All Star Sandwich Bar
1245 Cambridge St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
We finally made it to Boston! After our six-hour flight, lugging our bags on the T, and settling into our hotel, we did not want to go far for our first meal. Luckily, we were staying in Cambridge, and a restaurant that was on my list happened to be within walking distance of our hotel. So we set down our bags and walked a short fifteen minutes to All Star Sandwich Bar.
All Star Sandwich Bar has been operating since 2006, and if you are looking for a wrap here, keep on walking. They proudly state that they are a wrap free restaurant. I knew I was in the right place after seeing that. Opened by two brothers, All-Star strives to bring you back to your childhood by creating great comfort food sandwiches.
We arrived at eight on a Tuesday night. The restaurant has bright colored walls, featuring local art for sale. The vibe here is definitely a collegiate hip one. The staff was all young, and the indie music over the speakers was a variety of everything. A constant stream of customers filtered in throughout our stay, so I had a feeling the sandwiches would be good. Let's find out if that was the case.
A suggestion from our waiter started us off with the Deluxe Mac and Cheese. This came out steaming hot. Not really sure why this was called deluxe mac and cheese. It had too mellow of a taste for me. It would have been better if they added some bacon here. Not a bad dish, but not anything I would get again. I did enjoy the bread crumbs that topped this.
The mac and cheese put my taste buds to sleep, but the Rings of Fire woke them up in a hurry. This mountain of onion rings was served with All Star's own creation, the Inner Beauty Hot Sauce. This stuff was scorching and addictive. The rings themselves were fried crisp, and I liked that they were not oversized rings. It made these very manageable. We got a side of blue cheese to dip these in, just to cut the heat down a bit.
I was a little surprised by Katie's choice for a sandwich, the Beef on Weck. This Buffalo, New York-based sandwich consists of house-made roast beef, extra hot horseradish, and au jus, all served on a Kimmelweck bun. The bun is salted and has caraway seeds on top. Very unusual bun, but it works here. The sandwich itself is very simple, but all of the ingredients together made this a solid sandwich. Katie liked the juiciness of the meat but found the horseradish a bit overpowering in some bites.
Coming into All-Star I knew what I was going to get. The other sandwiches on the menu almost tempted me to switch, but I did not stray from the Atomic Meatloaf Meltdown. Grilled meatloaf, red onion jam, jack cheese, and the Inner Beauty hot sauce made up this killer sandwich. This sandwich was a flavor explosion. The sauce was hot in spots, but also mellowed a little because of the cheese and meatloaf. The meatloaf was very moist, almost to the point of becoming liquid. The bread is also worth noting here. It really held the sandwich together, without being too hard.
I would say that the brothers that opened this sandwich shop have met their objective of creating great comfort food sandwiches. The service was very good, and the prices were very fair. All sandwiches are in the $7 to $9 range, well worth the price. The variety of sandwiches would keep me coming back for more if I lived in this area. The Cubano, Texas Reuben, and Monte Cristo all looked so good on the menu, I might have to fly back to Boston for a sandwich.
Out of five rockets, (because Roger Clemens was an all-star for the Red Sox five times, and his nickname was the Rocket), five being best to zero being worst, All Star Sandwich Bar gets 3.5 rockets.
For more information on All Star Sandwich Bar, click here: https://allstarsandwichbar.com/
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