I wouldn’t presume to do a top 10 list for all restaurants in Seattle, there are just too many. So I bring you sandwiches. A good sandwich is like a masterpiece. The bread should be fresh but yielding, the ingredients should blend in that perfect way to give you salty, sweet, sour, umami, fresh in every bite. A good sandwich has been tasted and perfected, not just thrown together.

These are my favorites. I don’t believe in nominating someone just for the numbers, so there’s only a top 8. But then I haven’t tried Bakeman’s.

1. Salumi

Armandino Batali (Mario Batali’s father) has made this place an institution. They’re only open during the day during the week and there’s always a line out the door, but the meat speaks for itself. I am addicted to the finochiona, a fennel scented salami. Not to mention the freshly made buffala mozzerella. It almost makes up for the lack of Italian delis in this town. Almost.

2. Paseo

I really fell hard for Paseo back when I discovered it a few years ago, and would go out of my way to pick up a Midnight Cuban for my afternoon hike. Sitting on the top of Mt. Si with pork juices dripping down your chin mingling with cilantro and hot peppers—there’s nothing like it. They’ve cleaned up their act a little since then, upgrading the small shack on Fremont Ave to a bigger shack, but as far as I can tell the food hasn’t suffered. The sign is still non-existent, but the line down the block should give you a clue.

3. Homegrown

A relative newcomer, but already a star in the sandwich arena. They have 10-15 cold and hot sandwiches, all with fresh and locally sourced ingredients. The flank steak sandwich is a standout with its mix of blue cheese and arugula, but everyone has a favorite. They also have soups and salads and some seating options, with that blond wood clean living kind of décor.

4. Skillet

You really only need two words—bacon jam. Skillet operates out of an airstream trailer and is there one day and gone the next due to the vicissitudes of the city’s polices around truck food, but it’s worth searching out. Their website has a calendar for where you can find them any day of the week. They make a mean blt, cook up some juicy burgers and make fries worth standing in the rain for. All out of something your parents might have camped in back in the 70s. Rumor has it they’ll be at the West Seattle farmer’s market on sundays come summer.

5. Pho Cyclo (SODO)

There is something about the banh mi at Pho Cyclo (the SODO location is better, not sure why). Theirs are not the cheapest banh mi in the city, but they are near perfect as far as I can tell. Grilled pork, pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro, and jalapeno make one of the most balanced and delicious sandwiches in the city. Only offered during lunchtime and made even tastier by the addition of café sua da (Vietnamese iced coffee).

6. Baguette Box

I would put baguette box higher on the list if they weren’t so spotty about their service. Run by Eric Banh (of Monsoon), this place gives a nod to banh mi by putting pickled vegetables and cilantro on many of their sandwiches, but then runs away, adding Salumi meats, grilled lamb, and coconut curry tofu. Some days I think this place is the most amazing place ever, the next day their counter guy gets all uppity about running out of cilantro. “These aren’t actually banh mi, the cilantro is just a gesture.” But even so…their red wine braised pork sandwich is otherworldly, the soft silky meat brought alive by jalapenos and pickled vegetables.

7. Grand Central Baking Company

Solidly great sandwiches with house roasted meats (pork loin, chicken) and local cheeses all served on Grand Central bread. I somehow don’t remember exactly what I had when I went as it was 6 months ago, but I seem to recall roasted turkey with cranberry chutney. All I know is it was good. Lots of vegetarian options too and some great soups. With locations on Eastlake and Pioneer square.

8. Essential Baking Company

An old standby in the sandwich arena, but still fabulous. Similar to Grand Central, they make some outstanding sandwiches, often changing to fit what’s fresh and local at the moment. They also have yummy baked goods, which doesn’t hurt. Fremont and Madison Park.

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Don’t get me wrong, it was perfect, really perfect. I had so much fun I couldn’t stop smiling. People even played croquet and bocce ball and at one point my whole family (all 30+) tried to pack into the photobooth.

But now I am back in my normal life, and Cobe started whining about how we have no good balsamic (I have ruined that boy) and I realized I’ve never told you about Big John’s.

I discovered Big John’s a few years ago and it has become my go to place for good olive oil and balsamic. Back in Philly I just had to go down the street for a big bottle of Frantoia, but here it’s a little harder to find. When I walked in and found the shelves full of olive oil, I knew I had struck gold.

But there’s more. They also have a huge selection of cheeses and olives, bulk herbs and spices and all sorts of imported things that are hard to find, like guava paste and piquillo peppers. They even carry turkish and lebanese imports, like akvar, a paste made from roasted peppers that is out of this world, and pomegrante molasses. All for half what you’d pay anywhere else.

There is a catch though–you have to buy a minimum of a pound of cheese or olives. The olive board has more than 20 options and the cheese counter stretches the length of the store, so maybe it’s not so hard. They’ll let you taste it first too, and they know their cheeses.

Of course the real catch is that I can never walk out of this place without spending at least $30, if not more. But so worth it.

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Big John’s PFI
http://www.bigjohnspfiseattle.com/
1001 6th Avenue South (by Safeco, see the small sign on your left hand side)
206-682-2022

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The menu is impressive, solid and yet inventive.There’s a fancy BLT with berkshire bacon and tomato aioli, poutine with gravy and white cheddar, a kobe beef burger with bacon jam and cambozola. Did you catch that? Bacon jam. They sell it too. On ebay.

Skillet moves around depending on the day of the week, but I found them on a Tuesday conveniently parked on Utah right near the Home Depot in SODO. It was pouring, as it has been of late, but that didn’t stop the crowds. When I first arrived there were about 4 people huddled under a makeshift tent waiting for food, by the time I left it was more like 20.

Skillet is more than a restaurant, it’s a little community. From the hipsters with their hats pulled over their eyes to the middle aged african american woman with a walking boot, we all felt pretty proud of ourselves as we huddled under that tent. We were going to have a damn good lunch.

After about 5 minutes, they called my name and I ran to my car with my precious cargo. Thick cut bacon, soft brioche bread, a little arugula. Damn straight. Needed a bit more tomatoes. That tomato aioli wasn’t cutting it for the “T” to my “BL” but I’lll let it go. It is still spring after all, you can’t get good tomatoes. The farro salad was a nice contrast with its chewy wheatiness and perfectly crisp asparagus.

The menu changes weekly, they post it on their website. And they also serve breakfast.

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Skillet Street Food
http://www.skilletstreetfood.com/
Various locations, check website

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But no place even comes close for Pho.

It’s right across from Starbucks on first ave, nicely appointed in that clean spartan asian restaurant style. We’ve been there many times and the food always (I swear to god) comes out in less than 5 minutes, piping hot, and freshly made.

I have no idea how they do it.

So we stopped by today, needing something to ward off those grey approaching-november skies. I got the Pho with flank steak and sliced steak, Cobe got the charbroiled pork with rice noodle. This time I got a bubble tea. I think the tea added a minute to our time, it seemed more like 6 minutes. You can’t even finish a text message in the time it takes for the food to come out.

But what really blows me away is the taste. The Pho has this beautiful meaty broth that is redolent of cardamom, such a subtle mix of flavors I could truly drink it alone. It’s even better when you add in the rice noodle, thinly sliced pink steak, thai basil, tamarind, hot sauce and lime. It is the most beautiful soup.

The pork is pretty outstanding as well, crispy sweet skewers served over rice noodle with the classic rice vinegar sauce, accompanied by crispy carrot and cilantro. It rivals the pork sandwich at Paseo, and that is no faint praise.

Oh and did I mention both meals cost in the neighborhood of $6?

Seriously. Amazing.

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Pho Cyclo

http://www.phocyclocafe.com

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