Pepper Turkey Melt

Pepper Turkey Melt

homemade

B

Going back to the grilled-cheese-made-under-the-broiler method, I stacked black pepper-crusted, roasted turkey breast and pepper jack cheese with a little Grey Poupon on some healthy, whole-grain, multi-seeded bread and put the oven to work. Turned out crunchy, melty, a bit spicy, and quite flavorful. Thanks, broiler.

Fairfax

Fairfax at Eggslut

eggslut.com

A

Can a simple breakfast sandwich really live up to the hype surrounding Eggslut, the former food truck that has taken Los Angeles mornings by storm and now expanded to Las Vegas with a shop at the Cosmopolitan on the Strip? When its makers concentrate on making each ingredient as delicious as possible, the answer is yes. Our first taste of the 'slut is the Fairfax, probably the most popular sandwich on the menu: cage-free soft-scrambled eggs with a bit of chopped chives blended in, caramelized onions, cheddar cheese and sriracha mayo in soft brioche. Avoiding rookie mistakes, we added bacon and avocado, and the result is pure indulgence. It really needs the crispy, salty bacon to punch through all the warm, creamy goodness, and that mayo brings the tang. The eggs are in the spotlight, of course, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture and fresh flavor. We're not sure if Eggslut is worth waiting in hours-long lines like they do in L.A., but the Vegas version will become a regular stop on the allsandwich rotation, in the morning and after hours.

The New Yorker

The New Yorker at PT's Brewing Co.

pteglv.com

B

In the history of meat-stacked, deli-style sandwiches, have you ever found one done the right way in a bar? How about in a brewery? It seems like it can't possibly work out, but PT's Brewing Co.—the new beer-making arm of the ubiquitous Las Vegas tavern company—delivers a monster of quality here, especially impressive because the pastrami and corned beef are made in house. Thick, salty slabs of those two sandwich faves, plus tender, medium-rare roast beef, all somehow stay upright between two holding-on-for-dear-life pieces of marbled rye. Provolone and Swiss cheeses are added to the mix to add a different kind of richness, while coleslaw brings a nice fresh crunch and Thousand Island rides in with a little tang. This is a true meat mountain, and there aren't a lot of delis around the Vegas valley that you can find legit sandwich monuments like this one. Here, you can wash it down with a cold brew made in the room on the other side of the wall, and that's pretty cool.

O.M.G.

O.M.G. at LVB Burgers & Bar

mirage.com

B-

So we popped into LVB (the burger bar that has replaced BLT Burger at the Mirage hotel-casino on the Vegas Strip) in its very early days to check out the goods. Why make the trip to the Strip just to eat a pricey burg? Because chef Michael LaPlaca (from Mirage's stellar Portofino Italian restaurant) designed this menu, and he's one of our favorites. So of course we had to get the weirdest burger on that menu: the O.M.G. (which apparently stands for Oh My Gosh) is founded on a ground duck patty stuffed with Muenster cheese and topped with heirloom tomato, watercress, smoked ketchup and roasted duck mayo. Note the quality sesame seed bun, too. So can you actually taste all this funky duck flavors? Pretty much. It's really rich and will fill you up faster than the average burger, and there's a lot of cheese. These aren't bad things. The tomato and ketchup bring some fresh flavors into the mix, but they don't really lighten it up. Is this an indicator that we'll be back to LVB? Yes.

Tuna Melt Sickness

The Tuna Melt of Sickness

homemade

D+

I've made many questionable sandwiches in my time, and many of those unfortunate experiments have occurred during some sort of illness. Why? Because when I'm sick, I'm a huge baby, and while I may have good fresh food to eat in the house, I'm lazy and whiny and much more likely to throw a few ingredients between bread. Hence, this tuna melt, a sad byproduct of my annual week-long summer cold. Two tiles of generic multigrain bread were tossed into a pan with a little olive oil, flipped, layered with thick slices of Muenster cheese and a few forkfuls of Starkist Tuna Creations Sweet & Spicy flavor—I don't recall purchasing that fish envelope, for the record—and then plastered together and griddled 'til toasty. It actually doesn't sound that bad, but it was. Cheese didn't get melted enough. Tuna flavoring was a poor choice for sandwiching. Dryness was inescapable. But hey, on the plus side, I still can't really taste anything. I will survive.

The Mayor of Flavortown Burger

The Mayor of Flavortown Burger at Guy Fieri's Vegas Kitchen & Bar

caesars.com

B-

The thing I notice most about the food at Guy Fieri's Las Vegas restaurants—there are two now—is the presentation. This burger is not just put together. It's carefully constructed for maximum height and to make sure it looks like you could never get your mouth around it, but it also needs to be a bit sloppy, as if the kitchen crew didn't use any tweezers placing a single strand of the caraway seed coleslaw intentionally out of place. And the fries, even ... they're not in an kind of container. They're just pile-mounted onto a metal frame with a piece of paper holding them up. It's quite scientific. It's pretty tasty, too, especially if you can manage to order this sucker by name without giggling. The burger is good quality meat, smash-grilled for juiciness and nicely textured outside (but mine was just a bit overdone), and piled with pastrami, Swiss cheese, that slaw, pickles, fried onion strings and Dijon mustard, all on top of a garlic-buttered pretzel bun. All those flavors get a little bit muddled; it still tastes like a burger first and foremost. But you do get little tingles of the 'strami and the pickles and the mustard, and the chewy bun makes it even more satisfying. This probably isn't the best burger at Guy's first Vegas spot, but it's pretty close to being on the money.

Dallas

Dallas at Bobby's Burger Palace

bobbysburgerpalace.com

C-

Perhaps it was inevitable. When Bobby Flay expanded his Burger Palace chain to the Las Vegas Strip, we didn't really care, until we went and ate the burgers (and drank the shakes) and goddamnit if we didn't love this place. The fancy burgers were a little less expansive and a little less fancy than the other casino burger shops, and it was glorious. So we kept coming back. But at last, disappointment. We ordered the Dallas, allegedly a spice-crusted patty with coleslaw, jack cheese, barbecue sauce and pickles, and we "crunchified" it by adding potato chips because even though this seems ridiculous, it has worked for us in the past. This was just short of a titanic fail. I don't know what spices were crusted on this burger, but salt was the only thing we could taste. Combine some Lay's and a runny barbecue sauce that was more savory and steak sauce-ish than sweet and tangy, and you have a one-note salt bomb from which there is no escape. Pickles usually make everything better but this just wasn't going to happen. The meat, though cooked medium rare, was bland and mushy on the inside. We'll always have fond memories of Bobby's, but with Shake Shack, Fatburger and Fukuburger within Strip walking distance of this shop, I don't think we'll be able to find a reason to return. It was yum while it lasted.

Regular Combo Beef & Sausage

Regular Combo Beef & Sausage at Al's Italian Beef

alsbeef.com

A

This is a once-a-year kind of sandwich, and by that I mean I'll probably die if I eat it more often than that. But it's so good. Al's classic Italian beef, super tender and savory meat sliced thin enough to melt into your face and saturated in "gravy," is augmented here not only with provolone, hot giardiniera and sweet peppers but also a char-grilled spicy pork sausage. You can't really see the link in this pic but it's there, lurking beneath the meaty, saucy mountain, piled into a soft, delicious roll. It's almost impossible to pick this thing up and eat it like a proper sandwich; you're better off knife and forking your way to glorious gutbomb satisfaction. Worth the effort, and the occasional splurge.

Chili Cheese Grilled Dog

Chili Cheese Grilled Dog at Burger King

bk.com

F

Pretty genius, actually ... the other fast-food burger chains don't do dogs. Why not throw this mess on the menu for a couple bucks? Some sucker will tack it on to their Whopper meal order. Some sucker indeed.

Taco Sandwich

Taco Sandwich

homemade

B+

So I invented this. You've never made this before. No, it's not a torta. It's close, though. I used a traditional torta roll, a fluffier version of a bolillo, one with a really nice, soft chewiness to it. It's a pretty great roll, actually. I toasted it and melted slices of pepper jack cheese on both sides, then layered some ground beef with the traditional gringo taco flavorings. Then on top of the meat, I basically placed a tostada—not tortilla chips but a crunchy taco shell, snapped in half so it'd be flat, then coated with chunky red salsa, fresh cilantro and sour cream. Then, top bun, with top cheese. You bite it and simultaneously get the soft, meaty, spicy goodness of your favorite torta with the crunchy, zesty, cheesy sensation of a taco. Which is why I named it the taco sandwich, and I get to name it, because I invented it.

Hoagie

Hoagie at Herringbone

herringboneeats.com

B

One of our all-time favorite Vegas chefs, Geno Bernardo, has returned to the city and taken up residency at Herringbone, a casual yet still fancy seafood-oriented restaurant at Aria. What do you get when a great Italian chef runs the show at a Strip seafood spot? Great Italian food in an unexpected venue, of course, including this legit sub. The bread is a bit softer than our favorite versions of this classic sandwich, but all the flavors are on point, from the sharp provolone and thinly sliced red onions to the oregano-laced oil-and-vinegar dressing decorating the shredded lettuce. Pickled cherry peppers bring some extra fun to the party and help cut through the rich, fatty goodness of this neat pile of salami, prosciutto and mortadella. There's plenty of other great dishes on this lunch menu, but this will always be an option.

Montecristo

Montecristo at Truffles N Bacon Cafe

trufflesnbacon.com

B+

This charming southeast valley (Henderson area) cafe continues to evolve into a tasty little jewel. Truffles N Bacon does everything a little bit differently, including the preparation (and one-word spelling) of this bygone-era sandwich. The Monte Cristo is traditionally a thick-breaded, deep-fried, melty-savory sandwich, an indulgence you'll probably regret having for lunch or brunch. TNB's version combines ham, turkey and cheese, with plenty of honey mustard, layered inside a pillowy bread that is battered and griddled, French toast-style. It's a super-soft, lovely bite, with a nice balance of meat and cheese, and perhaps not as guilt-inducing as the original. Another solid sandwich offering from these fine folks.

Ham and Cheese

Ham and Cheese

homemade

B

Go to a French bakery. Take home a baguette. Spread mustard on each side, throw some provolone on there and drop it under the broiler for a couple minutes. Add some Back Forest ham. Crunch it up. Toasty, salty, satisfying. Done deal.

Land & Sea Burger

Land & Sea Burger at Cafe 6

palms.com

B-

When you go to a goofy gourmet burger joint, consider getting the goofiest burger on the menu. It turned out well at Cafe 6 at the Palms, where this surf-and-turfwich includes a sweet Hawaiian bun with a fairly juicy Angus beef patty and the sushi joint mainstay crab dynamite (there's a chance no actual crab was harmed in the making of this burger) plus red onion, fennel, kale, radish, havarti cheese and tomato tartar sauce. Shockingly, you could actually taste the sauce and it was nice. The kale, radish and fennel brought some necessary crunch to the mix, and the beef and creamy seafood combo was funky in an acceptable way. This burger certainly isn't for everybody, but it was an overall success.

Sandwich Sundays presents: Provolone Arugula Pizza Veggie Burger

Provolone Arugula Pizza Veggie Burger

homemade

A

Trader Joe's pizza-flavored veggie burger patties are legit. Or at least as legit as frozen soy protein discs could possibly get. They are packed with tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese, which actually do get that familiar pizza-ness across when you heat and eat. But go the extra mile, like we did for Sandwich Sundays. Grill them, and melt some thick-sliced provolone on top. Toss some peppery arugula in olive oil and lemon juice and red pepper flakes and pile it high on your patty, and mount everything on a toasty ciabatta bun. We took a solid idea and maximized its deliciousness. This was an easy victory.

