The 12 Best Sandwiches in San Diego

Three kinds of spicy Italian meat, stracciatella and hot honey, all on house bread: that's the Spicy Sicilian at Buon Cibo Italian Specialties in Scripps Ranch, and it's the best sandwich in San Diego right now. The full build is spicy mortadella, hot capocollo and spicy soppressata with stracciatella, hot honey, pepperoncini, arugula, a spicy olive tapenade and the shop's own Buon Cibo Signature Dressing. It's $14.95, and it's a lot of sandwich in the best way.

The shop is new, but the family story behind it goes back more than a century. Tom Tarantino, who runs Buon Cibo, is the grandson of Pietro Tarantino and Gaetano D'Acquisto, Sicilian fishermen who came to San Diego in the early 1900s. The Tarantinos have lived in Scripps Ranch for more than four decades, so when Tom turned his family's love of Italian cooking into a shop of his own, he opened it in the family's own neighborhood.

What puts the Spicy Sicilian on top is balance. Every ingredient has a job. The three meats bring the heat, the stracciatella cools it down, the hot honey rounds it off, and the pepperoncini, tapenade and arugula keep each bite sharp. That balance is what reviewers single out about the Spicy Sicilian, along with crisp bread, generous portions and friendly service.

Not in a spicy mood? The Tutto Italiano stacks mortadella, salami, capocollo, prosciutto cotto and provolone ($17.95), and the Prosciutto Caprese goes with Prosciutto di Parma, mozzarella, tomato, basil and balsamic ($18.95). The Tarantino Family Recipe Meatball Sandwich is house-made and grilled to order ($17.95), and there's a Chicken Pesto for $15.95.

There's one location, on Spring Canyon Road, and for most of the city it's a drive. Buon Cibo makes the trip easy to fit in with long hours, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, so it works as lunch, an early dinner or a stop on the way home. Bring a friend, order the Spicy Sicilian and a Tutto Italiano, and split both.

The second-best sandwich in San Diego is vegan. Thanh Tinh Chay, on El Cajon Boulevard in the College Area, runs an all-Vietnamese-vegan menu of more than 200 dishes, made without MSG, preservatives or GMO ingredients, and its bánh mì is the order that put it on this list.

The restaurant belongs to Helen, a former nurse with 10 years in the profession, who opened it to bring nutritious plant-based food to the community. That care shows up in small ways. Every diner is served the house detox water, a mix of apple juice, lemon, mint, strawberry and lychee, and the plant-based labeling on the menu is so clear that fans of the place bring it up on their own.

Two bánh mì shops made this list, and both start with house-baked bread, the detail that makes or breaks this sandwich. At Thanh Tinh Chay the praise centers on depth of flavor, and it doesn't stop at the bánh mì. The bún Huế and the steamed buns earn the same kind of love, and people regularly mention the service too.

So bring a friend and make a table of it: the bánh mì, a bowl of bún Huế, a round of steamed buns, jicama rolls, maybe the bamboo soup. With 200-plus dishes to choose from, it pays to pick before you arrive. The restaurant is open six days a week and posts its current schedule on its own website, which is worth a look before a special trip across town.

For a hot meatball sub before a beach day, Ocean Beach has Poma's Italian Deli on Bacon Street. If Buon Cibo is the new family shop with a showpiece sandwich, Poma's is the red-sauce classic OB keeps coming back to.

The order is the meatball sandwich: Poma's Famous Homemade Meatballs in marinara with pepperoncini, $12.50 on the current menu. The meatballs are homemade, and the menu puts that right in the name. Here's another fun detail: you can get it hot or cold. Hot is the classic deli move. Cold is handy if you're packing lunch for later in the day.

People who eat here describe an old-school deli counter, and the praise sticks to the basics: the meatball and eggplant parm sandwiches, the bread, generous portions and good value. The eggplant parm is the meat-free alternative, with breaded eggplant, provolone and marinara for $11.75, and it shares the spotlight with the meatball in customer praise. If you're ordering for a group, get one of each and trade halves.

The counter is compact, seating is limited, and the line builds at peak times. Beat the beach rush by getting in before the crowd heads for the sand, then take your sandwich with you. Poma's opens at 11 every day and stays open a little later Thursday through Saturday, which makes it an easy early dinner after an afternoon in OB.

Big Front Door in University Heights has been around since at least 2004, and its menu is built around meat the shop roasts and smokes itself. House-roasted beef, house-smoked chicken breast and smoked pulled pork all run through the sandwich list, and the Loins of Fire is the one that shows it off best.

Here's what's in it: chili-roasted pork loin, roast poblano, pickled onion and jalapeño, cilantro and lettuce, finished with a Fresno chili hot sauce and house aioli on a torpedo roll, for $13.75. That's a lot of moving parts for one roll, and what people love about Big Front Door is how its inventive sandwiches stay balanced anyway. Scratch-made components and friendly service come up often too.

If Poma's is the old-school counter, Big Front Door is the modern neighborhood deli, and the menu rewards a second visit. The Cali Cubano ($14.25) puts smoked pork loin into a Mexican-inspired Cuban. The Tuna Melt uses long-line albacore tuna salad, and the B3 pairs blackened chicken with brussels sprouts and brie. The Monster ($24.50) piles on multiple meats and cheeses with potato salad, a good one to split if you came hungry.

This is a daytime shop on Park Boulevard, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, and it's built for takeout. Pickup gets busy around lunch, so on a tight schedule, calling ahead is the smart play.

Start with the bread. Lucca Italian Sandwich Shop bakes its focaccia in a small tabletop electric oven inside the kitchen, and it comes out closer to schiacciata, the thin, crisp Tuscan flatbread, than to a typical thick focaccia. That airy, crisp bread is what people rave about, and it's why this downtown counter ranks in the top five.

Lucca opened in August 2024 in a below-street-level courtyard space at 600 B Street, in a building that once housed the San Diego Union-Tribune. It was built for the office lunch crowd, and it keeps office hours to match: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed on weekends.

The order is the Firenze: mortadella, stracciatella, pistachios, basil pesto and arugula on herbed focaccia. It was $14 when the San Diego Reader covered the opening in 2024, and that pistachio-and-mortadella combination is still the first sandwich to order. Premium fillings and smart flavor pairings run through the whole menu. The Roma goes with prosciutto and mozzarella, the Pisa brings artichoke, red pepper and spicy salami, and the namesake Lucca stacks bresaola with truffle paste and stracciatella.

The counter team gets steady praise for being friendly and getting orders right, which helps at the lunch rush. Pickup gets crowded around midday, so order ahead or come early, then carry your Firenze back up to B Street.

Cheese Shop started in 1972, when John and Dorothy Schutz opened it to sell imported cheese and fine foods. More than 50 years later, it's the sandwich counter for a La Jolla Shores beach day, steps from the sand on Avenida de la Playa.

The order is turkey, jack and avocado. It's a simple sandwich, and simple is what people love about it. One reviewer called the turkey and avocado on wheat exceptionally fresh, and the praise across the board keeps landing on generous fillings, scratch-made items and warm service. The shop roasts its own meats and bakes its own cookies on site, so add a cookie to the bag.

Look for the items marked "Made By US" on the menu (it gets three exclamation points there). Those are made entirely from scratch, with no canned or boxed ingredients. When you want something bigger, the New York Special is the heavier-filled sandwich, and it's the other order customers mention by name.

Plan around the beach traffic. The shop is compact, it gets busy when the Shores fill up, and parking can turn a quick pickup into a project. Cheese Shop is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., so an early stop before you claim a spot on the sand is the smooth way to do it.

A great bánh mì starts with a great baguette, and K Sandwiches in Linda Vista bakes its own on site. That house-baked bread is the reason this shop on Linda Vista Road is on the list, and it leads the praise for the place.

If Thanh Tinh Chay is the vegan bánh mì worth crossing town for, K Sandwiches is the traditional one you can make part of your week. The order is K's Special on that baguette, and a popular way to get it is with extra meat and extra pickled veggies. People love the well-filled sandwiches, the quick counter and prices that make it easy to come back.

Save a minute for the pastry case by the register. It gets its own share of praise, and it turns a sandwich run into a sandwich-and-something-sweet run.

A couple of planning notes. The counter slows down during busy periods, so a little patience goes a long way at lunch. Prices on third-party menus around the web don't always match, so use the shop's own online ordering page for the current total. K Sandwiches opens at 7:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. on Sunday, and it's open until 6 every day, which makes it a good early start before a day across town.

When your sandwich comes from a butcher shop, you order the beef. The Wise Ox on El Cajon Boulevard in North Park calls itself a meat shop, a deli, a wine shop and a pantry all in one, and the whole shop is built around premium beef, heritage pork and free-range chicken sourced by its own chefs and butchers.

The cheesesteak is the first order. The praise for it lines up with what you'd want from a butcher's sandwich: quality meat, good seasoning and a build with real heft. For the purest read on the beef itself, get the roast beef, the other sandwich people single out for the same reasons.

