The best sandwiches in Austin.
Austin’s best sandwiches: porchetta at Meat & Bread, pastrami at Otherside Deli, the Italian sub at Knuckle Sandwich, and banh mi at NG Cafe.
The best sandwiches in Austin come from counters that stop serving in the middle of the afternoon, trailers parked behind beer gardens, and a Hyde Park deli that has been family-run since 1997. Below are the shops worth crossing town for, the one thing to order at each, and the hours that catch people out. Many of these kitchens close between two and four, and several take Monday or Tuesday off, so the timing matters as much as the order.
- South Austin (Ant’s Beer Cave) · $$ · Sun and Tue-Thu 11am-3pm, Fri-Sat to 8pm01
Knuckle Sandwich
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Chef Ryan Fox builds the most composed Italian sandwich in the city, and Austin Monthly called it possibly the best one here. The cured meats come from Olympia Provisions in Portland, a parmesan crisp stands in for sliced cheese, and the dressing is an amba aioli made with pickled mango alongside a za’atar vinaigrette. It runs $22 for a twelve-inch, which is a lot for a sandwich and roughly two meals. Order at the window at Ant’s Beer Cave on East St Elmo and eat it in the beer garden. It cooks out of a trailer, like several picks here, which is its own Austin eating format.
- West 34th Street (central Austin) · $$ · its menu says 10am-3pm Mon-Fri, 11am-3pm Sat, 11am-2pm Sun02
Otherside Deli
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The pastrami and corned beef are cut thick and piled onto rye or soft rolls, and the Reuben is the one to get if you are only ordering once: house pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss, and Russian dressing, whole for $14 or half for $8. If you want the meat to speak for itself, the menu also sells the pastrami plain with deli mustard. It is a small counter on West 34th, close enough to the middle of town to work as a detour rather than a trip. One warning worth taking seriously: the hours on its own lunch menu end at three in the afternoon while a block in its site footer says six, so call before you plan an afternoon around it.
- Downtown (Market District) · $$ · Mon-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat-Sun 9am-3pm03
Meat & Bread
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate A Canadian group with six other shops, in Vancouver, Victoria, and Calgary, and this is its only one in the United States, which is worth saying up front rather than burying. What earns it a place is the porchetta, carved to order at $16.50 with salsa verde and crackling. The Italian panino is $16 and the grilled cheese is $10. Weekdays it runs eleven to four; on weekends there is a short breakfast service from nine before lunch starts at eleven.
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- Windsor Park (Manor Rd) · $$$ · Wed-Sun 11am to sold out, closed Mon and Tue04
Mum Foods Smokehouse and Delicatessen
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The one place here that smokes its own brisket, pastrami, and turkey, and the shop says it was selected for the inaugural Michelin Guide for Texas. The Rachel is the order, built with slaw, Swiss, and Russian dressing rather than sauerkraut. The deli opens Wednesday through Sunday at eleven and runs until it sells out, usually around three, and it is dark Monday and Tuesday. If you miss the counter, it sets up at the Mueller farmers market on Sunday from ten to two. This is the line the list draws. A smokehouse deli is in, and a barbecue joint’s chopped brisket sandwich belongs on its own guide.
- Hyde Park · $$ · Mon-Sat 11am-9pm, Sun 11am-5pm05
New World Deli
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Greg and Sarah Bontempo have run this Guadalupe Street counter since 1997, with three daughters working it alongside them, and it is the closest thing Austin has to a neighborhood deli that never changed. The Reuben is the order, and you pick the meat: corned beef, pastrami, turkey, or turkey pastrami. The curried chicken salad has its own following. It is also the rare deli here that stays open past six, six days a week, with beer and wine to go with it.
