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Categories: Delis, Vegetarian
Neighborhoods: Southeast Portland, HawthorneMon-Sat. 11:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
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Dearest East Side,
I apologize for our absence on Mondays. It's not you, it's me. I lost my damn job and can't really afford our weekly habit (not that your sandwiches are at all expensive). We miss your delicious, honkingly huge sandwiches ever so much.
Much love.
I'm jumping on the last review of this place. Holy crap that is a big f'n sandwich!!! Unless your mouth is twice the size of mine, there is no way you are getting it around this sandwich.
I had the 6 inch ($5.50) East Side Italian. Here is the skinny on that bad boy. Take a deep breath and take it all in. Black forest ham, mesquite turkey, genoa salami with provolone, toasted, and topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, pepperoncini, olives, mayo, deli mustard, balsamic vinaigrette, olive oil, italian seasons, salt & pepper on your choice of white, wheat or asiago sub roll.
Now that is a mouthful in more than a few ways. I can't imagine tackling one of these in the 12 inch model. I think you might be able to feed a few small countries on one of those.
Good bang for your buck here.
Holy crap, I just realized that I didn't give them 5 stars before! What was I thinking?
Oh, poor naive past self. I eat here almost once a week, and I have to really restrain myself from just going there all the time. The food is just amazingly delicious. I consider myself pretty good at concocting a sandwitch - all it takes is good bread, good meat, and good other toppings. But why do it myself, when East Side will do it for me? It's seriously the highest compliment I think I could pay that it tastes exactly like something I would make for myself. The ingredients are all high quality and heaped on with generous abandon. I swear I will never be able to be satisfied by Subway again. East Side has stolen my heart.
First off, this is better then subway - and I say this as a longtime subway fan. There are subways… Read more »
Kick Ass Sandwich!
With everything on it, toasted or not, carb-heavy roll or killer dave's bread, they stuff yo sandwich to the max!
I like the roast beef, juicy delicious.
I just wish I could sit at the picnic table outside, under the comfort of the awning with my sandwich and a beer. But, they don't have beer, awww. Maybe soon. Maybe I'm the only one who wants beer with my lunch.
Place your order, then bop in to the record store next door and pick up your favorite experimental music duds. Meander back into East Side, and your sandwich is ready.
The white paper wrapping makes me feel like I received presents from a faraway sandwich deity. Delicious.
I was tempted to write this review even before I had a bite of my sandwich. The customer service left me feeling bummed out and, had I not just taken a pretty good (not awesome) bite, I would have given East Side a very sorry one star review.
I won't go into details but if there's any chance the owner reads these reviews, she or he may want to have a conversation with the staff about how crappy the economy is and how they're lucky to have jobs and stop complaining about how busy it is because customers are what keep a paycheck coming.
Oh, and your welcome. I know you didn't say thank you at any point of my transaction but I'm sure you meant to. I guess you'll be one less customer busy from now on.
East Side lets ME be the pilot of my sandwich building journey.
Plus they have Dave's Killer, premium meats and deliciously fresh veggies.
Suck it, Subway!
Sometimes, a vegan just wants a sandwich. And that can be deceptively difficult, what with the demise of Veganopolis and all the new sandwich places that worship the shrine of cholesterol.
But never fear, East Side Deli is here to save the day. I could go to Subway with my $5 and get a flabby 12" that isn't very exciting. Or I can go to ESD with 5 and leave with a hefty (seriously, the thing has weight) sandwich featuring local Dave's Killer Bread, Veganaise, and a glorious amount of Field Roast Grain Meat from our friends in Seattle. It's a good sandwich.
I don't know what else to say, so I'll just give it the best compliment I can -- I can't even fit my mouth around it. Heh.
Take them to go and have a picnic in Laurelhurst or Mt. Tabor, you won't be far from either.
It is probably impossible to order anything gross here.
Look! Up on that deli counter!
It's a bird...it's a plane...
It's a full on sandwich that rivals a school bus!
The sheer monstrosity of these sandwiches blows me away.
I love the simplicity here, though. You go up to the counter; you grab a laminated order card and a trusty pen and go to town. They have several predetermined specialties, like the amazing roast beef and swiss or reubanesque. If you're a bit of a control freak, though, flip that card over.
Make your own.
This isn't Subway folks. We have REAL choices here. In addition, you can rest assured that you're not going to get olives because the person making your sandwich is looking at the card YOU put together. Don't check the olive box and you don't get olives. That's the way it should be.
Breads. Meats. Cheeses. Dressings. Toppings. Cold. Toasted.
Even my mathy head doesn't want to think of all the possible combinations. You'll find something to make you happy though. Vegans, too.
I'm kind of in line with Don's call on the bread almost being too thick. Yeah, this is coming from me, the bread queen. It probably would help if I didn't have braces. I wish having mashed up sandwich in your braces were sexy. If it were, I'd be golden.
If you order a 12", and I did, you're walking away with two wrapped sandwiches the size of small children. Each one is specially wrapped in butcher paper and masking tape. They don't mess around with Scotch tape, oh no. I'm surprised it wasn't duct tape to be honest. They're that fat.
The perfect amount of ingredients lay cradled within the bread-lover's dream. There is a happy medium in the meat department that I'm always on a quest for. I know you know what I mean. You don't want too much so that you're having a hard time fitting it in your mouth. You know that's never a pleasant sight. At the same time, if the meat is too small, it's going to leave you unsatisfied. Sure, you can fake it, but that's not fun for anyone.
You could easily make all twelve inches last you through lunch and dinner. However, I'm selfish and greedy and I want every inch all at once. I don't want sloppy seconds.
I was full, satiated, and happy. It was $9 well spent.
Best sandwiches in town for the price, period. I can't think of another joint in town that gives this kind of bang for the buck.
$5 gets you a 6" sub, which is generally hearty enough to fill you up (a bag of chips to supplement will certainly do the trick if you're not sure).
Combined with top notch ingredients (boars head) and being able to order a sandwich off the menu or build your own, and great array of drinks to chose from (Mexican coke!), you're destined for a great meal for under $10 with chips and a drink.
Oh, and they have good vegan/vegetarian options.
Holy cow!! Why didn't I know about this gem before?! It took a too-long line at Porque No for me to mosey across the street and get the best sandwich deal in town. A $5.00 6-inch sub is HUGE (I could only finish 2/3 of it). It was almost 6 inches WIDE, for Pete's sake....
lettuce: no brown edges
tomato: fresh
cuke: fresh and not slimy
bread: crispy and flavorful on it's own
cheese and condiments: perfect amounts
carrots: freshly grated
low-sodium turkey: yum. better than the full-salt kind.
Did I happen to mention the veggies are perfectly fresh, crisp and non-wilted?
And choices, choices, choices....I *love* being able to build my own sandwich. My dining companion got the foot-long for $9.50, had them leave the condiments off of 1/2 of it, and wrap the halves separately so he could eat the other one for lunch the next day. This means he got two meals, each for $4.75.
It's almost orgasmic.....
I'm a picky eater. The things I love, I really love. The things I don't like, I hate. So any place that has an awesome menu of suggested sandwiches, but then also has a make your own option wins big in my book.
This place is delicious. As everyone else has said, the sandwiches are HUGE and the price is so right.
So maybe they're bread heavy. Luckily, I love bread and all things starchy and carby, so thats a plus for me. All of the other ingredients are great too.
They also have vegan options which is always a huge benefit.
It's just what a sandwich is supposed to taste like, you know?
We just moved into the neighborhood, so we've been checking out all the local eats. East Side Deli was good, but nothing spectacular. It's very cool that they have Dave's bread, and they do have some unique combinations and options for vegans, but I just felt like it was a regular old sandwich that I could make at home. I would go back because it's just around the corner and the prices are not bad, but I wouldn't travel far or make a special trip to go there from elsewhere in the city. Totally decent, but a little underwhelming.
Yeah, so I had a craving for a tuna sub & decided to change it up a bit. I had to drive by on an errand & figured it'd be an adventure to try somewhere new. I went in expecting to order the tuna but I left with an Italian sub the size of a preemie. That's right, a preemie. And eating that baby may have given me TMJ. In fact, if I eat anything else today you might as well just check me into fat camp. On top of getting a super huge sammy for $5- it actually tasted pretty good.
Moral of the story: eating Italian preemies on wheat bread may be super tasty, but you'll break your jaw & maybe get chunky (er).
Doooo-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
I'm setting up a dedicated payroll deduction to instantly route $35 a week into a special account to fund my eating there seven days a week.
I love this place. They do it right. I've been three times in five days.
Where to begin...
It is really easy to spend $6-7 on a crappy sandwich just about anywhere. Don't even get me started on Subway, which is dead to me. So to find a fresh hero stacked sky-high with better-than-average, quality ingredients for $5 has pretty much been the highlight of my month (so far).
The six-incher for five smackers is plenty big. I can barely get my mouth around these things. The peeps there take pride in stacking 'em as high as they can go and will likely hold it up and show it to you first before wrapping it up. Love the dry-erase marker order form. You can customize your sandwich any way you please or flip it over to see a full page of killer sammies with everything but the kitchen sink included.
The bread. is. awesome. I tried the Dave's Killer once, and while I do enjoy that bread in general, it was just too thin to contain the pound of goodies between its slices and kind of fell apart. Go with the classic white, let's just be honest here.
And Field Roast?! Are you kidding me? That's awesome! And they're not shy with it, either. The amount they put on a six-inch will cost you about $3.50-$4 just for the Field Roast at Food Fight, probably $5 at New Season's. Also featuring Boar's Head meats, they've pretty much got any sandwich you can think of covered.
East Side, you are my new fav. (And thanks for the free extra stamp on my frequent eater card for saying I was in love with your sandwich man working the other night. I was not kidding, though.)
I finally gave a place a 5.
Really, this place is way underrated for it's price... Like they say, fat f-n sammiches on the cheap.
It doesn't take much to please me with a sammich. So why is it so damn hard to find a good shop here? OK, a good shop that knows a sammich should only cost 5 bucks and fill you up... well friends, this is it!
Biggest Sammich: The Italian. Recommend toasted or not. Either way, you walk away a winner. Yes, I ate here again today, and I am WINNING!~
Good, big cheap sandwiches with quality ingredients. The bread is good too. Somehow they feel really healthy, even if you eat a huge sandwich full of meats with mayo and everything. Skilled sandwich artisans, I'd say. Plus, a 12-inch sub was enough for dinner for me and my girl and my lunch the next day.
And they have punch cards!
Saaaaaaaandwiches!!!!
This place is a great sandwich shop. Excellent ingredients and big sandwiches. What more do you need? Need a Viso? They have that too, sucka!
This place always gives me a quality result.
East Side has all the right stuff: high quality fixins, great of selection of normal and not-so-normal ingredients (yes, the cajun mayo is also my fav ), totally reasonable prices, honkin' huge sandwiches (seriously, i have a hard time wrapping my mouth around it. and oh so rarely is that a problem. go ahead, laugh at the innuendo.), fast/friendly service, convenient hours. And if you're into the toasted sandwich thing, I highly recommend letting them give your East Side sammy a run through the oven - it took me to a whole new warm/crunchy taste-sensation level.
My only complaint (and it's all about me, not about them): the place totally gives me "the grass is greener on the other side" complex - no matter what I order and how delicious it is, I've always thought everyone else's sandwiches looked even better. Oh well.
Oh, and they have Tim's Jalapeno chips. Ding dong!
I'm someone who loves overflowing salad sandwiches, but most food places don't do them right. The closest is Subway, but, ew. At East Side, all my dreams of fresh, delicious, plentiful vegetables on a huge fluffy crusty sandwich roll have come true. There are almost more choices than should be allowed. $5 for a 6-inch that's basically also 6 inches around? There's absolutely no way you can beat this place.
9 dollar
9 dollar
9 dollar foot lonnnnngs!
Uh, wait... that's way more than 1 foot long, and much wider than a Subway sub. Oh, and those are Boar's Head meats... and twice as much volume to boot. Hmm, real ingredients? Tomatoes are not slimy? Real bread? Foot longs so thick that cut in half and individually wrapped, they make 2 meals for even me, a big guy who can eat? Uh, yeah. I am a fan.
I am very glad I decided to check out East Side Deli. It is always dead when I roll in there at dinner time, so there is never a wait for a sub.
My only complaint is that the bread might be a tad thick, but hey, can one really complain about too much food for the money? If I need less thick bread, I can go for one on Dave's Killer bread instead. Yeah. I dig it.
Avoid corporate subs. Stop in and get one from the cool folks at East Side Deli instead.
Firstly, this would be a 4 1/2, if I had the option.
Two words: Cajun. Mayo.
and: Meat. Ratio.
and also: Boars. Head.
Okay. Two words aren't enough to describe the deliciousness. The Portland Steak and the Meatball subs are both phenomenal. The cold cuts are fricken amazing. The bread is nice and fluffy and yields to the fillings. Perfect sandwiches and great value.
Eat here.
Best Deli in Portland! This deli makes giant sandwiches, that are bursting while whole ingredients, made to order and fresh as can be. I go here very often because the amount and quality of food you get for the price is amazing! I send all of my friends and family and even just strangers off the street here!
Quick update from my last review. Prices went up a little - now it's $5 for a 6" sub. But don't be fooled because for $5 you get a much better sub than a comparable $5 Subway 12" deal. They also changed their hours back to 9pm. No more late night window - the note on the sign said "due to scheduling and inventory issues we will no longer be offering the late night window."
I stop into East Side a few times a month to pick up a sandwich on the run. The quality of the food is very good and they keep it nice and clean. As a matter of fact, I would really challenge you to find a better $4.50 sandwich in the city. (no clue how they can actually make money at this price) I had the hot beef sandwich yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a giant portion of beef which was already mixed with some onions, peppers and mushrooms in a ketchup sauce. At first it wasn't at all what I expected (I was thinking Philly Cheesesteak style). But it was a tasty sandwich.
They are now open late night and have a "window" where you can get service into the early mornings on Friday and Saturday. The place itself is rather small, with one table and a counter with stools. So don't plan on taking your friends there for a bite. But - great thing to do is grab a sandwich and a soda and head over to Mt. Tabor or Laurelhurst park on a nice day.
One thing that may throw you off at this little place is that the staff isn't too outgoing. I'm not sure if it's by design or just how they are. But when you walk in, you never hear a "hello" even if you are the only person there. They are always in their own "world" behind the counter. You take a form, check the boxes and leave it on the counter. Not once have I been talked to by the sandwich maker. Not that I go to restaurants to engage in social exchanges with the staff, but there is just something kinda strange about this.
My bf and I went here the other day and all I can say is...well actually we left here with not much thought. I'm vegetarian and he is not therefore we thought this would be the perfect place concidering we both LOVE sandwiches and just the idea of buliding your own for under 6 bucks really excited us...but....in the end we both had the same thoughts:
1. Dry almost old tasting bread. And we each had diff kinds. Both VERY dry.
2. Veggies were fresh and good but....again the bread really ruined the rest of the experience.
3. Also theres no air conditioning...but I guess thats hawthorne for you.
4. Hmm and why did it take soooo long when we were the only ones there?!
In the end I would not come back here but I guess if your hungry and if you catch them on a day with new bread then it wouldnt be a total loss.
This place is great!! SO inexpensive, yet delicious and quality!! I do wish the bread wasn't quite as thick, but you can also get your sandwich made with Dave's Killer Bread...which is awesome!
I really like that you fill out a checklist with exactly what you want, and they are very generous with the fixin's!! The staff is always friendly and everything always tastes fresh.
It can take a little longer than you might expect to get your sandwich, but they are busy and take the time to make the sandwich PERFECT, so it is worth waiting a couple extra minutes.
I love this place! I am hitting it more often and I just took a picture of my sandwich for all of you who want to know how monster this place is. Everybody! Take Pictures of your food and upload it on yelp. It helps and it gets you some fine ass females and free TMNT action figures in the mail.
So far I think they are the best sandwich spot in Portland. 5 bucks and you get everything you want… Read more »
This place is amazing!!! I love me some field roast sandwiches! Yummy!
If you are vegan or veggie I would definitely recommend this place. Field roast vegan meat is rocking my world at the moment.
Good service. Good prices. Good quality.
East side Deli just opened up about two weeks ago, and I finally made it in today. It's a pretty small shop, but has plenty of selection for your meats, cheeses, toppings, and sides. They carry Boar's Head Meat and Cheese (which I love), so bonus points there!
You may think 3 stars looks bad, but really it just means that it was okay. For the price ($4.50 for a six inch, $8 for a foot long), you get a lot. The meat portion is generous and they load on the veggies.
My main complaint is with the bread, but that's just my personal preference. If you like the super thick sub rolls, hard to tear style, this will be right up your alley. They don't give you a choice of breads, although I did notice a loaf of wheat on the counter as I left. I will ask them for that instead next time.
My other complaint is not that they charge extra for avocado (.50), but they were pretty stingy with it, only finding two small slivers for my gigantic sandwich. Maybe they should up it to .75 or $1 and give a proportionate amount so I can actually taste it?
They also have a deli case with different pasta/potato salads and other goodies.
Returned to try the Italian Grinder, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite sandwiches, next to the meatball, of course...grinder...next to the meatball...huhhuhhuh.
Okay...drum roll...I have found the perfect meatball sub!!!! To me anyway. My idea of the perfect… Read more »
I love a mean sandwich and let me tell ya...This place knows how to make a f@&king sandwich! Thats all i could say after devouring the first half of a full sadwich was...Now thats a f#%king sandwich! Even the day after I woke up and the first words out of my mouth was...now that was a f^!king sandwich! the perfect sandwich deli ever!
Definition of a sandwich:
-noun 1. two or more slices of bread or the like with a layer of meat, fish, cheese, etc., between each pair.
Thanks http://Dictionary.com!
Now, the definition of a sandwich done correctly varies depending on who you ask. And, if you ask me a sandwich done correctly should have:
-Awesome bread with a nice crust and a chewy soft interior. The added bonus of the bread baked at a local vendor is delightful.
-The sauces, mayos, and/or dressings used should be flavorful but not overwhelming. They should compliment the ingredients that are tucked between the slices of bread.
-The meat should be fresh and contain very little to no gristle.
-The cheese should be flavorful and should not leave a film on your teeth, whether it be melted or cold.
- The veggies and other toppings should be crisp, fresh and colorful. (White iceberg lettuce at some fast-food sub places are obviously not an example...) They should taste like, well, the vegetables they are. Too many times places pass off toppings that are mushy and tasteless as being healthy delicious vegetables. I truly believe that in order to say that a restaurant, deli, food joint, etc has good green stuff, it should be able to be center stage without adding meat (but that's the vegetarian in me talking).
Now, I've gone through all of this without saying anything about East Side Deli but really, if you go there and try one of their enormous subs, you'll understand that it has everything to do with my description of a sandwich done correctly.
It's great too because you can choose a preset sandwich on one side of their menu or pick exactly what you want on your customized sandwich on the other side. You can have it as a 6-inch or a footlong, toasted or not, packed with awesome meat or a veggie bonanza. It really is up to you.
The service there is great and pretty quick, the portion size more than generous, and the price rivals fast food sub places. For what you pay for and what you actually get, this place is where it's at. My boyfriend and I enjoyed it so much that we left a $7 tip for $14 worth of food. Oh yeah, and they ran out of bread due to their awesome sandwiches so they closed the doors early. That, I believe is the mark of one great deli!!
I can't say enough good things about East Side Deli. It's a ridiculously great value for your buck, the ingredients are always incredibly tasty and fresh, it's healthier than almost any other "fast" food, and the staff is super-duper friendly. I took my parents there when they were in town recently and my dad (a somewhat taciturn economics professor) gushed that it was the best sandwich he's had in at least two decades. Seriously. Try this place!
The bread and ingredients are just so delicious! The prices are great for what you get (a huge, high-quality sandwich). I'll be a repeat customer for sure.
Boar's Head and awesome bread. Enough said.
Massive subs, nice people, great selection of stuff. I'm a deli traditionalist, but these days when I can get some shredded carrots on my sandwich I get happy about that (must be from ban mih sandwich experiences?). This place doesn't mess around. the sandwich sizes are honest and they fill you up. Good times.
I was starving when I arrived at the deli, and I left stuffed. I got a sandwich on Dave's Killer Bread, so right off the bat it's good. Had some delicious Boar's Head meats and cheese inside and plenty of vegetables. The price is pretty good for what you get, and it's another $1.50 for a drink and chips. Yes, a good lunch for $6, but not too far from the heart of Hawthorne. Too bad they're not open late or it would be a good reprise from Space Room or the Mt. Tabor Theater.
Soggy bread, not all the veggies I ordered, wrong sauce, kinda lame service, just meh overall. I was really excited to try this place as I've lived in Philly and love hoagies, but this just did not do it for me. And they said it was too hot to use the toaster?? Maybe that accounted for the too-much-chewy-bread thing?
So, I popped in here on a Sunday afternoon and my sandwich was good. I ordered the veggie and it came with a ton of avocado, which most sandwich places can be really stingy with so I was pleasantly surprised. On a side note, I felt like I couldn't speak while in the establishment. This is neither appealing nor unappealing to me, just different. I guess I like to be greeted when I walk into any kind of business. It's just common courtesy. Even a little eye contact and smile will suffice. But, I couldn't seem to accomplish that either. The rules are clearly stated with well appointed signage, take a menu....add your name and order....hand back to the staff. Very existential like. The women working there were beautiful and I would highly recommend this spot to my single male/lesbian friends who always like to be anywhere in a 20 foot radius of attractive women. They were also playing great music and the prices were unbeatable, amazing in fact.
Neighborhood: Southeast Portland
Category: Bakeries
Neighborhood: Southeast Portland
Category: Restaurants
Neighborhood: Southeast Portland
Category: Desserts
Neighborhood: Southeast Portland
Category: Greek
Neighborhood: Mt. Tabor
Category: Dive Bars
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