If Big Front Door shows what a deli can do with house-roasted meats, The Wise Ox starts one step earlier, at the butcher case. That sourcing is what you're paying for, and prices reflect it.

Timing matters here. Sandwich service ends at 5 p.m. every day, before the butcher counter closes, so this is a lunch or early-afternoon stop. Seating is limited, so plan to take it with you, and browse the wine shop and pantry shelves while your order comes together.

Mona Lisa Italian Foods has been feeding San Diego since 1956, which makes it the oldest business in this guide by a wide margin. Three generations of the family have run it, and the India Street shop in Little Italy is part deli counter, part imported-grocery market. In 2019, San Diego Union-Tribune readers voted it the city's favorite deli.

The order is the Deluxe Sub, a traditional Italian sub from the deli counter. One customer's review calls the Deluxe Sub and the Spicy Sandwich Special their go-to orders, crediting the quality of the meats, the ingredients and the bread. The wider praise follows suit, with love for the deli meats, the market selection, the value and the old-school counter service.

If Lucca is downtown's newer Italian counter, Mona Lisa is the one on this list that's been doing it longest. Take a lap through the imported groceries while the deli works on your sub. It's half the fun of the stop.

Parking in Little Italy takes some planning, and the deli line builds at lunch, so an off-peak run is the easy play. Pair it with a walk through the rest of the neighborhood. Hours can shift, and the shop's own site has the current ones.

East County has its own answer to the Spicy Sicilian, and it's at MammaMia Deli Market on Spring Street in La Mesa. The Crazy Calabrese brings spianata (a spicy salami), spicy gabagool (that's capicola), stracciatella, arugula, Calabrian chili spread and Calabrian chili honey together on the shop's signature schiacciata, for $19.99.

That schiacciata is made fresh in house every day, and it's the backbone of the whole specialty-sandwich menu, currently nine sandwiches long. Like Lucca downtown, MammaMia builds on the thin, crisp Tuscan flatbread, and the house bread leads the praise, followed by the Crazy Calabrese itself, generous Italian fillings and a friendly deli crew.

The Crazy Calabrese shares a lot with Buon Cibo's Spicy Sicilian, from the stracciatella to the chili honey, so fans of one should make the drive for the other. Once you've had the Calabrese, the mortadella-and-pistachio sandwich is the one to try next, and nine sandwiches is a menu you can work through over a few visits.

One useful thing to know: the deli shares its storefront and its schedule with Gino and Gianni's, the attached pizzeria, so the same-day closing time on the shop's website is worth a look before you drive out.

In July 1974, a 19-year-old surfer named Jeff Norris started selling fresh seafood in Del Mar with barely any equipment. Within a year, retail sales were booming and customers were asking for something cooked, so the market started cooking. That's how El Pescador Fish Market became a fish market with a grill, and it's how San Diego got one of its best fish sandwiches.

Sean Shannon started out as the shop's cleanup kid in 1978, and seven years later he opened the Pearl Street location in La Jolla. Between the two shops, El Pescador has worked as a market and grill for more than 50 years. The sandwich to order is the grilled fish, built around whatever came in strongest that day. Ask the counter for a recommendation. The staff's guidance is a big part of what people praise here, along with the fresh fish, the grilled sandwiches and the chowder.

Among all the delis on this list, El Pescador is the coastal pick. The fish is right there in the case, and the kitchen grills it to order. Want a second act? Order the chowder alongside.

La Jolla parking and a line are part of the plan, and seating is tight. The market opens at 10 a.m. and the restaurant at 11 a.m. daily, both until 9 p.m., so it works for lunch or dinner.

Before it had an address on North Coast Highway 101, Moto Deli was a food truck, one its owners say was inspired by the laid-back spirit of Encinitas. Today it's the North County sandwich stop on this list, built around house-smoked meats.

The Turketta is the first order. Those house-smoked meats run through the rest of the short menu too, and the Reuben and the brisket are the natural follow-ups on a second visit. The praise lands on the generous builds and the smoked meats, along with a friendly counter crew. If Big Front Door is the city's house-roasted deli, Moto Deli is the North County counterpart for smoked meat.

The patio is the seat to aim for if you're staying. It's one of the things people like most about Moto Deli, and it makes lunch here feel like a small break from the day.

The window here is short. Moto Deli is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so treat it as a lunch spot and get there with time to spare. If you're heading anywhere after, eat your sandwich first. It's at its best right off the counter.