Porchetta

Porchetta at Echo & Rig

echoandrig.com

B+

The new suburban Las Vegas steakhouse Echo & Rig is a pretty impressive joint; it's fancy but comfy, open for brunch, lunch and dinner, and the menu's stacked with fresh, creative vegetable side dishes and solid steaks priced affordably. Most importantly, there are a handful of stellar sandwiches on that menu. When working your way through a restaurant's sandwich list, start with pork, right? We can assume any restaurant with a built-in butcher shop is going to do some pretty delicious roast pork, yes? Absolutely. It's juicy and savory, tenderloin trimmed with a bit of yummy fatty goodness. There's some slightly pickled shaved red onion, a little red chili and lime juice, and thin slices of sweet potato. It's an interesting, balanced combination of flavors and textures, all piled neatly on a crusty ciabatta roll. Like we said, pretty impressive.

Filet and Egg Slider

Filet and Egg Slider at Honey Salt

honeysalt.com

A

Lord. Whichever chef at Honey Salt came up with the idea to put creamed spinach on what is essentially a breakfast sandwich deserves to be knighted. This slightly sweet, puffy little brioche bun gets a liberal slathering of that rich, utterly indulgent veggie-stuff as its foundation, then it's stacked with medium rare grilled filet mignon, a puff cloud of egg that is described as scrambled but far too texturally perfect to be called that, plus a little white cheddar. This is the next evolution of the killer breakfast sliders chef Kim Canteenwalla used to serve at Society Cafe on the Strip. This is an amazing improvement, decadent and over the top in the best way possible.

Jambon and Pork Roll

Jambon and Pork Roll at Lee's Sandwiches

leessandwiches.com

B-

There's over 1,000 milligrams of sodium in this. What does that mean? You shouldn't eat two of these every day. But in my own personal nutritional strategy, two delicious banh mi sandwiches every day seems like the right prescription. Jambon is pretty much just ham that lasts forever; you don't even need to refrigerate it. That's a little scary. Maybe you shouldn't eat two of these a day. But the salty cured goodness of this ham plus fatty slices of slightly less savory pork roll is one of the meatier banh mi combos you can find at Lee's. The obligatory cilantro, onions, pickled carrots and jalapeños are on board, of course. The determining factor in how good your Lee's banh mi will be depends almost entirely on how fresh the baguette is. We lucked out this time. It's probably a bit better than a 50-50 shot.

Freddy's Original Double

Freddy's Original Double at Freddy's

freddysusa.com

B

So many burgers are so much like In-N-Out. That's not a bad thing. Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, a chain with roots in Kansas stretching back to the '50s, may have been doing their "steakburgers" the same way for decades, but they sure do taste like In-N-Out. Fresh (never frozen) lean beef in hand-formed patties sizzled to nice, almost crisp charred-ness, loaded with lots of melty American cheese-type stuff. There's mustard, onions and really nice, thick medallions of dill pickle on this bad boy, all sandwiched in a butter-toasted bun. It's a classic American cheeseburger times two, and it works. Freddy's shoestring fries are good, too. Freddy's frozen custards are good, too. As far as nostalgia burgers go, you could do so much worse.

Gobbly Gook

Gobbly Gook at Avogadro's

avogadros.com

B-

The holidays cometh, and usually that means it's time for the annual allsandwich trip to frosty Colorado to spend time with family and … eat great sandwiches. This year will be different as we have a more tropical destination in mind, so here's a flashback from our last visit to Fort Collins and its outstanding Avogadro's. The Gobbly Gook is a celebration of roasted turkey, loaded with thin slices of tasty bird, slabs of cheddar and mozzarella cheese, sweet red peppers, raw onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo and creamy dressing on a fluffy hoagie roll. Like most of Avo's sandwiches, it's simple but delicious. There's a chance that we'll be craving one of these while sitting on the beach come December. Maybe.

Peppermill Pastrami Burger

Peppermill Pastrami Burger at Peppermill

peppermilllasvegas.com

B+

Does this not look amazing? The more I eat at Peppermill, the more I want to eat at Peppermill. Come on! Look at those onion rings! As soon as you put the top bun on this mofo and bite away, you'll get a meaty dose of a half-pound burger, melted Swiss, super-lean griddled pastrami, and a drizzle of mayo-mustard sauce. The toasty buttered buns make it all the sweeter. There's lettuce, onion, tomato and pickle on the side for your own add-on glory. Diner food is supposed to be simple satisfaction, nothing more, nothing less. Peppermill gets it. 

Pretzel Pub Chicken

Pretzel Pub Chicken at Wendy's

wendys.com

B-

Okay, Wendy's is on to something here. Capitalizing on that early 2012 food trend known as pretzel bread, the fast food giant has created a chicken sandwich that almost doesn't taste or look like fast food. The pretzel bun itself is actually a bit of a drawback … though it offers a unique, chewy texture, it doesn't have a lot of fresh pretzely flavor. Still, it scores significant presentation points, and the rest of the ingredients here seem upgraded: A slightly crispy breaded chicken breast filet, nicely spiced but not spicy; spring mix instead of plain green lettuce; tomato; muenster cheese; and "smoky honey mustard," which is not smoky but plenty sweet and gooey. Less sauce would have made this sandwich better. Overall, a pleasant surprise from the pigtailed one.

Roasted Turkey, Ham and Coppa

Roasted Turkey, Ham and Coppa at 'Wichcraft

mgmgrand.com

B+

So the great sandwich shop in the back of MGM Grand, 'Wichcraft, has dropped a new menu since I last visited. The good news is they kept their amazing breakfast sandwiches. The bad news is there are fewer sandwiches in general, making room for more salads. Bleck. Salad. Some of the bigger, meatier sandwich options are gone, replaced by a few more panini choices. We can live with the change, though we will miss some of those flavors. One of the new additions is this chewy ciabatta filled with thick slabs of roasted turkey and great country-style ham, plus coppa (a salty, somewhat light salami), white cheddar cheese, a relish of green olives, red peppers and pickled red onion, and a creamy aioli. The meat is plentiful and fantastic, and the briny, bright relish is a great if unspicy contrast to the richness of the two porks. It's another winner from this spot, even if we might not make it back as often as we used to.

Fresh Morning Sandwich

Fresh Morning Sandwich at SkinnyFats

skinnyfats.com

C-

I wanted to rank this incredibly bland breakfast sandwich—composed of egg whites, sauteed spinach (sauteed in other spinach?), turkey bacon (pure tasteless evil), tomato and agave ketchup on a honey wheat kaiser roll—a full letter grade lower, but the fact is, it's my fault. The menu at this trendy new eatery is divided into healthy alternatives, which is where this bitch lives, and "happy" items, which roughly translates into things that actually taste like food. So the "happy" version of this sandwich has scrambled eggs (Glory! There's probably salt and pepper in them, too!), real bacon, tomato, avocado and a spicy mayo spread, and it's on a brioche roll (which has butter!). So I could have ordered that thing instead of this thing. The healthy breakfast sandwich isn't the worst bite ever; all the ingredients are fresh and it's well-assembled. They just forgot the flavor. That's my favorite part.

Cuban Sandwich

Cuban Sandwich at Lulu's Bread & Breakfast

lulusonthemove.com

A+

At last. At last! There are very few Cuban restaurants in Las Vegas, which means a killer version of the classic Cuban toasted ham and cheese sandwich is almost impossible to find. What you have instead instead is whitewashed (and white breaded) deli shops doing a lightweight Americanized version, which comes up short 99 percent of the time. But not at Lulu's. This bakery, breakfast and lunch joint is fast becoming one of our favorite sandwich spots in town because they just do everything right. Their sandwich lineup changes with the seasons and fall has bestowed upon us the best Cuban we've ever tasted in Vegas. The bread is thick country white, but it's panini-pressed to create the hefty crunch and flavorful chew that must occur in any respectable Cuban. Inside, Swiss half-melts luxuriously around ample portions of pickles and yellow mustard, masterfully avoiding any sort of cheese goo effect. Thick slices of ham and generous mounds of roasted, shredded pork offer a meatier mouthful even that what appears. It's simple savory perfection. Thank god for Lulu's.

Double Chili Cheeseburger

Double Chili Cheeseburger at Original Tommy's

originaltommys.com

F+

Nope. No, no no. Not a chance. The plus on this grade is because the bun was fresh and the vegetables were crisp, but they were smothered in beef grease and the dirt-flavored brownsauce characterized as "chili." I remember stopping around Barstow on family road trips to eat at Tommy's as a sort of joke, or a dare, really, as in "Can we make it all the way to LA without having to stop and use the bathroom after eating a chili burger?" You can see why. But you know what? It's not funny. Not at all.

Le Burger

Le Burger at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

mgmgrand.com

A+

If ever there was an obvious A+ sandwich, here ya go. As you can tell by this photo, this baby burger was not consumed inside L'Atelier, hands down of the best restaurants in Las Vegas (and beyond). Food & Wine magazine's annual All-Star Weekend brought many mega-events to the Strip this month, including a burger contest featuring restaurants of the MGM Grand judged by Mr. Robuchon himself, among other celeb chefs. All eight of the burgers were delish, but it's tough to beat this tiny masterpiece. It's very small, and each of the ingredients are basically the best, most fresh version of standard burger accoutrement ... except for that unbelievable, perfectly seared slab of foie gras perched atop the juicy mini-patty. Yeah, kinda hard to hang with that. The problem now is we can pretty much never eat another slider again.

Turkey Club

Turkey Club at Grand Cafe

redrock.sclv.com

B

Should I stop writing about club sandwiches? There's really not a lot to say about a club sandwich if it's made with honor and decency, as is the case with this triple-stacked thang at the Red Rock Resort's totally honorable, decent coffee shop. Plenty of bird, nice, thick strips of pig, fresh veggies. It's all good. Does that make it boring? Hmm. Sounds really good right now, actually.

Waffle Sandwich

Waffle Sandwich at Bread & Butter

breadandbutterlv.com

A-

Is this even a sandwich? Waffles are not bread, but these waffles are sweet and light, and would be nice and crispy if they weren't saturated in old-school white sausage gravy and a pre-drizzle of maple syrup. Layered in between them are ham (or you can order yours with turkey), scrambled eggs and melty cheddar cheese, basically everything you need to make an ideal breakfast sandwich. Just because you need a knife and fork to take it down doesn't mean it's not a sandwich, right?

Pho-Licious Q

Pho-Licious Q at Wa Da Pho

wadapho.com

A

Now this is what we want out of a food truck—fun, imaginative eats with big, powerful flavors. Las Vegas' Wa Da Pho truck offers a unique twist on Asian fusion, including this juicy, scrumptious sandwich that borrows its massive deliciousness from traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup. The truck serves actual pho, too, which sounds like an ambitious attempt for street food. But who are we to judge, especially when they pull off a sandwich this great? A spongy pretzel bun is stuffed with thinly sliced beef brisket, basically the same meat you attack with chopsticks as soon as a steaming bowl of pho is dropped in front of your face. Think of a French dip, Vietnamese style. The extras are cabbage and cilantro, a bit of Thai-influenced papaya slaw, and a creamy special sauce with a little richness to bring the bite out of that beef. It's not easy to drop a completely fresh sandwich on us, one we've never experienced before. Wa Da Pho did it with delicious style.

Super Sub

Super Sub at Jersey Mike's Subs

jerseymikes.com

C+

Jersey Mike's feels like the underachieving slacker of sandwich franchises. I'll take it any day of the week over big boys Port of Subs or Subway, but even though eating a sandwich here is never disappointing, it never really satisfies, either. Perhaps that's due to the absolutely mediocre bread, which has decent texture but no flavor to speak of. The Super Sub, with provolone cheese, ham, prosciutto and capacola, should pack enough savory goodness to offset the bread's blandness, but it doesn't really get there. The overall product quality just isn't what it should be. The produce, however, was fresh and crisp, lettuce, tomato and red onion, and Jersey Mike's is always beyond generous with condiments, oil and vinegar. I added hot cherry pepper relish to spark this bitch up, and it was a decent bite. I guess that's all you can expect from a shop like this.

French Fry Burger

French Fry Burger at Burger King

bk.com

F

I don't know who should be more embarrassed—Burger King, for putting this on their menu, or me, for buying it. It only cost a dollar, so maybe it's on them. But I didn't just buy it, I ate it. So I guess I'm the loser. Does it look tiny? Because it is. Any other restaurant in the world would call this a slider. Dry bun, drippy ketchup and mayo, shitty baby patty, lettuce flakes, and four or five crispy fries. They were crispy. I'll give you that, Burger King. Despite the classic American flavor of burgers and fries together, this sucker should have been aborted.

Torta

Torta at Los Chilangos

loschilangos.com

A-

We sampled the grub from Los Chilangos, a food truck and caterer operating in the Seattle area, at the spectacular Sunday farmers' market in Ballard. The true treasure on the menu was the chupacabra quesadilla, combining chorizo and carne asada into a savory, fatty blast of meat bliss. If we would have wisely ordered that on our torta, it'd be an A+  sandwich with ease. But the vegetarian version is beyond solid, a pillowy, slightly toasted sourdough roll filled with hearty black beans, salty, gooey cheese, shredded lettuce, cilantro, onions, and spicy salsa verde. There was definitely a dose of fresh jalapeño in that salsa, giving it an extra kick that cut through the rich layer of cheese and beans. It's the perfect thing to cradle and devour while walking through one of the best street markets we've ever experienced.

Flagship Sandwich

Flagship Sandwich at Beecher's

beechershandmadecheese.com

A

Pardon the already munched photo, but it's hard not to chomp on a deadly-delicious grilled cheese once it's in your hot little hands. The famous Beecher's at Pike Place Market is always packed, and worth the wait, no matter if you're getting one of these, a dungeness crab sandwich, the killer mac and cheese or just stocking up on other cheesy goodness. The Flagship is layered with Beecher's eponymous signature cheese, a cow's milk cheese with a nice nutty flavor, plus their ridiculously creamy Just Jack cheese. It's quite the combination, melted or not. Fresh basil, tomato, and a smooth spread round things out, all panini-pressed between toasty sourdough. First rule of a great grilled cheese is using great cheese, pretty easy to come by at Beecher's.

Beer Steamed Hot Dog

Beer Steamed Hot Dog at the Orleans Casino Sportsbook

orleanscasino.com

B-

The $1.50 hot dog served from a street-style cart right behind the sportsbook at the aging, locals-oriented Orleans Casino is still one of the best dogs in Las Vegas, an all-beef meat tube that's alway been cooked by steaming over bubbling beer. The price used to be 75 cents, including all the condiments you wanna splash on top, but inflation is a bitch, I suppose. Still, it's a good deal, and you find similar ones at other Boyd Gaming-owned casinos that once operated under the Coast Casinos banner. But for some reason, the Orleans dog just tastes better. Maybe it's because this casino is a little grimy and worn, and it feels like the kind of place where lunch or dinner should be a quick wiener between hands or slot machine pulls.