The Sandwich Joint

I always like a good sam’ich. But this place isn’t where to get one. I liked the décor, but that’s about it.
I ordered the Backwards TLB (alotta bacon, as advertised), but it didn’t. The bread was falling apart, no mustard, very little mayo. But, the tomatoes were great.

I’m really surprised that I never went here before. I lived seriously like right down the street from the Sandwich Joint and I just never convinced myself to go.
The first impression when I walked in was «Alright, I’m diggin it so far.» Cool local art work, colors I liked, flyers and business cards for local places.
There are paper menus on the wall when you walk in so you can decide what you want before you get up to the ordering dude. I wasn’t super hungry and I saw that they had little sandwiches called Lunch Munckins for $ 2.99.
So I ordered the Pepperoni, Salami and Provolone (I think that’s what it was) one. It was exactly the right size. It was also really good. There are several different options for condiments and you can pretty much get it just how you want it. The bread was really sweet which I loved.
I got a side of fries for $ 1 something. They were kind of lot of fries. They were also really good. They were the perfect amount of crisp and soft. They were seasoned perfectly and also a great warm temperature — not scalding hot.
My favorite thing was the Puppy Chow (some people call it Muddy Buddies). It’s .99 cents for a bag of that peanut-​butter-​chocolate goodness.
If I would have known about this place when I lived over there, I promise you I would have eaten here over Subway or Thundercloud many a times.

It is a great thing having a sandwich in Austin, and The Sandwich Joint is an institution that possesses that no-​frills atmosphere surrounding the meat and bread goodness that Austin provides. Hours at The SJ? Sucky as usual. 11−4… weekdays.
This joint sure knows how to whip up a mean sandwich. The bread is soft, and the ingredients are fresh.
The It’s-A-Gouda was a good combination of gouda, tangy mustard, and turkey. It was great with the lightly sweetened hearty wheat bread. They were a bit skimpy on the meat as everyone has said, though.
The cheesesteak took me by surprise. I was not expecting an overly saucy, overly salty, overly greasy sandwich. I was expecting a lightly seasoned beef slice sandwich with some grilled peppers. What I got was a really dark brown greasy mound of charred onions and peppers dispersed throughout some finely cut up beef covered in some cheese that was melted into oblivion. Also, the sauce tasted like some type of soy sauce or Worcestershire. It was not really a cheesesteak, but more a messy, gut-​busting package of gross goodness. It may have tasted a little better after a night on 6^th.
The SJ definitely offers some great food for cheap, and there is a 2/​$ 10 deal everyday from 2−4PM. They are only open from 11 – 4, so technically they have happy hour 40% of the day!

UPDATE: This place has gone downhill. They really skimp on the meat fillings (as predicted in my first review). The bread seems a lot more national brand-​ish as well. And they really only have corn syrup or aspartame drinks. And I’ll chime in on the sh*tty attitude by the staff as well.
I want to go local, but since they aren’t seeming to bother than why should I?

I don’t know how many times I fantasized about coming to this place before I ever actually went. My sister tipped me off, she went for lunch one day and raved about it, so being a sandwich fiend myself, I knew I had to try it.
I got the Grub Club minus ham. Heavenly. Delicious sliced turkey, crispy bacon, smoky gouda and dijon mustard (my drug of choice). They let you add on more, and they have a long list of delicious sauces and toppings. I was even happy that my friend got a vegan sandwich there, because most of the sandwiches have numerous types of meat!
Cherry on top? Super friendly staff and a LUNCH DEAL from 2 – 4 for two sandwiches for $ 9.99! Bliss!

I was introduced to The Sandwich Joint by a coworker of mine… Its Great!!! I especially love the daily lunch specials which are very cheap, my recommendation is the Friday’s lunch special“THE HERO”
The staff is always soooo COOL… GREAT SERVICE.

TSJ has very good sandwiches and — something most people forget about, including me – excellent french fries. Their chip selection (Miss Vickie’s) is also good. Whenever I venture out from my usuals I’m always pleasantly surprised.
The downsides are minimal: 1) Décor: I wish they would decide what they’re going to do and stick with it. It seems like every few weeks theres a small change that makes the place look less polished. 2) Drinks: They used to have a lot more options regularly, but it seems they switched sources. Now they only have Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet 7-​Up or Sprite, and Fresca on rare occasions. The drink selection has been better my last two times in so maybe they listened to their customers on that.
(It’s also weird that they moved the soda fridge into the kitchen, but apparently people were taking drinks without paying for them, which sucks.)

They’ve got a lot of great sammich combinations, better than most other sandwich places I’ve tried out lately. The problem with the sandwiches is that the The Sandwich Joint puts more emphasis on the names they’ve given the sammiches than on the quality of the sammiches. Don’t get me wrong, The Sandwich Joint has pretty good tasting sandwiches, and I do love word play, but I always had trouble remembering what the hell I wanted to order when I got up there because it had some weird name like «Knuckle Sandwich» instead of just «Roast Beef, Turkey & Swiss». I actually almost always got the «Backwards TLB», as they call it, which is just a pointlessly kitschy name. Seriously, it sounds like they think people are going to order a specific sammich because of the name alone. Though I have to admit that if I owned a deli, I would probably give the sandwiches similarly stupid sounding names. «Backwards TLB» and most of the hot sandwich names are really the only ones that bother me, actually. (The ONLY ones… I know, right?)
Other reviewers have mentioned the space issue being a problem, and I have to agree. I’ve never stayed there to eat because it’s too cramped, and I feel this way even when it’s empty in there.
Also, it would be very easy to steal a drink from this place. I’m not advocating that you do it; I just noticed how easy it would be as I was waiting for my sammich one day. Simply do not order a drink, and grab one from the cooler as you’re waiting for your sandwich to be prepared. You can hold it in your hand below the level of the counter so they can’t see it. Actually, the person who makes your sandwich is almost never the same person who rings you up, so if the person who gives you your sammich sees that you have a drink, they would have no way of knowing you didn’t pay for it. There are lots of blind spots in that place for the employees, and since they store drinks all over the damn place it just occurs to me that they probably lose a few here and there.
The Sandwich Joint has pretty good tasting sammiches and fairly friendly and with-​it employees. They also have GREAT TASTING «puppy chow».
One last thing: Once when I ordered a roast beef sammich they forgot the cheese. I didn’t realize it until I’d walked back to the office. Once I tasted the lack of cheese, I decided to lodge a complaint on their website. Clicked the Contact Us link, filled out the form… but there was no Submit button anywhere. I’m sure this is an accident, but I’m just letting you know that if you need to complain to The Sandwich Joint about anything, you’ll have to call them.

«Perfection may take a moment, please be patient» — a saying that their walls are littered with here. If by «perfection» you mean a sandwich I could make myself and if by «moment» you mean 15 minutes, then they definitely hit the nail on the head with that one.
After placing my order with a not-​so-​enthusiastic worker, 15 minutes I was standing there waiting for «perfection». How long does it take to slap some Turkey and fixin’s between two pieces of bread? Especially when they have 3 people working there and there was nobody ahead of me?
Also, this place is lacking some serious storage space. Their order/​seating area has two small tables surrounded by crates of sodas. If they could solve their horrible storage problem (or, get a fountain machine… anyone?) more tables could replace where their current storage is taking place, and it wouldn’t feel so damn cramped in there.
Also, what the crap are their hours here? It’s not posted anywhere on their website and there’s been multiple occasions where I’ve tried to go there (during what you would think are normal hours) and they’ve been closed.
This place is just all around… confusing. Maybe I’m just having a bad day, who knows. But as of now, I won’t go out of my way to hunt this place down when they’re open.

If you’re craving a delicious sandwich, this is the place to go! I ordered the Gobble Gobble which has turkey, provolone and avocado but I had them add some bacon on which I highly recommend. The fries were also great, my boyfriend and I split them and it was more than enough.
He ordered a hot chicken sandwich (don’t remember what it was called) and I didn’t like it as much as mine but I’d definitely be willing to order one of their other various hot sandwiches sometime.

