A sandwich at The Napa Deli, a deli in Fairfield, California.
out of 100 · outstanding
Outstanding, and the road to 90 is open.
Reads as a fully realized roast beef, six of six roles, most layers have a partner.
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.
sourdough roll, served cold: roast beef; provolone; lettuce; onion; tomato; pickles; creamy horseradish; dijon.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.5 | 74th |
| acid | 1.6 | 90th |
| fat | 1.3 | 19th |
| sweet | 0.4 | 52nd |
| umami | 1.4 | 44th |
| heat | 0.7 | 90th |
| bitter | 0.3 | 74th |
97 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| sourdough rollscored as Sourdough | bread | soft chewy crusty | the frame |
| roast beefscored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | +33 |
| provolone | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | +2 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | +4 |
| onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | +1 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +2 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | −1 |
| creamy horseradishscored as Horseradish | sauce | heat 4 acid 2 creamy saucy | +3 |
| dijon | not scored |
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 + Provolone: philly logic: sharp provolone on beef
- Beef + Onion: onions sweeten seared beef, philly style
- Beef + Pickle (cucumber): pickle brine against rich beef
- Beef + Horseradish: hot horseradish cuts rich roast beef
How to raise it
- Outstanding, not legendary: nothing on this sandwich is house-made, named or exceptional.
All the sandwiches at The Napa Deli · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder