A sandwich at The Sandwich Spot Menlo College, a sandwich shop in Atherton, California.
out of 100 · excellent
Excellent, with one move worth +12.
Uncharted, six of six roles on the board.
Holding the summit: a focused, restrained build
More salt than 90% of the catalog.
Each bar is one pillar of the score, 0 to 100. The tick marks what a sandwich at the summit needs; an amber bar is the one holding this sandwich back.
choice of bread, toasted: hot pastrami; bacon; chipotle aioli; choice of cheese; mayo; mustard; secret sauce; lettuce; tomato; pickles; onions; peppers.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.3 | 90th |
| acid | 1.7 | 90th |
| fat | 2.1 | 47th |
| sweet | 0.3 | 43rd |
| umami | 1.7 | 62nd |
| heat | 0.5 | 87th |
| bitter | 0.2 | 69th |
100 Balance, out of 100
The seven flavor axes of the whole sandwich, each summed across its layers. The shaded ring is the catalog's middle 80%; the small number under each axis is where this sandwich falls in the catalog. A shape that sits inside the ring is in the range most sandwiches live in; a spike past it is where this one stands apart.
What each layer brings
| Layer | Role | Flavor and texture | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| choice of bread | bread | soft | the frame |
| hot pastramiscored as Pastrami | protein | salt 4 umami 4 fat 3 soft silky tender | −4 |
| bacon | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 crispy chewy | +4 |
| chipotle aioli | not scored | ||
| choice of cheesescored as Cheese (generic) | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 creamy soft gooey | −10 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −2 |
| mustard | sauce | acid 3 salt 2 heat 2 saucy smooth | 0 |
| secret sauce | not scored | ||
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | +9 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +12 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | −12 |
| onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | −2 |
| peppersscored as Pepper (bell/hot) | texture | heat 3 crunchy juicy | −4 |
Points: what the Sandwich Score would lose if that one layer were left out, everything else the same. A negative number means the sandwich scores higher without it. Flavor runs 0 to 5 on each axis.
Pairings
- Pastrami + Mustard: deli law: sharp mustard against cured beef
- Bacon + Lettuce: cool crunch against hot smoke
- Bacon + Tomato: smoke against sweet acid, the blt core
- Mayonnaise + Tomato: summer tomato sandwich: acid on rich
- Onion + Pepper (bell/hot): peppers and onions, the griddle pair
How to raise it
- Between you and 90: a focused, restrained build (0.07 short).
All the sandwiches at The Sandwich Spot Menlo College · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder