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; mushrooms; swiss cheese; mayo; lettuce; tomato; onions.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.1 | 56th |
| acid | 0.6 | 54th |
| fat | 2.2 | 54th |
| sweet | 0.4 | 57th |
| umami | 1.9 | 68th |
| heat | 0.1 | 49th |
| bitter | 0.1 | 52nd |
90 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 |
| mushroomsscored as Mushroom | bulk | umami 2 soft springy juicy | 0 |
| swiss cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | 0 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | +2 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | 0 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +6 |
| 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 + Mushroom: beef and mushroom, the steakhouse pair
- Beef + Swiss Cheese: roast beef and swiss, the deli melt
- Beef + Onion: onions sweeten seared beef, philly style
- Mushroom + Swiss Cheese: melted alpine over browned mushroom
- Mushroom + Onion: the saute pair: mushroom and onion
- 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