with a side of garlic aioli. Little Fish’s menu has expanded since its early pop-up days to include fish congee and cottage cheese pancakes for breakfast and a vegan version of the famed fish sandwich with fried extra-firm tofu that gets the same treatment as the bass.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
The #SGV Special at Little Sister
El Segundo Vietnamese $$
There are fancy versions of the banh mi sandwich at Little Sister, filled with grilled lemongrass chicken or roasted short rib seasoned with five-spice. But my heart belongs to the #SGV special, named for the many banh mi sandwiches you can find all over the San Gabriel Valley. The baguettes have a heavier crunch and chew than the airy footballs you’ll find at the best Vietnamese bakeries. It’s sturdier too, capable of withstanding the onslaught of both mayonnaise and rich pâté. There are bits of crunchy pork belly and sliced Vietnamese cold cuts. Think soft, slightly gelatinous pork lunch meat. It’s dressed traditionally with pickled daikon and carrot, sliced cucumber, slices of jalapeño and a heap of cilantro. And the top is littered with chopped peanuts too. There will never be a substitute for your favorite banh mi in the SGV, but this one comes with a mound of very good french fries.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Fried chicken sandwich at Locol
Watts Soul Food $
There is no shortage of fried chicken sandwiches in Los Angeles. In the last decade, it became a menu stalwart alongside Caesar salad and hamachi crudo. There’s probably one on the menu at your favorite neighborhood restaurant. I could name half a dozen I enjoy off the top of my head, but the current obsession is the version at Locol, Keith Corbin and Daniel Patterson’s newly reopened restaurant in Watts. It’s an uncomplicated, well-executed fried chicken sandwich with a piece of chicken fully encapsulated in a jagged crunchy coating. It’s dressed simply with a few pickles and copious amounts of a pale orange sauce made from mayo and hot sauce. The bun is a brioche that’s buttery but not too heavy. Since Locol’s reopening, Corbin and Patterson have refocused the menu to soul food and doubled down on their commitment to the Watts community through Alta Community, the nonprofit that operates the restaurant. Patterson recently told my colleague Stephanie Breijo, “The food is not the highest purpose of the business; the economic empowerment is.” It may not be the highest purpose, but it’s still superb.
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(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
Lorenzo at Lorenzo California
Beverly Hills Sandwich Shop $$
The namesake sandwich at Renato Araujo and Cynthia Raslan’s Beverly Hills sandwich shop may be my favorite way to eat mortadella in the city. The pale pink ribbons are piled onto a cushion of silky Parmigiano sauce made with boiled and blended cream and Parmigiano-Reggiano. It’s finished with toasted pistachios and roasted red peppers. The flavors are straightforward and pronounced, with the rich, porky funk of the mortadella emerging the star. But whether you order the Lorenzo, the sandwich stuffed with fennel-tinged finocchiona salame or smoky bresaola, it all comes on a roll that’s equal parts crunch and soft chew. It’s the ideal vessel for any filling, full of the rustic flavor of focaccia, without the dense middle.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Bresaola at Maison Matho
East Hollywood French Bakery $$
French chef Daniel Matho is himself recognizable, often donning a tall white toque behind the counter of his Melrose Hill stall, but I’d also recognize his sandwiches anywhere. In a city full of world-class bread, Matho might make the best baguettes, chewy and fluffy at once. He fills them until they’re overflowing with Parisian-style ham with butter and cornichons, or glossy, runny omelets rich with comté, or, my favorite on most days, the bresaola: dried, salted beef shaved thin. At Maison Matho its deep, savory flavor gets cut with bright pops of shaved fennel, tangy Dijon-dressed salad, preserved-lemon sauce, pistachios and slatherings of rotating vegetable purée (currently broccoli). It’s meaty and fresh, chewy and crunchy, and a sandwich that epitomizes balance.
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(Cindy Carcamo / Los Angeles Times)
Choripán at Mario's Butcher Shop
Newport Beach Butcher Shop Sandwich Shop $
A choripán may resemble a hotdog but it’s not. It’s a sausage sandwich that’s ubiquitous in Argentina. Choripán is the combination of the words chorizo — sausage — and pan — bread. The savory sausage is cut lengthwise and served on a baguette, topped with a bright chimichurri sauce, which is made with olive oil, vinegar and fresh herbs. Years ago, when I lived in Buenos Aires, I enjoyed a choripán nearly every week. It’s been a harder get in Southern California, so I was tickled when I found it on the menu at Mario’s Butcher Shop. The sausage here is spicier than what would be served in Argentina, where the native population doesn’t care much for heat. The sandwich comes with tomatoes, lettuce and mayo. I tend to leave the veggies out and just let the sausage and salsa shine through. It all works so well, especially on the perfectly crunchy-soft baguette procured from local BREAD Artisan Bakery in Santa Ana. Also, do yourself a favor and pair your sandwich with a side order of tasty french fries, which are made with beef tallow.
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(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
Philly cheesesteak at Matu
Beverly Hills Steakhouse $$$
In addition to being one of my favorite sandwiches in the city, Matu’s Philly cheesesteak is also one of the most annoying to procure. It’s only served at lunch, at the bar. There are no reservations, so expect to wait for a seat. You could order it for takeout via Postmates, but it’s best eaten seconds after the shavings of grass-fed Wagyu rib-eye and sirloin are scraped from the flattop. The meat is piled into a roll so thoroughly crusted with sesame seeds that it’s difficult to see the bread underneath. Fused to the meat is a mixture of grilled onions and melted Cooper Sharp American cheese. And there is a single roasted long hot pepper nestled into the middle of the sandwich. The pepper’s vinegar and heat cut through the decadent meat and cheese with an addictive sting you’ll crave more of. But no, they will not give you another pepper, regardless of how nicely you ask. I told you it was annoying. It’s also so excellent that I get amnesia after paying the bill and immediately plot my return.
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(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
The Monaco at Mamie Italian Kitchen
West Hollywood Italian Sandwich Shop $$
At Mamie Italian Kitchen, which opened in January on a busy corner of Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, the sandwich maker behind the counter piles the ingredients so high that they form a small mountain on top of a slice of house-made schiacciata bread. I stand there wide-eyed as she smears artichoke cream on the bread, then adds handfuls of baby arugula and tuna conserva, preserved lemon and Calabrian chiles. It is my favorite tuna sandwich. “We make everything ourselves,” says owner Mikael Choukroun, who is Italian Parisian and grew up visiting his grandparents in Rome. The dough for the schiacciata rises for 72 hours and is baked every two hours. “It takes a long time, it’s not an easy bread to make,” he notes. “You don’t control the bread, it controls you. There are no cutting corners.” The menu features sandwiches with ingredients from small producers of prosciutto cotto, guanciale, mortadella, bresaola and Italian cheeses. “We do not put the mayonnaise,” Choukroun says. Each sandwich is a hefty brick-size, but Choukroun says most people finish the whole thing.
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(Cindy Carcamo / Los Angeles Times)
Jambon beurre at Moulin
Newport Beach French $$
You really can’t go wrong with silky ribbons of cooked ham and a good slab of French butter on a freshly made baguette. The simplicity of a well-made jambon beurre satisfies the soul and allows for fine ingredients to shine. You need good French butter, bone-in cooked ham and even better bread. My favorite is at Moulin, a French-style cafe and boulangerie in a strip mall in Newport Beach that makes delightful, freshly baked baguettes and pastries. The nutty taste of the butter pairs beautifully with the salty ham and crusty baguette. There are six locations in Orange County. I’m partial to the original location in Newport Beach, which opened about a decade ago.
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(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
The Normandie at Open Market
Koreatown Sandwich Shop Wine Bars
Part Philippe’s and part Yoshinoya, Open Market’s Normandie is a true taste of Los Angeles. The Koreatown cafe is beloved for its creative sandwiches that riff on the region’s blend of culture and flavor, but best of all is its decadent, salty-sweet gyudon dip, a nod to French-dip icon Philippe the Original and Yoshinoya’s famous beef bowl. The brisket is roasted in house shoyu dashi, with the jus reserved for a richer, more concentrated dipping sauce that’s worth slurping from its paper cup. In a salute to both restaurants, the Philippe’s pickle becomes ginger-pickled radish, while the hot mustard translates here to a wasabi-tinged mustard-mayo. A sheen of melted provolone adds just the right hint of funk.
“With this, we’re standing on the shoulders of everyone who’s been doing L.A. food for a while,” said chef Andrew Marco. “We can draw these lines and create a brand-new sandwich that’s all the way, 100% very Los Angeles — something that you would only find here.”
“With this, we’re standing on the shoulders of everyone who’s been doing L.A. food for a while,” said chef Andrew Marco. “We can draw these lines and create a brand-new sandwich that’s all the way, 100% very Los Angeles — something that you would only find here.”
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Roast beef sandwich at Pane Bianco
Downtown L.A. Pizza Sandwich Shop $$
All great sandwiches start with excellent bread. Nowhere are those words truer than at Pane Bianco, the L.A. outpost of Chris Bianco’s Phoenix pizza and sandwich shop at the Row DTLA. The restaurant makes all the breads for its sandwiches, including the stirato, a crusty stretched baguette that acts as the foundation for the roast beef sandwich. It’s dressed on one side with a fiery fermented Fresno chile butter and an onion aioli on the other. To make the roast beef, Bianco rubs the meat with ancho chile powder, garlic, cumin, black pepper and sea salt and roasts it in the pizza oven. The ribbons are pink, tender and marbled. He crowds the sandwich with thick slices of pickled banana peppers. The sandwich gets even better the longer it sits, the flavors melding and meshing together on the car ride to the park or beach.
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(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)
Croque Matthieu at Pasjoli
Santa Monica French $$$
Look to the bar menu at Dave Beran’s posh Santa Monica bistro for the most deliciously extravagant grilled cheese sandwich in Los Angeles County. The history of Pasjoli’s Croque Matthieu dates to 2020, when Matthew Kim, the restaurant’s former chef de cuisine, came up with an outrageous riff on a croque monsieur for pandemic-era takeout comfort. The current version involves fusing a baguette to a mound of shredded Gruyère cheese in a nonstick pan, spreading over Mornay sauce and caramelized onions simmered with Madeira and sherry for six hours, and adding slices of nutty, almost creamy Bayonne ham. To finish? The whole construct is basted in butter with thyme, shallots and garlic. “We basically cook the sandwich like it’s a piece of meat,” Beran told Jenn Harris last year. “It’s a pretty awesome sandwich.” No arguments.
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(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Lamb dip at Philippe the Original
Chinatown Sandwich Shop American cuisine
Phillipe the Original is famous for its beef dip sandwiches. Over the years, however, I’ve come to favor the beef dips at Cole’s, which, in addition to serving some of the city’s finest cocktails, uses excellent meat and a beautiful roll for its sandwich. It’s also a competitor for the title of inventor of the French dip. I’ve read persuasive accounts for each side of the debate, but the important thing is that we have two great L.A. restaurants, both founded in 1908, still serving history on a plate. For me, that comes in the form of Philippe’s hand-carved leg of lamb dip smeared with blue cheese and ready to take just enough hot mustard to wake up my sinuses. With it, I like an IPA on tap — Philippe’s is not just a daytime place — plus pickle spears and, of course, a hot-pink pickled egg.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Braised oxtail grilled cheese at Post & Beam
Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw Southern $$
The best seat at Post & Beam isn’t in the dining room or on the sunny patio. It’s at the bar, directly opposite the pizza oven, where trays of biscuits emerge gold-topped and steaming during the busy brunch service. Every visit should involve the biscuits, but my current brunch favorite is the braised oxtail grilled cheese sandwich. The ciabatta is pressed and toasted so thoroughly on the flattop that it takes on a glossy sheen and cracks under your teeth. In the middle of all that crunch is a heap of braised oxtails, shredded and intertwined with globs of melted, smoky mozzarella cheese and sweet onion chutney. Bits of cheese and onion ooze out the back of the sandwich with each bite. It’s messy, but you can be strategic with it. I like to scoop it all up and put it on my biscuit for dessert.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Beef shawarma wrap at Sincerely Syria
Sherman Oaks Syrian $
The menu at Sincerely Syria — currently with three locations in Sherman Oaks, Hollywood (where it was originally called Hollywood Shawarma) and the newest in Pasadena — boils down to two choices. There is beef and lamb shawarma or chicken shawarma. Ideally, try both. If forced to choose between them, I lean to the meatier option. Owner Adham Kamal or his staff will carve the shawarma from the rotisserie behind the restaurant’s counter, spread the Arabic bread with tahini and bundle the meat tightly with chopped tomatoes and pickled cucumber spears. Then they griddle the sandwich on a flattop, weighted with a grill press to sear and bronze every angle, ensuring the ingredients stay contained. The trick I learned from Lebanese friends: Ask the staffer to use one side of the round bread as a wrapper. The thinner layer ideally intensifies the ratios.
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(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Beef tongue sandwich at Torino
Pasadena Sandwich Shop Lebanese-Armenian $
Just as it is with a great Cuban sandwich, the bread used for Torino’s beef tongue sandwich is toasted to an exact crispness that crackles as you eat. Pickle slices, placed lengthwise to improve your odds of getting a little in each bite, are crucial too, along with the snap of a few raw jalapeño slivers and the coolness of tomato resting on a bed of the warmed tender beef. Slathered on the bread is a garlic sauce that brings everything together. It’s an under-the-radar exemplar of sandwich architecture, a study in contrasting textures and flavors from a unassuming lunch spot along a stretch of Armenian butchers, grocery stores, bakeries and restaurants on Pasadena’s Washington Boulevard. I also like Torino’s garlic chicken sandwich and its soujouk (dried beef sausage) sandwich, which I sometimes get with labneh or lebne, as the yogurt cheese is known. But it’s the beef tongue sandwich that has made me a regular customer.
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Tortuga Bay’s torta ahogada.
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Torta ahogada at Tortuga Bay
Inglewood Mexican $
You’ll see antojitos, hamburguesas, tacos, pozole and chilaquiles scrawled on the chalkboard menu at Tortuga Bay, a Jalisco-style Mexican spot that sits in the corner of a nondescript shopping center off Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood. But zero in on the tortas, specifically the torta ahogada that represents the restaurant’s most popular item.
The sandwich comes swimming in a moat of spicy tomato sauce and overflowing with juicy carnitas and beans, but the thick sourdough bread remains springy as you fork and knife your way through it — or, for the brave, tackle it with both hands. Slivers of sharp white onion and a wedge of lime are served on the side for a nice acidic contrast. Despite the durability of the bread, this is not a sandwich that you take to go. Be prepared to enjoy it on one of the indoor or outdoor tables outfitted with plaid vinyl tablecloths and Lotería placemats, perhaps with a house agua fresca or smoothie to wash it down.
The sandwich comes swimming in a moat of spicy tomato sauce and overflowing with juicy carnitas and beans, but the thick sourdough bread remains springy as you fork and knife your way through it — or, for the brave, tackle it with both hands. Slivers of sharp white onion and a wedge of lime are served on the side for a nice acidic contrast. Despite the durability of the bread, this is not a sandwich that you take to go. Be prepared to enjoy it on one of the indoor or outdoor tables outfitted with plaid vinyl tablecloths and Lotería placemats, perhaps with a house agua fresca or smoothie to wash it down.
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(Uptown Provisions)
Smokey meatball at Uptown Provisions
Whittier Sandwich Shop $
Behind the counter of their Whittier market, married couple Aaron and Sarah Melendrez and their staff assemble precisely engineered sandwiches that cover the gamut of tastes: curried chicken, vegetable and hummus, turkey and havarti with harissa-preserved lemon mayo, a tall brute of thinly sliced brisket and pastrami layered with broccoli slaw and roasted onion jam. They’ve invested some extra imagination into their standout meatball sandwich: Marinara covers spheres of ground beef, veal and pork, finished with a melted overlay of smoked mozzarella and a squiggle of pesto aioli. A flurry of dried onion bits matches the crunch of the roll. While waiting for your order, stroll the store; I usually end up with some tinned fish and chili crisp to take home.
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(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Roast chicken sandwich at Vicky's All Day
West Adams American
The roast chicken sandwich at Vicky’s All Day, a day-to-night diner from Danny Elmaleh in West Adams, might sound unassuming at first. What could be so special about a chicken sandwich, you might ask yourself, especially when it’s sharing menu space with fried chicken and waffles and pillowy sourdough pizza? But this sandwich is not to be slept on. It’s big enough to share and each half will spill enough excess ingredients to make a second sandwich.
Stacked between two slices of lightly toasted and buttered sourdough bread is a plump chicken breast, melted Gruyère, applewood-smoked bacon, a thick slice of tomato, beet-pickled shallots and arugula, with tarragon aioli smeared on either side. It’s adjacent to a good club sandwich (without that useless middle piece of bread) or one you’d make with leftovers the day after a holiday. It could easily be served as a standalone dish, but Vicky’s is generous enough to offer it with a side of fries. This sandwich, a glass of skin-contact wine, a book and a seat at the bar equate to one of my favorite solo meals in the neighborhood.
Stacked between two slices of lightly toasted and buttered sourdough bread is a plump chicken breast, melted Gruyère, applewood-smoked bacon, a thick slice of tomato, beet-pickled shallots and arugula, with tarragon aioli smeared on either side. It’s adjacent to a good club sandwich (without that useless middle piece of bread) or one you’d make with leftovers the day after a holiday. It could easily be served as a standalone dish, but Vicky’s is generous enough to offer it with a side of fries. This sandwich, a glass of skin-contact wine, a book and a seat at the bar equate to one of my favorite solo meals in the neighborhood.
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