A sandwich at Roadees Cafe, a sandwich shop in Brentwood, California.
out of 100 · very good
Very good, with one move worth +18.
A pastrami on rye with layers outside the form; five of six roles.
Holding the summit: a finished composition
−6 sauce overload
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.
hoagie roll (inferred from the kind of place), toasted: hot pastrami; sauerkraut; pickles; swiss cheese; garlic sauce; mayo; mustard.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.3 | 90th |
| acid | 2.1 | 90th |
| fat | 2.0 | 42nd |
| sweet | 0.1 | 22nd |
| umami | 1.3 | 43rd |
| heat | 0.5 | 86th |
| bitter | 0.1 | 53rd |
95 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 |
| hot pastramiscored as Pastrami | protein | salt 4 umami 4 fat 3 soft silky tender | +15 |
| sauerkraut | acid | acid 4 salt 2 pickled wet | +12 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | +4 |
| swiss cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | +11 |
| garlic sauce | sauce | fat 4 salt 2 creamy saucy | −16 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −18 |
| mustard | sauce | acid 3 salt 2 heat 2 saucy smooth | +5 |
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 + Sauerkraut: peppery beef, sour kraut: the reuben axis
- Pastrami + Swiss Cheese: melted swiss rounds peppered beef
- Pastrami + Mustard: deli law: sharp mustard against cured beef
- Sauerkraut + Swiss Cheese: melted swiss rounds the kraut's sour
How to raise it
- Clear the board: sauce overload (-6).
- Between you and 90: a finished composition (0.08 short).
All the sandwiches at Roadees Cafe · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder