A sandwich at Saul's Restaurant & Delicatessen, a deli in Berkeley, California.
out of 100 · solid
Solid, with one move worth +24.
A roast beef with layers outside the form; five of six roles, half the layers have no partner.
Holding the summit: a finished composition
−6 sauce overload
−8 heat past the catalog
More heat 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.
hoagie roll (inferred from the kind of place), served cold: roast beef; harissa; mayo; swiss; lettuce; avocado; horseradish.
Worth a look: rare in the Bay Area (5 or fewer shops): Harissa.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.0 | 54th |
| acid | 0.7 | 57th |
| fat | 2.5 | 64th |
| sweet | 0.0 | n/a |
| umami | 1.4 | 44th |
| heat | 1.1 | 90th |
| bitter | 0.2 | 62nd |
93 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| hoagie roll (inferred from the kind of place) | bread | soft crusty | the frame |
| roast beefscored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | +13 |
| harissa | sauce | heat 4 salt 2 smooth | −24 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −4 |
| swissscored as Swiss Cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | +4 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | +13 |
| avocado | fat | fat 4 creamy soft fresh | −9 |
| horseradish | sauce | heat 4 acid 2 creamy saucy | −8 |
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
- Beef + Swiss Cheese: roast beef and swiss, the deli melt
- Beef + Horseradish: hot horseradish cuts rich roast beef
How to raise it
- Clear the board: heat past the catalog (-8).
All the sandwiches at Saul's Restaurant & Delicatessen · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder