13 of Our Readers’ Favorite New York City Sandwiches

Last week we published a project we’ve been working on for quite a while: a list of 57 sandwiches that define New York City. (Someone named Dave in the comments generously suggested we rename the list, “Making Everyone Who Ever Left NYC Regret Their Choices.”)

You can imagine that narrowing down all of the city’s sandwiches was a very, very tall order. Across the five boroughs, there are iconic sandwiches, good-for-a-specific-use-case sandwiches, criminally underrated sandwiches and wonderful dishes that may or may not technically be sandwiches. (Many heated debates were had.)

Read the full list of New York City sandwiches.

In over 700 comments on the story and on social media, readers shared their opinions on our list. There was plenty of excitement, of course, and there were quite a few polite reminders of sandwiches we may have overlooked. So we asked for your top sandwiches. Below are 13 of our favorite submissions, which have been edited and condensed.

Johnny Roastbeef

Thin sliced roast beef, fresh mozzarella, caramelized onions and gravy.

John’s Deli, Gravesend, Brooklyn

This masterpiece takes almost 15 minutes to construct. (The sign says, “If you’re in a hurry, don’t bother.”) On classic local bread and ridiculously good ingredients, it is a link to the roast beef palaces of yore. When my brothers and I were selling my father’s house in the neighborhood, I brought a couple of these sandwiches back to the house while we waited for real estate agents. We all swooned, remembering lunches like this with Dad.