A Delicious Aroma

Greetings, Readers.

If you haven't noticed by now, Los Angeles has a fairly large selection of delicious sandwiches. Despite the wide-ranging options throughout this massive city, it's sometimes the ones that are closest that can be the most memorable.

It's been awhile since I've been to Aroma Cafe in Studio City, which is a shame as this quaint coffee and tea shop nestled away on a quiet street is a great place to enjoy food and conversation.

Settling down this time in the garden patio in back, I ordered the Chipotle Steak Panino. Medium cooked chopped roast beef, aged cheddar, caramelized onions and horseradish aioli combine to create this sandwich between two fluffy slices of focaccia bread.

The chopped steak was juicy, but did not have an overpowering flavor compared to the other ingredients. The choice of aged cheddar worked well with the steak, contributing a mellowed smoky flavor to the sandwich. My main problem with the cheese though was that for a hot sandwich, it wasn't really melted well at all. If it had been melty and oozed between slices of steak, this would have worked much better.

The caramelized onions and horseradish aioli brought a bit of bite and spice to the mix which was a welcome contrast from the mellow and smoky flavors or the cheese and steak.

The focaccia bread was fluffy and soaked up some of the steak juices in the process, but I really would have like to have a bit of rosemary crusted onto the top, to give the bread itself more of a contributing flavor.

Overall though, this was an enjoyable sandwich at an enjoyable location. Definitely worth your visit if you have never been to Aroma Cafe before.

Until next week, Readers...



Chipotle Steak Panino
*** 1/2 Stars
Aroma Cafe
4360 Tujunga Ave.
Studio City, CA 91604

Where's The Beef?

Greetings fellow sandwich lovers!

I've come to realize that sometimes, what we're looking for can be right under our noses. On the other hand, what we may find there might not be exactly what we want.

Let me explain...

I work in Studio City, arguable the best part of the Valley, and in this little neighborhood there is a well spoken of Argentinian restaurant known as LaLa's.

Now for the record, I love Argentinian food. Adore it. It's amazing. I love it so much in fact that every time I drive up to Santa Barbara I stop at this amazing Argentine restaurant (Cafe Buenos Aires on State St. for those of you interested).

So after being in Studio City for years, I decided that now was the time to order a sandwich from LaLa's. The first point to mention here is the amount of food that is given with the order1: 1.) the sandwich was very sizable; 2.) the fries were more than a large order from any major chain (and much more delicious); and 3.) a few slices of bread with delicious chimichurri sauce.

I swear if it were healthy to drink chimichurri sauce, I'd probably do it.

For this adventure, I ordered the Lomito sandwich. Finely sliced Angus beef, lettuce, tomatoes and Argentine sauce, I was hoping to be greeted with excellence, instead I was sadly disappointed.

The bread was good, the lettuce was crisp, even the tomatoes were enjoyable (and if you know me, that's rare for me to say). So what was the problem?

The beef.

Was it tasty? Yes it was. It was full of flavor and juicy. The problem was the chewiness. For something that seemed so well cooked, I expected a bit more of it to fall apart in my mouth, instead, there were times where I was pulling the sandwich away to separate it from what I had already tried to bite off.

This didn't happen every time, but enough to disappoint me.

I had tasted greatness, only to have it violently ripped away between two halves of gnashing, moderately pearly white teeth (coffee's doing wonders for that).

So would I be dissuaded from visiting LaLa's again? No, probably not.

Just next time, I won't be ordering the beef.

Until next week, readers!

*** Stars

Lomito Sandwich

LaLa's Grill

Studio City and Los Angeles, CA

Nothing Quite Like Home

Welcome back dear Readers! This week begins a two week special on the sandwiches of my hometown.

Two weeks ago when I visited Philadelphia, PA, I was lucky enough to see a Phillies home game, something I had not seen in almost four years since I moved to Los Angeles.

Paired with that sweet homecoming game (despite losing to the A’s 4-1), I also was able to tackle a mythical sandwich that I had read about for so long: The Schmitter.

Created by McNally's Tavern in Chestnut Hill, the sandwich is actually not named after legendary Phillies 3rd baseman, Mike Schmidt, but while it does lack that famous connection, the sandwich does make up for in flavor and overall deliciousness. A forewarning though, readers. This sandwich is ballpark food, and by nature is messy and contains an unhealthy amount of carbs and cholesterol.

Then again, this blog wouldn't live up to its name if there wasn't some element of danger to it.

The sandwich is composed of grilled salami, steak, fried onions, a huge slab of tomato, three sliced of cheese (split up throughout the sandwich), and special sauce on a kaiser bun.

