Not Taking a Pass on the Sandwiches at Paseo

Paseo

1760 1st Avenue South

Seattle, WA 98134

Katie and I have an odd ritual when we are on vacation. No, it's not anything that will make you blush, or entice you to call the authorities. It's rather tame. We like to tour sports venues in the city we are visiting. Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks was unfortunately closed to tours when we visited in mid-March, but lucky for us T-Mobile Park was open for twice-daily tours of the stadium where the Seattle Mariners play. We quickly booked the 10am tour and made plans to head to Paseo for lunch once the hour and a half tour had concluded. 

Paseo, a Caribbean sandwich shop is one of the most highly acclaimed spots in all of Seattle. They have over 5,300 reviews written about them on Yelp, with a four and a half star rating. They were also named 2nd and 3rd of the top 100 places to eat in the country, in separate years, by Yelp and were voted the 2nd best sandwich shop in the USA by Food Network. Very high praise, and right near T-Mobile Park, so after walking all over the ballpark we were excited to finally sit down once we were at Paseo. 

From what I can gather online, Paseo has two locations, this one on 1st and another one on Fremont. Their website also lists one that's coming to Issaquah, a city southeast of Seattle. I also did a deep dive and learned that Paseo had some money problems in 2014, and was sold by the original owner. I'm not quite sure who is the current owner presently, but Seattleites don't seem to care who is running this place now, they just keep showing up to devour the sandwiches. 

The menu at Paseo features 12 sandwiches, five entrees, two salads, appetizers, and sides. All but one thing, the jambalaya is going to set you back more than $15. Breakfast is also an option if you make it here before 1pm Tuesday through Saturday, and it's served all day on Sundays and Mondays. I was intrigued by their breakfast, but I couldn't visit Paseo without trying what they are the most famous for, their sandwiches. Let's see what we thought. 

First up is their best seller, and a sandwich that was voted the best sandwich in America by Esquire Magazine, the Famous Caribbean Roast ($12.50). This sandwich starts with marinated pork on a toasted baguette and is finished with romaine, caramelized onions, and garlic aioli. The first thing I noticed when the sandwich was in front of me was that there was a lot of pork piled on here. I really enjoyed the tender pork, but I had other bites that were a little on the dry side. I also would have liked a heavier hand when they applied the garlic aioli. It was kind of relegated to the background and was overshadowed by the pork and the onions. The bread was solid and kept its form throughout the life of the sandwich. It was good, just not great. 

The Caribbean Roast might get all the love from their customers, but don't sleep on this Paseo Press ($14). This one had the same roasted pork on it but added thick-cut smoked ham, swiss cheese, caramelized onions, and garlic aioli. Again the aioli could have been utilized a bit more here, but this had other ingredients to help pick up the slack. I loved the double pork combo of the ham and the marinated pork shoulder, and how it melded nicely with the swiss and the fantastic onions. This was definitely my favorite out of the two sandwiches that we tried at Paseo. Be advised that this sandwich is just called the press, it doesn't mean it's a pressed sandwich. A lot of people have vented about this online. 

I really enjoyed our visit to Paseo, but it would have been hard for them to live up to the hype I had in my head reading about them having the best sandwich in America, and being one of the best restaurants in all of Seattle. These were exceptional sandwiches, and definitely not what I was expecting from Seattle. Caribbean sandwiches 3,000 miles away from the actual Caribbean? It works for sure. Yes, I'd ask for extra garlic aioli next time, which I think would push these sandwiches up even higher in my personal sandwich rankings. I'm glad we could cross Paseo off of my Seattle restaurant list, while also crossing T-Mobile Park off our list of stadiums we have visited. 

Out of five autographed baseballs, (because T-Mobile Park is going to host the 2023 All-Star Game, and I'm sure a lot of the players will be signing plenty of baseballs for the fans that weekend), five being best to zero being worst, Paseo gets 3.5 autographed baseballs. 

For more information about Paseo, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.paseo.com/