I needed something to read on a flight last weekend, so I picked up a copy of Vanity Fair because they had an article by Michael Lewis. In another article, they listed some of the top sandwiches in the country. Shockingly, there was one from Austin! Was it the Hippie Chick from Shady Grove? The Veggie Sandwich from Brick Oven? The Smoked Chicken and Avocado from Thundercloud’s? No, no, and no. It was the Godfather from the Sandwich Joint! And I had never even heard of this place. So I had to rush out and try it, natch. I ordered it with fries and a DDP for lunch today. It was pretty freakin’ good. As you can tell from my other fav sandwiches, I’m not a big fan of pile a bunch of meat on bread, but this was tasty. The fries were good, but I’d like them cut a little thinner. They were also pretty salty, but this was a plus for me because the more salt the merrier.
I look forward to going back and trying their other offerings.

I am totally all for places where I can expand my horizons from my normal turkey and cheese, and there is plenty of opportunity to do so here. Though their turkey and cheese is AWESOME, this time I decided to the get #14 which had smoked turkey, ham, bacon, and gouda. I’m not normally a fan of ham but let me tell you — this was delicious. I have to say, if this place was closer to my work, I would be back here a LOT. There are quite a few sandwiches that I want to try.
I’m not quite understanding the price complaints, but maybe they’ve lowered since the other reviews. Our sandwiches were 5.79 each, we split an order of fries for 1.49 (which is probably big enough for 2 – 3 people to split unless you’re regularly gulping down super size fries at Mickey D’s), and they had a cooler of water which was free, so it was less than 15 bucks for a meal for 2 (and I have half the sandwich in the fridge for later).
Serious yum! Have to remember to go here on the weekends more!

The staff is friendly and enthusiastic about the food. I really liked this place when I started going there, but then I craved it so often I overdid it. I still think they make great sandwiches, but don’t crave them as often as I used to. What I really like is how they take a decent sandwich and make it better by adding garlic spread and giardiniera peppers. Not enough places in Austin feature giardiniera. In my opinion, it helps make a sandwich 2 or 3 times better.
Their bread tastes pretty fresh and is a little bit chewy the way I like it. It’s not the dry sponge you sometimes find at lesser sandwich places. A good deal can be had if you order the daily special for $ 3.99. My favorites are the Knuckle Sandwich and It’s-A-Gouda, which are featured as the specials on Saturday and Wednesday respectively. Be sure to ask for garlic spread and peppers.

My coworkers and I ordered delivery lunch from here today. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! We ordered two of the lunch specials (a very reasonable $ 3.99) and the Fowl Play sandwich. Everyone was happy with their selections.
But the best part was the *instant* delivery. It was at our office in the same amount of time it would have taken us to walk down to the breakroom.
So, I’d give the food a solid 3 and the delivery a 5, which explains the 4 stars. We’ll do it again.

What do geologists, 15^th century sailors, sea monkeys, and my brother have in common?
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .…
They all LOVE salt. And they’d be GIDDY about The Sandwich Joint.
I had the #22 «Zeus is loose.» I guess they found him floating in the Red Sea. The sandwich was probably quite tasty, but I couldn’t tell. WAYYYY too salty.
Fries were ok. Had some fancy seasoning on them but I couldn’t really taste it. Dr Pepper from plastic bottle.
The staff was super SUPER nice and helpful. But my combo was almost $ 10… which is pretty high if you ask me.
Bonus star for «Don’t Look Back» by Boston blaring from the sound system. And bonus star for staff.
I really wanted to like the place. I hope they work on the food and prices and it catches on…
If not, I can always bring my brother

Mediocre yum. But still a yum.
I went to The Sandwich Joint for the first time this afternoon. I was starving and the grilled veggie sandwich that I got was okay. The veggies weren’t the problem, it was that it was DRENCHED in balsamic vinaigrette (that the friendly cashier suggested that I add it).
Also, this place is WAY TOO EXPENSIVE. I paid almost $ 9.00 for a diet coke and a sandwich. Yikes!
I do have to say that the staff was very friendly and helpful, though. And I had to ASK them if I could tip. There was no tip jar and they never handed me my receipt to sign for a tip. That was a cool first.
I will be back to this place, but only if someone else is buying.

I’m a stickler for a big, hearty sandwich.
The Sandwich Joint does the big hearty sandwich right. With a huge array of sandwich selections named after Austin Institutions such as Devil’s Cove (chicken, jalapenos, avocado, salsa, sour cream, and jack cheese, you have to bring the topless teens yourself), and sandwich standy-​bys such as Cheesesteaks and Chicken Cheesesteaks, the joint aims to please everyone.
They chip all their meats, from chicken to beef. They use some interesting ingredients in every sandwich, and their rolls are large. And while there aren’t a huge number of selections on the main menu for vegeterians, there are a few vegeterian sides.
But is it possible to get too *much* meat on a sandwich? It sounds like a paradox, but my Devil’s Cove sandwich, while pretty tasty, weighed a solid pound and most of it was meat. Perhaps that’s fine if you can finish these sandwiches in one sitting, but anyone who eats big, hearty sandwiches knows the rule that the longer all those juicy toppings sit in the roll, the less appealing the experience. So saving it for later doesn’t really work so well. The good news is you can order half a sandwich, though for not much less than a whole one. And I have to agree with Michelle: I think the amount of meat unbalances the texture and flavor.
And, since there are obviously some Sandwich Joint folks here, let me address the salt. There’s just way too much of it on the sandwiches. I think that if you held back a little on both the salt and the meat, you could still make folks happy and increase your bottom line.
If you want to check them out, know two things: one, they close at 4 pm and open at 11. Second, they don’t call it a joint for nothing: I’ve seen some master closets larger than their dining area. So order those sandwiches to go or plan to fight for one of the few tables.

There are a suspicious number of glowing reviews for this place from reviewers who have only written one review. Hmmm.
Anyway, I finally got to check this place out today. The sandwiches are on rolls about 6−7″ long, but the amount of meat on them make them REALLY big. They have 24 or so suggested sandwich combinations, but are cool with you fiddling a bit with the mix of toppings on each one.
This place and Estancia have convinced me that there really is such a thing as «too much meat» in my book. My sub was STUFFED with meat — so much that I felt it upset the «balance» between the flavors and feel of the meat/​toppings/​bread ratio. I can put away the food (one of my coworkers used to call me «Hollow Leg»), and this was just too much. I would have rather paid a buck or two less and had a little less meat.
All of their sandwiches cost $ 6.99 — which I don’t mind spending on a sandwich if it’s really good, but frankly, I didn’t think these sandwiches rose to that level. I’d put it more in the Jimmy John’s category than the FoodHeads category. Also, they stick you on the options — it’s $ 1.09 for pretty much any side (including a bag of chips) or dessert or a drink. And you are pretty much forced to buy a drink unless you’re taking the sandwich to go, because they don’t offer tap water as an option. This totally flabbergasted me. No tap water? Seriously? How do you wash… never mind… I don’t want to know.
One other thing worth mentioning — this place is super small. Maybe 4 – 5 small tables + a small row of counter seating.
I’m all for supporting local businesses, but I’m not all that excited about this one so far. I’ll probably give it another chance since it’s really close to my house, and will update my review if that changes my mind.

The guys at The Sandwich Joint have come up with a suggested way to eat 24 different sandwiches and then let you mess it up however you want with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, etc. This is good for people wanting total creative control over their sandwich. This is bad for people stuck behind indecisive «umm…ers.»
Both sandwiches I had were «grilled” – the Greek and the club. Both were okay. The kalamata olives and feta overpowered the Greek sandwich, and the bacon didn’t really stand out on the club. That being said, both were competent sandwiches and I felt satisfied after eating.
The price is a little much. 7 dollars for a sandwich is steep when you have a place up the street that will sell you one for 3. And the only «extras» that aren’t a total rip are the fries and rings. Paying a dollar for a bag of chips is absurd. Even the airport has the decency to charge you less than that. And the potato salad comes in a container similar to the ones they use for free samples at Central Market.
The best way to enjoy this place is to call in your order for just the sandwich, pick it up, and then leave. If you need an «extra,» grab it somewhere else.

This place has been advertising «opening soon» for so long that it’s become a running joke with my happy hour group that hangs out at Billy’s across the street, but I’m pleased to report it was worth the wait. I swung by today to try it and ended up getting the Devil’s Cove (chicken, jalapeos, avocado, salsa, sour cream, and jack cheese) and it rocked. This place is pretty tiny, so I’d recommend calling ahead and picking your order up, but all in all the sandwich was great. The fries remind me of McDonald’s fries though, so if you like that style great, if you don’t just get chips. It could be a bit cheaper, but the prices aren’t horrible. All in all, a pretty good lunch spot.
Oh and since they don’t seem to have a website, here’s a poor scan of their menu.