Zydeco Special

Zydeco Special at Zydeco Po-Boys

zydecopo-boys.com

A+

So Zydeco's debris po-boy might have been our favorite new sandwich of 2015. Its luscious combo of slow-cooked brisket, classic Leidenheimer bread from New Orleans and spicy jalapeño mayo is simply fantastic, and we couldn't imagine eating a better po-boy sandwich. But that was before we tried the Zydeco Special, which is the same exact sandwich perfection with the addition of thick, juicy slabs of house-brined turkey breast and sweety, salty ham (also cooked here and used to flavor other dishes like red beans and rice). It's way, way over the top, so much incredible meat stacked and stacked, along with lettuce and tomato and provolone cheese. But you can still taste each amazing ingredient. You know you're overdoing it, but that's kinda the point. It's great on great, the crispness of the bread pushing you along each savory, meaty bite. Could this be our favorite sandwich of 2016? We're gonna go get another one right now and see.

Sandwich Sundays presents: Spicy "Grilled" Cheese

Spicy "Grilled" Cheese

homemade

A

The secret to making a crunchy, gooey grilled cheese is to not grill it; use the broiler. And way too much delicious cheese. Thin tiles of Jewish rye got doused in olive oil and tossed in the oven, crispy toasted on one side and then flipped over, layered with thick slices of yellow jalapeño cheddar and aged white peppadew cheddar, melted to perfection, stacked together and flipped over a couple more times for a few minutes under the oven's flame. The end result: Cheese. Crunch. Yes.

Asiago Ranch Chicken Club

Asiago Ranch Chicken Club at Wendy's

wendys.com

C-

Do the names of the types of chicken at Wendy's make sense? I mean, spicy is spicy, sorta, but it doesn't exactly explain that the spicy chicken is still breaded and fried. The plain breaded and fried chicken sandwich is called homestyle, which is confusing because nobody makes cardboard fried chicken at home. And this option is called grilled, which actually should be homestyle, but it's hard to say exactly how this chunk of poultry was cooked. All I know is it seemed like the best style of chicken to go with bacon, asiago cheese, ranch, lettuce and tomatoes. Because these toppings just don't seem like a good fit with a spicy or fried chicken chunk. And really, this doesn't go that well, either. But I'm not sure if it's the chicken's fault, or the sweet, gooey ranch sauce. Maybe they should call this chicken style "the boring."

Meatball Sandwich

Meatball Sandwich at Great American Food

greatamericanfoodlv.com

B

The oddly named Great American Food specializes in sandwiches, mainly of the Italian variety. Sure, you can grab a burger or a Reuben here, but at its core this is an Italian deli, so ... let's go meatballin'. On a toasty French roll, homemade all-beef meatballs—firm and well spiced—are slathered in melty mozzarella and fresh, bright marinara sauce. It's a nice hot bite through and through, super satisfying and flavored with familiar. If you like your sandwiches straight-ahead, maybe Great American Food is for you.

The B.A.T. Shi(p) Crazy

The B.A.T. Shi(p) Crazy at Lulu's Bread & Breakfast

lulusonthemove.com

A-

You didn't think we'd go very long without revisiting the breakfast sandwich capital of Las Vegas, did you? This Lulu's treat, which may or may not be on the ever-changing menu at any given time, stars thick-cut peppered bacon, avocado, tomato relish, cheddar cheese and over-easy eggs stacked on the bakery's signature "everything" brioche, which has all the tasty seeds and things of an everything bagel. It's one of the greatest rolls you'll ever taste, a textural delight dabbed with savory brilliance, and adding rich eggs and crispy bacon to such beautiful bread is an automatic win.