A burger at North Park Deli, a deli in Concord, California.
out of 100 · outstanding
Outstanding, and the road to 90 is open.
Reads as a fully realized roast beef, six of six roles on the board.
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.
burger bun (inferred from the kind of sandwich), toasted: 1/3 lb. beef patty; chili; aged shredded cheddar cheese; mayo; lettuce; tomato; onions.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.3 | 66th |
| acid | 0.9 | 67th |
| fat | 2.8 | 74th |
| sweet | 0.5 | 64th |
| umami | 1.9 | 68th |
| heat | 0.1 | 50th |
| bitter | 0.1 | 55th |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| burger bun (inferred from the kind of sandwich) | bread | sweet 2 soft springy | the frame |
| 1/3 lb. beef pattyscored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | 0 |
| chili | not scored | ||
| aged shredded cheddar cheesescored as Cheddar Cheese | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 soft gooey melty | 0 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | 0 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | 0 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +8 |
| onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | 0 |
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 + Cheddar Cheese: the cheeseburger pair: sharp on seared beef
- Beef + Onion: onions sweeten seared beef, philly style
- Cheddar Cheese + Tomato: grilled cheese and tomato, the lunch pair
- Cheddar Cheese + Onion: cheddar and onion, the ploughman's pair
- Mayonnaise + Tomato: summer tomato sandwich: acid on rich
How to raise it
- Outstanding, not legendary: the menu does not name its bread.
All the sandwiches at North Park Deli · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder