The Triangle’s Best Sandwich Shops: Italian Subs, Banh Mi, and Cuban Pressed
Great bread, serious fillings, and no wax paper wasted on mediocrity.
The sandwich is the most unfairly judged meal in America. It’s the lunch order, the airport holdover, the thing you eat standing over the kitchen sink at 11 p.m. But a real sandwich — meaning one built on bread somebody actually cares about, with fillings that didn’t come out of a deli bag — is as satisfying as anything that shows up under a cloche with a $38 price tag. The Triangle has them. Not on every corner, and mostly not where you’d expect. Strip malls, gas station plazas, converted warehouses, coffee shops that turn into lunch counters after 11. Here are the places that treat the sandwich like the complete idea it is — bread, protein, acid, heat, crunch, and a reason to come back next Tuesday.
Toast — Durham
345 W Main St, Durham [VERIFY address]
Billy and Kelli Cotter’s tiny Italian-leaning sandwich shop is the sandwich in Durham — the one that everyone mentions when the conversation turns this way. The lunch menu is deliberately short and built around three things: panini, tramezzini (crustless finger sandwiches on soft white bread, a Venetian cafe thing almost nobody else in the region does), and crostini. The porchetta panino — roast pork, rosemary, salsa verde, sharp provolone, pressed until the crust shatters — is the one you order first. After that, work through the tuna conserva and the prosciutto and fig. Lunch only, usually closed on Mondays [VERIFY]. Get there before 12:15 or resign yourself to the line. There’s a narrow strip of sidewalk seating out front and a handful of tables inside; in warm weather, take your sandwich two blocks to the bull statue at CCB Plaza and eat it there. Parking is metered street or the Durham Centre deck around the corner.
Lucky’s Delicatessen — Raleigh
Lafayette Village area, North Raleigh [VERIFY exact address]
Lucky’s is the closest thing Raleigh has to an honest Jewish deli — which is to say, a place where the pastrami is house-cured, the rye is seeded, and a Reuben doesn’t need to be apologized for. The pastrami on rye is the default order, but the brisket Reuben with kraut and Russian dressing on grilled rye is the one that ruins you for every other Reuben in town. They also do a respectable Cuban (yes, technically Jewish delis shouldn’t, but here we are), a chicken salad with actual texture, and a matzo ball soup that’s worth ordering as a side regardless of the weather. Tight dining room, fast counter service, and they get slammed at noon — go at 11:30 or 1:30. [VERIFY current hours and address — the deli scene in Raleigh has shifted the last couple years.]
Neomonde Mediterranean — Raleigh
3817 Beryl Rd, Raleigh
The Saleh family has been baking pita, manakeesh, and flatbread off Hillsborough Street since 1977, and the deli counter in the back of the market is where locals who know build their lunch. You grab a tray cafeteria-style: shawarma (chicken or beef), kibbe, falafel, grape leaves, hummus, tabouli, and a stack of their own bread still warm from the bakery. The chicken shawarma sandwich — wrapped in their flatbread with garlic sauce, pickles, and tomato — is the move, and it’s under $10. The wrap itself is the advantage: nobody else in town is making bread this fresh in the same building where they’re serving it. There’s a second location in Morrisville at 10235 Chapel Hill Rd [VERIFY], but the original on Beryl is the one with the deep bench of regulars and the best bakery smell. Parking is easy. Go early if you want the bakery still fully stocked.
Sassool — Cary & North Raleigh
1 Preston Corners Way, Cary (and 9650 Strickland Rd, Raleigh) [VERIFY addresses]
Sassool is run by Cecelia Saleh — daughter of the Neomonde founders — and the family resemblance in the food is immediate, but the menu skews a little more modern and the space is nicer to sit down in. Same bread program, same labor-intensive Lebanese cooking, cleaner dining room. The mezze platters and wraps are excellent, but the chicken shawarma pita and the lamb kofta pita are the reason to come on a sandwich-specific mission. Grab a bag of the za’atar flatbread on your way out — it’s the best thing to keep in your car for emergency snacking. The Cary location in particular is easy to get in and out of, with plenty of parking, and works as a perfect pre- or post-Umstead Park lunch since it’s straight down Harrison.
Banh’s Cuisine — Cary
311 S Academy St, Cary [VERIFY exact address]
The banh mi bar of the Triangle. Banh’s is a Vietnamese spot that happens to also do pho, vermicelli bowls, and rice plates well — but the banh mi is what the line is for. The baguette is the giveaway: thin crust that shatters cleanly when you bite, soft crumb that holds up to the fillings. Order the banh mi dac biet — the “special” with pâté, three kinds of cold cuts, Vietnamese ham, pickled daikon and carrot, cilantro, jalapeño, and a smear of housemade mayo. It’s $8 or $9 [VERIFY] and lasts two meals if you have any restraint. The grilled pork banh mi is the runner-up. The grilled lemongrass chicken is for people who don’t like pâté, which is most of America. Takeout-friendly; small dining room; parking in the lot shared with the strip. Go before the Cary lunch rush lands at noon.
Pho Banh Mi & Bubble Tea — Raleigh
2020 Cameron St, Raleigh [VERIFY — name and address combined from memory]
Cameron Village’s hidden banh mi counter inside a broader Vietnamese spot. The bread isn’t quite at Banh’s level — the crust is a little softer — but the fillings are generous and the price is right. The grilled pork is the one to order. Good fallback when you’re on the west side of Raleigh and don’t want to drive to Cary. Takeout move, not a sit-down destination.
Cuban Revolution — Durham / Raleigh
Multiple locations [VERIFY current status — the original ATC Durham location may have closed, and the chain has shifted]
For the Cuban pressed, Cuban Revolution is the default answer. The traditional Cubano — mojo-marinated roast pork, ham, Swiss, pickles, yellow mustard, pressed on Cuban bread until the cheese is molten — is hard to find done right in the South, and they nail the bread, which is the thing most places get wrong. It needs to be soft-crumbed with a thin crackly crust, and theirs is. The medianoche (same fillings, sweeter egg bread) is worth trying if you’re a completionist. [VERIFY currently operating locations — I believe there’s still one in the Triangle but the footprint has changed over the years.]
Benelux Cafe — Durham
1812 Hillandale Rd, Durham [VERIFY]
Belgian-Dutch cafe tucked into a small Durham strip, mostly known for breakfast, but their open-faced sandwiches (broodjes) and the steak-and-Gouda panini are the sleeper pick on the lunch menu. The bread is imported and baked off daily [VERIFY], and the Gouda is aged enough to actually taste like cheese. A good alternative when you want a sandwich but you’re Toast-ed out.
What makes a sandwich shop worth driving for
Three things, in order. First, the bread — because an incredible filling on mediocre bread is a salad in disguise. Second, the fillings doing actual work — meat that was cooked by a human being, pickles with texture, spreads that weren’t pumped from a squeeze bottle. Third, the press, the wrap, the assembly — the last ten seconds where most places go on autopilot and the good ones don’t. The shops above all get two or three of those right. Toast, Banh’s, and Neomonde get all three. That’s the whole list.
Go on a weekday if you can — weekend lunches are when the lines get long and when the kitchens are tired. Take the sandwich outside if the weather cooperates. Don’t eat it at your desk.
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