A sandwich at The Sandwich Spot Menlo College, a sandwich shop in Atherton, California.
out of 100 · excellent
Excellent, with one move worth +9.
A chicken bacon melt with layers outside the form; six of six roles.
Holding the summit: a focused, restrained build
More acid 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: marinated chicken; bbq sauce; jack cheese; mayo; mustard; secret sauce; lettuce; tomato; pickles; onions; peppers.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.6 | 75th |
| acid | 1.7 | 90th |
| fat | 1.3 | 19th |
| sweet | 0.8 | 85th |
| umami | 1.2 | 37th |
| heat | 0.4 | 81st |
| bitter | 0.2 | 70th |
96 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 |
| marinated chickenscored as Chicken | protein | umami 3 fat 2 juicy chewy tender | +7 |
| bbq sauce | sauce | sweet 4 salt 2 acid 2 silky saucy | +1 |
| jack cheesescored as Monterey Jack | protein | fat 3 salt 2 umami 2 soft creamy melty | −9 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | 0 |
| mustard | sauce | acid 3 salt 2 heat 2 saucy smooth | −9 |
| secret sauce | not scored | ||
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | +5 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +7 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | 0 |
| onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | +5 |
| 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
- Chicken + BBQ Sauce: bbq chicken: sweet smoke glaze on a mild bird
- Chicken + Pickle (cucumber): fried chicken's pickle law holds cold too
- BBQ Sauce + Onion: onion sharpens sweet bbq sauce
- 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