Salumi (Seattle) - Pretty amazing sandwiches... but worth the line up?

J has been to Seattle a few times before and each time she went, she has dropped by Salumi’s for a sandwich. Reportedly the lines are often so long that they extend beyond the doors of the shop. I had to see what the buzz (tell me whatsa happening!) was all about!
It was packed inside. There were about 3-4 people preparing sandwiches and when I went at 2pm, there were about 10 people in line. We were right at the cusp of having to spill out into the streets. It was a really efficient set-up so we ended up really only waiting 5 minutes.

This was the Meatball sandwich for around $9USD. The meat was tasty, juicy, and nicely seasoned. The tomato sauce added some nice zip to the sandwich. I didn’t care for the onions or peppers, they were maybe a bit over cooked/blanched? Obviously this sandwich is too big to fit into a mouth so I highly recommend knife and forking it. Unless you happen to be a snake.

This is the Porchetta (slow roasted, intensely seasoned pork) for around $9USD. Again, I didn’t really care for the peppers or onions but man oh man was this pork delicious. Tender, falling apart, fatty, juicy, salty, peppery, it was really amazing. The baguette wasn’t too firm either so my soft palate wasn’t destroyed after eating this.

J and I were so ravenous for sandwiches that we bought a 3rd sandwich to go made with Mole (salami with chocolate, cinnamon, ancho and chipotle peppers). We ended up eating it for breakfast the next morning. I was amazed at how complex the flavours were. The balance of sweet, spicy and salty was perfect. I loved this sandwich.

Overall, I liked Salumi but I feel that it didn’t quite live up to the hype. It was quite good, had some great quality meats, and the service was awesome. Salumi didn’t quite wow me the way that Katz in NYC or Schwartz in Montreal did (I recognize that these are all very different types of sandwich shops). I’ll still come back for that awesome Mole salami though!

Salumi, 309 3rd Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98104-2620, (206) 223-0817, www.salumicuredmeats.com

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~ by Russ on December 11, 2010.