MIAGuide
The Best Sandwiches In Miami
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Like putting down your phone or petting a dog, a sandwich is never a bad idea. Especially the ones on this guide. These are our favorite sandwiches in Miami, and they’ve been there for us through miserable Wednesdays, late-night meals, and every other occasion where we needed some form of bread-hugging delicious ingredients. And if you came here looking for a cubano, we have an entire guide to the best Cuban sandwiches in Miami.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Chicken Parm Sando
Yes, you should be having Detroit-style pizza at Vice City, but there's another great reason to visit this pizza place in West Kendall: the chicken parm sando. Every hoagie here is, in fact, wonderful. But this is our favorite, and it's only available for lunch. This eight inch sub is filled with melted stracciatella and parmesan that clings to the crispy breaded chicken like Spiderman’s webbing. The bread’s exterior cracks like glass, but the pesto and vodka sauce is what brings it all together.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Any Sandwich
Unsurprisingly, it’s all about the dough at this Italian bakery in Buena Vista. So the highlight of the sandwiches (which rotate daily) is the schiacciata bread it’s stuffed into. It’s sort of a thinner version of focaccia, which Baker & Barista pries open like an envelope to stuff with simple combinations of ham, mortadella, turkey, or whatever else they feel like making that day. Just know that they won’t hit the counter until about 11:30am. The early mornings here are reserved for pastries.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Public Sub
Far Out Pizza is a slice shop in the epicenter of Calle Ocho that makes pizza we thoroughly enjoy—but the best things here aren’t actually pizza. That honor goes to Far Out’s sandwiches, a handful of thick options that range from a saucy eggplant parm to a very meaty Italian. But our favorite sandwich is the lawyer-approved riff on a Publix sub they call the “public sub.” It comes with fried chicken, a house sauce, lettuce, tomato, and—yes—it is 1,000% better than an actual Publix sub.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings
Butifarra
La Tiendita II is a tiny South Beach Peruvian market with a small but mighty selection of sandwiches. The options are usually chicken, pork, and tuna. The pork—their version of a Peruvian butifarra—is our favorite. It uses a thick slab of tender pork, which contrasts nicely with crispy potato sticks and more of that creamy sauce. All the sandwiches here are perfect pre- or post-beach lunch, or a nice option if South Beach has depleted your tolerance for mediocre, overpriced food. There are some tables inside and suspiro in the fridge. Plus, you can walk out of here with Peruvian pantry items like mote.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings
Lemongrass Pork Bánh Mí
This might be our favorite bánh mí in Miami—and that’s almost entirely thanks to the meat. Order the grilled lemongrass pork version and you’ll receive a sandwich stuffed with big chunks of tender, charred pork that would taste amazing if they were served between two old shoes. Luckily they’re served on a soft and warm baguette with a satisfying amount of herbage, various sliced vegetables, and thick wedges of jalapeño that’ll make you thankful for the comically large drinks they serve here.
photo credit: CLEVELAND JENNINGS / @EATTHECANVASLLC
Maduro Chicken Sandwich
This Haitian fried chicken pop-up lives inside Wynwood’s outdoor club Brick, and makes one of the best fried chicken sandwiches we’ve eaten drunk or sober. The maduro chicken sandwich has two long slivers of fried plantain, spicy mayo, and a generous slab of crispy chicken between toasted brioche buns. It’s sweet, spicy, and should be dipped in their rum-infused barbecue for a tangy hurricane of a bite.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings
Il Tradizionale
You’ll find Jholano’s in an apartment complex in Coral Gables, where the small Italian sandwich shop is operating behind a red door with a faded sign from the previous occupant. It doesn’t look like a restaurant, but override your hesitation against breaking and entering and you’ll find a small counter serving a dozen stellar Italian sandwiches. Our favorite is il tradizionale, a perfect cold Italian sub. It has capicola, salami, pepperoni, and ham—but what really makes this sandwich are the crisp veggies that contrast so well with the salty meat. The bread also has that ideal soft/crunchy balance.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings
Broccoli Sandwich
There are two Caracas locations in Miami, but only at the MiMo one will you find a fantastic selection of sandwiches. And among that selection is a broccoli and cheese sandwich that answers the question on everyone’s mind, “What would happen if broccoli cheese soup saw a shooting star and made a wish to become a sandwich?” It has chunks of roasted broccoli, white cheddar, and mozzarella between two crispy slices of bread. There’s also a sun-dried tomato pesto that acts as a condiment. It is crunchy, cheesy, and also a good way to trick yourself into eating broccoli (even if you think you hate broccoli).
Smoked Turkey BLT
Ever since Hometown Barbecue opened in Miami, people have been telling us to try the smoked turkey BLT. We usually nod politely before proceeding to order ribs or brisket, but when we finally decided to give it a try, we felt like writing a heartfelt apology to all the people we ignored. You all were right—this sandwich is amazing. The turkey is smoky and so much juicer than the Thanksgiving birds we’ve consumed over the years. It’s served on Tempur-Pedic soft pullman bread and comes with an “avocado mayo” that is our new favorite condiment. And now we will be the ones begging strangers to order this.
photo credit: Mariana Trabanino
El Cid
This casual Doral sandwich shop has a menu inspired by literary characters from 17th century Spanish novels and, much like a good book, you can inhale their sandwiches in one sitting. El Cid—their massive take on a pan con bistec—is made using half a loaf of cuban bread. It’s the sandwich equivalent of the Bayeux tapestry and it tastes fictitiously good. Cuento also makes more excellent sandwiches, croquetas, lemonade, and half-baked brownie cookies. But if it’s your first time, get El Cid. It just might make you read up on 300-year old literature to figure out when beefsteak became bistec.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings
Fried Chicken Sandwich
This Little River nano-brewery makes our favorite fried chicken sandwich in Miami. The first and most important thing you'll notice about it is the gorgeous slab of fried chicken that is almost (but not quite) too big for its toasted, buttery bun. After that, it's just perfection at every level, from the pickle ratio to the shredded lettuce that adds a refreshing crispness. Could another fried chicken sandwich come along to dethrone it? Maybe. But that’s going to be a tough task—especially because this thing pairs so well with the beers Off Site brews.
The BLT
To be clear: every sandwich at Proper Sausages is amazing. But we have a particularly strong love affair with the BLT. Like all of life’s great pleasures, it’s simple. Bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo. And yet, it doesn’t taste simple at all, because the tomatoes are fresh and local and as plump as a water balloon that’s about to pop. The bacon is absurdly good and cut nice and thick. And the Portuguese muffin adds just enough sweetness to balance with the salty bacon. This sandwich is a testament to the power of quality ingredients, and if we don’t eat at least one a month, we’ll start being mean to our loved ones.
The Stanzione
Like nearly every restaurant on the planet, Stanzione started making sandwiches during the pandemic. We are extremely not complaining about this, because their Italian subs turned out to be excellent. And in even better news, they’ve joined the menu permanently. The one we love most is the Stanzione—a hefty combo of prosciutto cotto, sopressata, mozzarella, onion, tomato, lettuce, and house dressing. It’s everything we want in a big Italian sandwich: meaty and cheesy with a chewy bread infused with just a touch of oil and vinegar. We still remember it fondly, like that middle school best friend you lost touch with. You should call them—right after you order this sandwich.
Alaskan
La Sandwicherie is not the sandwich you seek out for a light Monday lunch. You order from La Sandwicherie to be comforted by a small mountain of bread and cheese and as much vinaigrette is left in the squeeze bottle. Maybe it’s been a hard day or you’ve had between three and six cocktails. When that’s happened to us, we go for the Alaskan, which comes with smoked salmon and glacial wedges of mozzarella. There are Sandwicherie locations in Wynwood, Brickell, North Beach, and Coral Gables, but our heart will always belong to the South Beach location, where this sandwich has, on many occasions, acted as a hangover-eliminating sponge after a long night of drinking at Mac’s.
Patria
There are few places in the city that do sandwiches as deliciously as Tinta Y Cafe, a small shop with locations in Coral Gables and Miami Shores. You should make it your goal to try every sandwich on the menu here, especially the Patria, their version of a Cuban sandwich. They bend the rules here just a little by adding mortadella and using a baguette rather than Cuban bread. But rules are meant to be broken, especially when they taste this good.
Pretty Much Anything
We tried (and failed) to pick a favorite sandwich from Babe’s. But we just can’t. They’re all too good: the bacon banh mi, Montreal smoked pastrami, Italian roast pork, Cuban sandwich, BLT. Please, do us a favor and order them all. Just maybe not at once. Start with the Cuban—which is outstanding—and then maybe venture into the smoked pastrami and bánh mì. And after you’ve tried them all, don’t feel bad if you, too, simply can’t hurt the feelings of Babe’s sandwiches by picking a favorite.
Cubano
We could easily load this guide up with all sorts of delicious Cuban sandwiches, but we already have a Cuban Sandwich guide, so we’re going to be more selective here. Of course, there is simply no way we can have a guide with the words “favorite” and “sandwiches” and not feature Sanguich De Miami. It is still home to the platonic ideal of a Cuban sandwich, a perfect example of the combined powers of ham, roast pork, pickles, mustard, and swiss cheese between two triangular slices of pressed Cuban bread. But they also have an outstanding pan con bistec as well as the sleeper hit of the menu, the Sanguich De Miami, which is basically a BLT with swiss cheese and turkey.
King Guava
A bagel is not always a sandwich, but when you stuff it with more than three ingredients (as they do at MiMo’s El Bagel) it becomes a bagel sandwich, at least in our opinion. Disagree if you’d like, but one thing that is not up for debate is that El Bagel is great. This is probably why they often sell out before some people have even woken up. But on the days when we are lucky enough to place an online order while supplies last, we get the King Guava. If you prefer something more savory than sweet, go for the EB Original. But if you’re like us, you will love the sweet/salty contrast of the guava marmalade, bacon, potato stix, and slightly runny egg. If you are also like us, you’ll get half this sandwich on your face while inhaling it over the sink.
Pan Con Bistec
Mary’s Cafe is open 24 hours a day and the building pulls double duty as a laundromat. You won’t have to worry about spilling crumbs on some poor dude’s towels though. The food portion of Mary’s takes place outside on the sidewalk, where a small crowd is usually eating one of Mary’s many sandwiches. Chances are, at least one of those people are eating the pan con bistec, because it’s great and stuffed generously with potato sticks. If you are looking for some late-night food after a long night of doing none of our business, this is what you need.
Frita Original
We, personally, do not believe that a burger is a sandwich. But we also don’t believe that a frita is a burger. But rather than sit here like a piece of short-circuiting artificial intelligence, we just decided to include a frita on this guide. Just to be safe. And our favorite version in Miami is from El Rey De Las Fritas. The menu includes eight varieties, but the best is still the frita original: a mixture of spiced meat and onions placed onto a Cuban bun, and then topped with a Dikembe Mutombo-sized handful of crispy potato sticks.
