Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Hoping These Sandwiches Will Be a Pillar of Society


The Sandwich Society
2031 East First St. 
Santa Ana, CA 92705

If you are reading these restaurant reviews in order, instead of just happening upon them, you will notice quite a few similarities between this and our last review, which was S'Wich Bistro in Irvine. Not only do both places have a sandwich-focused menu, but they both cater to mainly the office workers that are located nearby their shops. In fact, both of these places have almost exactly the same hours, 8 to 4pm on weekdays and while S'Wich is closed on weekends, Sandwich Society has a small window when they are open on Saturdays, from 9 to 3pm.

As I stated in my last review, it's almost impossible for me to make it to a restaurant that is only open on weekdays for breakfast and lunch due to my real job. I usually have to wait for one of my vacations to roll around so I can try a place that's not open past 5pm. This was the case for this visit, as I met my sister on one of my last days before I had to go back to the drudgery which is my day job.

Just like S'Wich Bistro, Sandwich Society has some good-looking pictures of its sandwiches on its Instagram feed. It's really gotten them noticed, and not just from the office workers trapped in the buildings around this restaurant. I'd say that the Sandwich Society menu is a little more outlandish than the more conservative S'Wich. Sandwich Society has a bit more in terms of variety. They offer plenty of hot and cold sandwiches, along with a good number of sandwiches listed under the specialties section of their menu. Also, if you get here before 11, you also have the option of trying one of their breakfast items. Just another similarity between the two sandwich shops.

Sandwich Society is situated between both the 55 and 5 Freeways, on First Street, pretty close to El Ranchito, and in the same shopping center as Flame Broiler and the very underrated Johnny's Burgers. We arrived here at just before 10am hoping to avoid the lunch rush that we hear can get a little crazy. Mission accomplished. There were a few customers enjoying their sandwiches when we walked in, but we had no trouble ordering and finding one of their 20 or so seats to wait for our order to come out. The workers here were very busy filling catering orders for what I assumed was a pretty big company function. Let's see if the sandwiches here can match what I've been seeing on their Instagram page.



Since we had beat the breakfast deadline, my sister zeroed in on this Steak and Egg Sandwich ($8.99). This definite upgrade to the usual hockey puck-shaped breakfast sandwich you can get at the Golden Arches included steak, egg, cheese, red onions, and a wonderful garlic mayo which tied everything together. Looking from across the table I thought this looked a little dry, but the bite I had was moist and reminded me of a Philly cheese steak with its little curls of meat, but a lighter feel to it. This sandwich really made my sister happy.




Since I did not know when I'd be able to make it back here, I got two sandwiches, the first of which was this Ultimate Patty Melt ($9.25). What makes this melt the ultimate you ask? It comes with a beef patty and then is topped with avocado, American cheese, bacon, grilled onion, tomato, and plenty of thousand island dressing. This was a good, but not great patty melt. The toppings totally outshined the very pedestrian meat patty, which was a little on the thin side. I liked that they use plenty of dressing on this and the bacon was very crisp. Not sure who their bread purveyor is, but the toasted sourdough was top-notch.



My love for Cuban sandwiches is well documented on this restaurant blog, and I'm always on the lookout for my next favorite version of what I believe to be the most balanced of all the sandwiches out there. This Cuban ($9.25) will not replace my long-time favorite, at DeSimone's in Huntington Beach, but it will definitely cure your Cuban sandwich cravings. A very good roasted pork, sliced ham, melted Swiss cheese, pickles, tomato? mustard and mayo round out this very solid sandwich. I missed the pressed bread crunch from other Cubans, but the insides of this sandwich made up for it. The pork was very good and hearty, the Swiss cheese added a creaminess, and the pickles added a tinge of sourness to this sandwich. I did take the tomato off of this sandwich, as tomato has no place on a Cuban sandwich. Sorry for the harshness of that statement, but I'm very protective of this beloved sandwich.

Even though I had some minor quibbles over the sandwiches at Sandwich Society, I really enjoyed our visit here. They are not just a restaurant that has beautiful pictures on their Instagram page, their sandwiches actually taste good as well. A real rarity these days as a lot of these places just come up with something to make themselves IG famous, but the flavor of their food does not back it up. The sandwiches are good here, with plenty of variety that has piqued my interest in trying more of their menu when I get the rare chance to get up this way while they are open for business.

Out of five poker chips, (because the inventor of the sandwich, John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich did not want to take breaks during his card playing, so he had his servants bring him meat in between two slices of bread), five being best to zero being worst, The Sandwich Society gets 3.5 poker chips.

For more information about The Sandwich Society, head to their website here:
http://www.thesandwichsociety.com/

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