LunChampionsTM: Deli Sandwiches
OurSausalito.com's LunChampionsTM Features are articles where we take one basic lunch menu item and order the same meal different places in town. Then we compare, contrast and declare a LunChampionTM!
Ask a Sausalito resident about the best deli in 94965 and you'll get a lot of different answers, as we report on our deli's and sandwiches page.
For the The Best Sausalito Deli Sandwich LunChampionTM competition we chose the tuna salad sandwich. Why? Because (unlike sliced meats) tuna salad starts with a recipe instead of just ingredients, so its creation requires creativity beyond "Do I get the Cheap House Brand, Boar's Head or the expensive European one I can't pronounce?"
Spoiling the suspense: All of the top five deli's listed gave us good, fresh tuna salad sandwiches. The fifth sandwich on the list is far better than the average tuna sandwich we've gotten in our travels around the world. The differences upon which we ranked the sandwiches are a matter of personal taste, not obvious differences in quality.
Lower the lights, cue the drum roll… here's our ranking of the top five!
Venice Gourmet — The Italian way, The Downtown Deli and our chosen LunChampionTM. Lots of tuna salad, everything relentlessly fresh: crispy lettuce, fresh tomato, fresh bread. Not too heavy on the fennel (a personal thing with us when places over-do it), nor too sweet the way some "everything is better with sugar" diners do it.
Sausalito Gourmet Deli — The Greek way and the Caledonia Champion, just north of downtown. Typical-size serving of tuna salad with great crunchy texture from bits of celery and cucumber, abundant fresh lettuce and tomato, fresh bread. Similar flavor to the sandwich at Venice, just more cucumber flavor.
Golden Gate Market's Deli — The Southern Safe House, the first place to recover after the long bike ride or walk over the Golden Gate Bridge. Typical serving of tuna salad, plenty of lettuce and tomato. The most "tuna flavor" of all the tuna salads, the fresh taste of the main ingredient shining through.
Louie's Deli and Coffee Shop — The Mediterranean way and the Knights of Northern Sausalito. An especially generous serving of tuna salad. Very creamy, very light on the seasonings apart from some vegetables mixed in for some crunch — we prefer more herbs but recognize that for many people this will be perfect. Tied with Sausalito Gourmet for best texture of any tuna salad.
Mollie Stone's Deli — The size of Mollie Stone's is a negative to some people, but they make good sandwiches (unlike many supermarket deli's). Generous serving of tuna, unlike the places where they give you just a thin layer. That said, their tuna is too savory for our tastes, with extra spices added. Lettuce, tomato and bread were all fresh compared to most places outside Sausalito… but not as fresh as at the top three deli's above. And they give you a free mint wrapped in your sandwich!
By the way, praise goes to all of these places for their friendly customer service. Each of the five deli's were warm and welcoming to our editors. Since they don't know we write these reviews, we get the same service as everyone else, which in this case happens to be "Great!"
Did we crown the right LunChampionTM? Don't see your favorite tuna sandwich in 94965? Think we missed the point entirely by using tuna salad as our medium of creative expression? Use the comments box below so our readers get the full story!
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