Arguably the most iconic sandwich in Los Angeles, the Godmother is a classic Italian deli house-baked roll filled with Boar’s Head deli meats, cheese, mustard, and veggies. Though other excellent sandwiches — especially the hot variety — are available behind the Bay Cities counter, the Godmother is the most talked about and a must-try for every Angeleno.

It takes a strong jaw and serious appetite to conquer a cemita poblano, a beast of a sandwich constructed on a plush sesame roll jam-packed with ripe avocados, panela cheese, Oaxacan string cheese, salsa, onions, and meat. While the thinly pounded and deep-fried hunk of carne beef milanesa is the most traditional filling, there’s also house-made queso de puerco (pork head cheese), pata de res (pickled beef tendons), and even salmon. Get the one filled with cecina, a kind of beef jerky that the shop’s proprietor Adolfo Huerta makes in-house.

While Cultured Slice’s turkey club does not reinvent the wheel, it gives the sandwich a much better name than the ones served at sad business lunches and the private clubs where it originated. Owner Solange Comer is all about proper proportions, and that’s on full display in this dead-simple sandwich made with great ingredients: thin-sliced turkey, crisp bacon, a juicy sliced tomato, shredded lettuce, cheddar, and mayo on really good white bread.

Ghost Sando Shop landed in LA with a bang, nabbing two locations to try the firebird sandwich. Pastrami turkey, jalapeño pepper jack and chipotle Gouda cheeses, lettuce, pickle, tomato, and white onion on a Dutch crunch roll. If the Melrose location isn’t convenient, Grand Central Market will have to do.

Head to Inglewood for a taste of the Big Easy here in the City of Angels. Order any of the po’ boys at Sami Othman’s neighborhood spot, including ones stuffed to maximum capacity with shrimp, oysters, and catfish, as your taste buds are whisked away to Bourbon Street.

All the way from Montclair, NJ, Ggiata and its owners bring the best of Jersey deli culture to Los Angeles. The eggplant Parm doesn’t miss, and neither do all the bits of Jersey-core decor in this sandwich shop.

An easy choice for the most popular pastrami sandwich at this 76-year-old deli in Westlake, just west of Downtown. This near-perfect Jewish deli sandwich features house-baked rye bread, Russian dressing, cheese, coleslaw, and freshly sliced slivers of the most achingly perfect smoked pastrami on earth.

Chef Eric Park’s sandwiches pull influences from New York City, Korea, and Southern California — and his chopped cheese is a love letter to an NYC classic, piling chopped beef patty, American cheese, grilled onions and jalapeños, shredded lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and mayo on a pressed hero roll. Former New Yorkers, beware: This sandwich might come with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia.

Scope the menu outside before entering this teeny-tiny Chinatown sandwich shop. It’s impossible to go wrong with any of the offerings, but the house-special bánh mì đặc biệt may be the best of all. Though the baguettes are not made on-site, each one is warmed-to-a-crisp to order and filled with all that’s good: pate, head cheese, Vietnamese ham, pickled daikon and carrots, cucumber spears, sliced jalapeño, and a few cilantro sprigs.

Katsu Sando opened in 2021 with long lines and a rabid fanbase that first learned to love the Japanese convenience store sandwiches from Daniel Son at Smorgasburg. But since opening a permanent location in Chinatown, Son unleashed his most creative sandwich, a honey walnut shrimp sando with house-made milk bread with just the right balance of plump, crisp shrimp built into a makeshift patty, then topped with crunchy honey-glazed walnuts.

The purported inventor of the French dip more than a century ago, Philippe the Original makes everything feel like time hasn’t passed, with sawdust floors, old-timer servers who prepare sandwiches to order, and coffee that’s payable in pennies. The beef double-dip is what aficionados get, with a heavy dose of salty jus and tender slices of roast beef with a few dabs of the famous spicy mustard to round it out. Others opt for a similar version with sliced lamb.

In addition to preparing plant-based pan dulce, this 32-year-old Highland Park bakery also serves a vegan torta milanesa. It’s prepared with pounded-flat meat or TVP with queso fresco, chipotle mayonnaise, avocado, lettuce, cabbage, jalapeños, red onion, and tomato. Order one of the aguas frescas and the tres leches cake, and all is right in the world.

Jeff Strauss had a TV producer and writer career before meandering into sandwich creation in Highland Park, where he serves sandwiches, salads, and more inside Flask liquor store. People started flocking there to try the pastrami Reuben. It’s a hearty beast of a hot sandwich with smoky pastrami, melted Comte, sauerkraut, a house Russian dressing, a perfect gruyere crisp on a griddled, seeded rye bread.

It’s worth the trek to Brea for something like a smoky Wagyu pastrami panini. It’s made by La Carniceria Wagyu and doubles as a halal butcher shop. Staff start by spreading a whole-grain thousand island mustard hybrid dressing on marbled bread, layer it with the highest grade A5 Wagyu and Fontina cheese, add fig onion marmalade, and place it in the oven so that it’s ridiculously piping hot. The house-made pickled sauerkraut and pickled chili relish help make this hearty sandwich one of LA’s best.