the valencia

Like I promised, a quicker turn-around on sandwich reviews! This tasty little number is the Valencia from Rhea's, a sandwich best described as "creamy". Turkey, havarti, avocado and mayo get together for a real chill time in your mouth. But then bacon, pickles and pickled onion show up and bring some crunch to the happenings. It works out pretty well I would say. Rhea's is definitely becoming more and more my go-to sandwich shop- they have ordering sorted out in a more organized manner, and the seating makes for some good Valencia people-watching. I felt like I was being adventurous by ordering a Turkey sandwich when there are so many more interesting sandwiches on the menu, but if yr folks are in town and the idea of a spicy korean steak sandwich sounds like too much for them, try suggesting this sandwich. Maybe they will even dig the pickled onions.

korean steak sandwich

rhea's deli, 19th & valencia, san francisco

This was my second go-round with Rhea's Korean Steak Sandwich- the documentation of my first was lost when I stupidly lost my nice digital camera on Halloween.  Losing my camera, however, gave me a great excuse to get another one of these sandwiches, though!  The steak is marinated in honey, soy sauce and spices, and has an incredibly soft and moist texture.  The menu claims that the sandwich comes with the cheese of your choice, but the guy making the sandwiches didn't inquire and we ended up with cheddar.  That's fine by me, but I could see maybe a jack cheese being good with this too.  This sandwich also supposedly comes with THREE kinds of onions: grilled onions, pickled onions, and fresh onions!  It was kind of hard to verify the validity of that claim, but I'd believe it.  When presented with the option, we asked for the sandwich spicy, and it was fairly hot- just not burn-your-mouth, chug-your-drink hot.  I think that the hotness (hot sauce + picked jalapeños) was a perfect match for the sweetness of the meat.  This sandwich is definitely a great choice if you like sweet and spicy.

Rhea's Deli: The Lexington, Hot? or Cold?

rhea's deli, 19th & valencia, san francisco

I took mine Hot!

... they gave me the option... it was cold... it was the right option.

Visually, it leaves a little to be desired, but I think the simplicity of a ham and cheese sandwich is, sometimes, all a girl really needs for comfort on a rainy day. Yet, really, this wasn't that simple of a sandwich. Melted swiss covered Boar's Head Black Forest Ham and Honey Maple Ham whose sweetness was complimented by the heat of Rhea's Sweet Pickled Jalapenos. A little extra kick of sweet and spice came with welcome taste buds from Boar's Head Honey Mustard. And the pickles, which I must admit I normally NEVER eat and I did pass most of them along to my eating buddy, wrapped this whole thing up with a punch of tang.

Also, I will admit I feel some of the ingredients advertised were left out of my sandwich. There were no roasted peppers or tomatoes in my or my eating buddy's half. Not to say that this bothered me. It's no longer tomato season and I must admit I greatly dislike out of season tomatoes. And, again, this was a simple sandwich and did not need extra frills of such things.

This was by no means a mind blowing sandwich experience, however, it was a great version of a classic.

katsu sandwich

rhea's deli, 19th & valencia, san francisco

I'm intrigued by this recent trend of recent trend of moderately-expensive gourmet deli counters setting up in otherwise unassuming corner stores (see also: Pal's Takeaway, Mission Burger). In fact, next time I'm in SF I think I'll try to do a comparison and determine who has the best liquor store sandwich. The thing that intrigues me about this is that these places aren't cheap- I don't know about you, but I don't normally spend almost 10 dollars on a to-go sandwich. That's restaurant prices, dammit! So, in some way I see these new shops as indicative of the further gentrification of the Mission, co-opting local foodstuff providers in order to pander to the nouveau-riche who can actually afford to eat these sandwiches. On the other hand, I love sandwiches. With that in mind, I couldn't resist checking out the new deli counter at Rhea's Deli, at 19th and Valencia. In addition to their $7 dollar gourmet sandwiches, Rhea's offers a cheaper grilled cheese sandwich that I'm told is quite good- but I was there to check out the good stuff. The Katsu Sandwich consists of breaded pork loin, coleslaw, roasted red pepper, garlic aoli and katsu sauce- and man, was it good. The varying textures in this sandwich- chewy pork, crunchy coleslaw, creamy sauce, soft bread- made eating it an engaging experience. I'm eager to try out their other sandwiches soon.