I thought that the salami and steak were grilled very well without burning the edges or becoming too crisp or dry. The cheese though is where I had a little bit of a problem as there was really so much of it that it overpowered a lot of other flavors and it was so present with every bite that it was sometimes hard to notice other components.

The onions were a little bit soggy, and this is probably because the sandwiches hadn't been made at the moment of ordering them. A downside to ballpark food. I'm also pretty sure the special sauce was just Thousand Island dressing

The kaiser bun also held up well under pressure, and also after being sealed in foil for a few minutes before I grabbed mine. It did its job.

All in all, I highly enjoyed the sandwich, and it should definitely be accepted in the canon of ballpark food. Sitting there in the outfield concourse with family, the smell of barbecue, a good sandwich, and the sounds of baseball, it was truly good to be home.

Until next week, Readers...

*** 1/2 Stars

The Schmitter

Citizen's Bank Park

Philadelphia, PA

There's No Sinking This Sub

Greetings, Dear Readers!

Welcome back for another excited sandwiching experience in Los Angeles.

This week, I was asked to come to Giamela's Submarine Sandwiches in Burbank for one of their highly praised submarine sandwiches.

What I really liked about this place was how stripped down it was. The sign offered only a handful of choices for sandwiches, and all looked delicious. The interior of the shop was basic: wood colored walls, not many signs, a small TV, and a few tables to sit at. This was a great place to have a dinner and not be distracted by noise.

After taking a few moments to decide between two different sandwiches, I stepped up and ordered the pepper steak and cheese sandwich with everything on top.

The sandwich itself was delicious. In a way, it was very similar to a cheese steak with the chopped steak and melted cheese, but the meat wasn't heated up as much as a cheesesteak normally is. I would have to say it was an Italian sub style take on one of my favorite sandwiches.

Topping off the steak and cheese was lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and onions.

The steak was excellent. Seriously amazing. It was lean, cooked to perfection and delicious. Oh and the quantity was ridiculous. I mean, this sandwich was bursting with meat, it was hard to take the first bite without trying to flatten the sandwich some.

The bread taste good too, and did an excellent job at holding the sandwich together. With that much filling stuffed in there, you'd think it would fall apart after a few bites, but it toughed it out and made it to the end. it's pretty commendable for bread to not only taste good, but be tough enough for a job of this proportion.

The toppings of lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and onions added well to the flavors of the sandwich and were made of some of the freshest ingredients I've had at a sandwich shop in awhile.

All in all, my first experience at Giamela's was an entirely positive one. The next time you're heading to Burbank from further west in the valley, make sure to keep your eyes peeled for this small shop on Magnolia before you cross the 5.

The shop may be small, but it's big on flavor.

Until next week, Readers...

**** Stars

Pepper Steak and Cheese Sandwich

Giamela's Submarine Sandwiches

216 W. Magnolia Blvd.

Burbank, CA 91502

Too Much Danger...Something Something...

Hello again dear seekers of DANGER!

I tried very hard for you to review a sandwich of delicious levels never experienced before by many humans, but sadly fate had other plans for me this weekend when my car died, unexpectedly cutting a road trip, in your honor, short.

To make up for this though, I decided to return to a place I had recently visited to have another of their highly recommended sandwiches.

With my previous experience at Porto's (Havana Sandwich, 2 weeks ago), I decided to try their steak sandwich, the Pan Con Bistec.

Marinated steak, grilled onions, potato sticks, tomatoes and garlic sauce on Cuban bread.

Sound DANGERous to you, dear readers?

Yeah, I thought so too. So let's get into why this sandwich was a complete letdown, especially compared to their superior Cubano sandwich.

First off, if the steak was marinated, I'm not quite sure it was marinated in because while the texture was good, the taste was almost non-existent. A very bland steak that had me thinking back to the deliciously full flavored Cubano.

It doesn't get much better after the steak either. The onions and tomatoes were cooked a little too long and their flavors had almost completely disappeared.

The garlic sauce had a smooth taste, not too strong, but just enough for a kick. Unfortunately, it was really the only flavor in this sandwich.

I think the best part of the sandwich was the potato sticks. They were a nice touch that added a great contrast in texture with a hearty crunch.

Lastly, the Cuban bread. I highly rated this bread while securing together the Cubano sandwich, but even with it being perfectly flaky and soft, it can't help the DANGERously un-delicious inside it cradles.

All in all, quite a letdown and something that should be avoided at Porto's.

I had real high expectations though after trying the Cubano, so maybe I was a bit biased. Still, if it's your first (or 10th) time to Porto's, I recommend hitting up the Cubano, and completely looking over the Pan Con Bistec.

You'll be thanking me...FOR DANGER!

* 1/2 Stars
Porto's Bakery
3614 Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505