- North Austin (Scofield Farms) · $$ · Wed-Mon 10:30am-2:30pm and 4:30-8pm06
NG Cafe
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Owner Nguyet Quach still makes the French baguettes by hand every morning, which is the whole argument for driving up North I-35 for a banh mi. There are more than ten to choose from, each built with house-pickled carrot and daikon, cilantro, jalapeño, and house mayo. Note the split service: it opens at half past ten, closes at half past two, and comes back at half past four until eight. It is closed on Tuesday, and turning up at three is the mistake to avoid.
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- East Sixth · $$ · 11am to midnight or sold out07
R&B’s Steak and Fries
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The cheesesteak nothing else here covers, built on a toasted ten-inch Amoroso roll with a choice of Whiz, American, or provolone, at $12.50. It is a trailer at 1700 East Sixth, and the parking instruction comes from the shop itself: pull into the back alley between Sixth and Seventh and put your hazards on. The fries are not an afterthought either. They took Austin Monthly’s Best of ATX award in 2021. It runs to midnight or until it sells out, whichever lands first.
- East MLK (Blackland) · $$ · Tue-Fri 11am-9pm, Sat 9am-9pm, Sun 9am-5pm08
La Plancha
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Tortas on bolillo from chef Mariha Hinojosa, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America and grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, cooking Nuevo León and South Texas recipes. The menu is priced plainly: La Chilaquiles Torta at $12, La Three Little Pigs and La Hot Chick at $15, La Pambazo at $16.75. Saturday and Sunday it opens at nine, which makes it one of the few sandwich counters in town serving a real weekend breakfast hour. Closed Monday. If the craving is closer to a taco than a torta, that is a different list, and the city’s taco counters answer it better.
- Bouldin Creek · $$ · daily 9am-10pm, kitchen until 9pm09
High Road Deli and Bar
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The answer to a question nobody else here can take: it is eight at night and you want a sandwich. High Road is open every day from nine in the morning to ten at night, with the kitchen running to nine. The Soppresstrracc is the one to order, a sesame hoagie loaded with soppressata, stracciatella, mortadella, and capicola, plus roasted tomatoes, shredded radish, pepper relish, basil, and lemon mayo. There is a full bar, house-made sausages, a large dog-friendly patio, and skee-ball, and it is family friendly until eight.
- South Austin and Oak Hill · $$ · both Mon-Fri 11am-7pm, weekends vary by shop10
Tucci’s Southside Subs
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The everyday Italian sub, big and cheap rather than composed, at two south-side counters. The bread comes from The New World Bakery and the meats are Boar’s Head, which is the honest version of what a good corner sub shop does. The spicy Italian is the default at $11 for a seven-inch half and $19 for the fourteen-inch whole, with the hot ham and Swiss at $9 close behind, and there is a pressed Cuban at $12 for a seven-inch. Lunch combos run $14 between eleven and two. Both shops run to seven on weekdays, and the Oak Hill counter is the one that closes earliest at the weekend, at four on Sunday.
- Zilker, Mueller, and southeast Austin · $$ · three Austin shops plus Round Rock11
Eggman Breakfast Sandwiches
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate New York bodega breakfast sandwiches on a custom kaiser the shop has baked exclusively for it and calls the Eggman Roll. The Bodega Classic is bacon, egg, and cheese, the Queens Boulevard swaps in sausage, the Bronx Bomber is steak, and The Big Mess is what it sounds like. There are three Austin locations plus one in Round Rock, so pick by where you already are. The Barton Springs Road shop is a short walk from the pool, which makes it the obvious swim-day breakfast. It is the sandwich end of a bigger question, which the city’s breakfast counters cover in full.
- Govalle (Springdale Rd) · $$ · Tue-Sun 10am-8pm, kitchen closes 7pm12
Handsome Dan’s
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Half bar and half bodega by its own description, with grab-and-go sandwiches and beer, some of it brewed on site. Josh Hare of Hops and Grain opened it in February 2025 and said he wanted the place to be like your high school football coach, meaning dependable rather than exciting, which is a fair way to set expectations. Rick’s Near Beer is on hand for anyone not drinking. The room stays open until eight but the kitchen stops at seven, so the sandwich is the earlier deadline.
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- Cherrywood (Manor Rd) · $$$ · 11am-11pm · happy hour Mon-Fri 3-6pm, dine-in only13
Vic and Al’s
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The po’boy pick, and the reason this guide does not have to pretend the shape has gone missing from Austin. Cajun cooking from a scratch kitchen that makes its own sauces and seasonings, with the cochon de lait and its slow-roasted pork as the order. Its own listing runs to eleven at night, which puts it among the few places here that can feed you after the lunch counters have long closed. Happy hour is weekdays from three to six, and that one is dine-in only.
- West Sixth · $$ · daily 7am-4pm14
Walton’s Fancy and Staple
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate A deli and a florist sharing one downtown room, open seven days a week from seven to four, which makes it the only pick here with no dark day. The Turkey Sweet is the sandwich, at $15: turkey, bacon, white cheddar, a caramelized apple-onion chutney, and maple aioli on a croissant, sweeter than a deli sandwich has any right to be, and it works. It is the safe answer when you are downtown with visitors and somebody has already vetoed barbecue.
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What counts as a sandwich here, and when the doors are open
One ruling and one habit make a list like this usable. The ruling is about shape. Anything filled and handheld that the kitchen’s own menu calls a sandwich, sub, hoagie, banh mi, torta, po’boy, cheesesteak, or sando is eligible, which is why a chef-run torta and a banh mi on a house-baked baguette sit beside a pastrami on rye. Burgers are not, because a burger is its own category and its own craving. Breakfast tacos are not either. A barbecue joint’s chopped brisket sandwich is out and a delicatessen that smokes its own pastrami is in, which is the one edge people will test, so it is worth stating rather than leaving to be discovered. The habit is checking the clock before you leave. Most of the best sandwich counters in Austin are lunch businesses, and several stop serving between two and four in the afternoon. Several close on Monday, one is dark Monday and Tuesday, and one takes Tuesday off. One shop publishes two different sets of hours on its own site, and its entry above says so rather than picking the flattering one. When in doubt, call, and treat a posted closing time as the hour the kitchen stops rather than the hour the door locks. Nearly all of these are lunch businesses first, which puts them inside the weekday lunch question.
What we considered and didn’t include
The things we passed on are part of the value. Documented for editorial discipline.
- Franklin Barbecue and la BarbecueBoth are open and both sell a chopped brisket sandwich worth eating. It is a barbecue order, though, and it belongs on the barbecue guide where the pits are weighed against each other rather than against a deli. The line this list draws is that a barbecue joint’s sandwich is out and a delicatessen that smokes its own pastrami is in, which is why Mum Foods is above and these two are here.
- Uptown Sports ClubThe room has not closed. It is open seven days a week on East Sixth and trades as Uptown now, a bar and restaurant built around oysters, burgers, sandwiches, and steak, and the po’boys people remember are not on the menu it publishes today. It is here because the name still sends people looking for a po’boy, and Vic and Al’s is the answer to that instead.
- Fricano’s DeliLong remembered and still asked about. Its old web address now resolves to an unrelated offshore gambling site, and there is nothing current to point anyone toward, so it belongs in this section rather than in the list above.
- Subway, Jimmy John’s, Jersey Mike’s, Firehouse Subs, Potbelly, Panera, Schlotzsky’s, Ike’s, and Cheba HutNational chains and franchises, left out on that basis rather than on the sandwiches. The same standard runs upward: Meat & Bread is a Canadian group with six other shops and says so in its entry, and the multi-location counts for Eggman and Tucci’s are stated in theirs.
- Deep End SubsA real following for the chicken bacon ranch sub on challah, which nobody else here builds on. It publishes no site of its own and two different addresses circulate for it, and sending someone to the wrong door is worse than leaving it off, so it sits here until the address is settled.
Common questions
- What is the best sandwich in Austin?
- The Italian sub at Knuckle Sandwich is the strongest single answer, and Austin Monthly called it possibly the best Italian sandwich in the city. For pastrami, Otherside Deli cuts it thick and serves it on rye or a soft roll. For something else entirely, the porchetta at Meat & Bread is carved to order at $16.50 with salsa verde and crackling. Each is a different craving rather than a ranking dispute.
- Where is the best breakfast sandwich in Austin?
- Eggman is the bodega answer, with the Bodega Classic of bacon, egg, and cheese on the custom kaiser it calls the Eggman Roll, at three Austin shops plus Round Rock. If you want it on a biscuit instead, Bird Bird Biscuit has three Austin locations, takes no phone orders, and runs on online ordering and pickup. David Doughie’s builds an Egg Sandy you can order with beef barbacoa, and its chipotle cheddar bagel is a dollar upgrade worth taking, from the trailer at Fleet Coffee on Webberville Road.
- Which Austin deli has the best pastrami?
- Otherside Deli and Mum Foods are the two, and they are not doing the same thing. Mum Foods smokes its own and says it was selected for the inaugural Michelin Guide for Texas, and its Rachel comes with slaw, Swiss, and Russian dressing. Otherside slices thick and serves on rye or soft rolls. The third is Little Deli, whose Harry’s Perfect Pastrami piles on coleslaw and Thousand Island on griddled rye, open Monday to Saturday and closed Sunday.
- Where do you get the best Italian sub in Austin?
- Knuckle Sandwich for the composed version, at $22 for a twelve-inch, with Olympia Provisions meats, a parmesan crisp in place of sliced cheese, and an amba aioli. Tucci’s Southside Subs for the everyday one, on New World Bakery bread with Boar’s Head meats, at $11 for a seven-inch half. Home Slice, the Austin pizzeria, sells a large classic version at $12 for a half and $22 for a whole.
- Does a banh mi count as a sandwich, and where is the best one in Austin?
- It counts here. Anything filled and handheld that the kitchen’s own menu calls a sandwich, sub, banh mi, torta, po’boy, or sando is in scope, and NG Cafe sells its bánh mì as sandwiches on its own site. That is the pick, too: owner Nguyet Quach handmakes the baguettes every morning, and each one comes with house-pickled carrot and daikon, cilantro, jalapeño, and house mayo. It is open Wednesday through Monday with a break between half past two and half past four.
- Where can I get a Cuban sandwich in Austin?
- Tropicana Cuban Restaurant is the dedicated answer, where the Cubano and the medianoche start with house-baked bread crisped to order, and it is open seven days a week. Tucci’s Southside Subs also presses a Cuban, at $12 for a seven-inch, which is the easier stop if you are already on the south side.
- Where is the best Philly cheesesteak in Austin?
- R&B’s Steak and Fries, a trailer at 1700 East Sixth. The beef cheesesteak is $12.50, the chicken version $11.05, the buffalo chicken $12.05, and a veggie steak $9.10, all on a toasted Amoroso roll. If you are closer to campus than to East Sixth, Otherside Deli puts a cheesesteak and a veggie Philly on its hot sub list at $12, on a six-inch hoagie rather than a ten-inch roll.
- Which Austin sandwich shops are open on Sunday?
- Walton’s Fancy and Staple runs seven to four every day of the week, New World Deli is open eleven to five, High Road Deli and Bar goes nine to ten, La Plancha serves nine to five, and Handsome Dan’s is open ten to eight. Mum Foods is open Sunday and closed Monday and Tuesday instead. Little Deli is the one to plan around, since it is closed Sunday.
- Are there sandwich shops open late in Austin?
- A few. R&B’s Steak and Fries runs until midnight or until it sells out, Vic and Al’s lists hours to eleven at night, High Road’s kitchen serves until nine every day, and New World Deli goes to nine Monday through Saturday. Beyond those, most of the best counters here close between two and four in the afternoon, so a late sandwich means working from that short list.
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