My favourite London sandwich shops in 2025

Things in bread

A little housekeeping before this week’s post: the paid Sunday pieces are moving to a fortnightly schedule, though don’t worry: the weekly free restaurant reviews aren’t going anywhere.

Pretty simply, it’s because life’s been busy, I have a fulltime job (doing more writing!), and two posts a week is proving demanding. More than that though, I want to make sure Sunday posts — my cookbook reviews, recipes, favourite lists, and essays — get the time and attention they deserve from me. Doing one every two weeks will mean fewer but better posts for paid subscribers, which sounds like a good deal to me.

Next up, in two weeks’ time, that’ll be a review of new book The Spanish Pantry by José Pizarro.

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London has a sprawling sandwich culture. There’s the local taste for thick-cut tin loaves with cold fillings, 70-odd years of Italian delis in Soho, modern waves of sourdough or focaccia sarnies, and the more recent import of American-style subs. That’s not even touching on breakfast sandwiches, banh mi, bagels, and whether everything from a hot dog to a doner kebab could technically count as a sandwich.

As a result, this was a particularly difficult list to whittle down to five, and so some rules were set. I don’t really want to count kebabs, so I’ve ruled out everywhere centred around pitas, wraps, and flatbreads at large. For the purposes of this list I’ve become a sandwich conservative, I’m afraid.

I also decided to limit this to the best sandwich shops, and not the best sandwiches, ruling out exemplars like the Quo Vadis smoked eel sandwich or Beigel Bake’s salt beef on the basis that these aren’t places that excel at sandwiches at large (even if those two are, individually, perhaps the best two sandwiches in the city). To earn a spot on my list a place has to be fundamentally sandwich-led, either all about sandwiches or, in the case of Dusty Knuckle, a bakery that puts things-in-bread at the heart of its offering.

As always, continue past the list to find out everywhere I’ve tried that didn’t quite make the cut, plus the spots I haven’t tried but know I really should (Chatsworth Bakehouse, I am sorry, I really will find the time soon!).

Dom’s Subs, E2

Unashamedly inspired by sandwiches on the other side of the Atlantic, Dom’s Subs is a paean to the sub roll stuffed with cold cuts. Deli meats arrive piled high (well, by British standards at least) and paired with smart choices of pickles, condiments, and scraps of salad.

Not everything is filled with ham, and the rotating menu also includes hot subs like the Thai ground chicken grapow or an excellent take on Philly’s roast pork and broccoli rabe, with good vegetarian and vegan options too. These aren’t subtle sandwiches (and they’re not small either) but they offer simple pleasures, done right.