Gambino's New York Subs

Gambino's New York Subs is a top find from my pandemic life.  A small sandwich shop, that I had walked by without a second glance for years, quickly became an essential part of my Covid restricted lifestyle.

"We are very excited to be able to bring this comfort food to all of you. We have taken every step to find the best meats, cheeses, produce and bread this side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Gambino’s is all about indulgence, and anticipating sinking your teeth into a steak and cheese, hot coppa and turkey, or toasted ham and cheese straight out of the oven. "

But let me back up.

Gambino's New York subs is, at heart, a sub shop, open weekdays only, for breakfast and lunch, closing mid-afternoon.  As such, it never had a place in my life, as my office provided breakfast and lunch, and thus, I never sought those meals out during the week.  Until, of course, my office shut down, and I was left to my own devices.  At some point, my random quests to get out of the house and go on a "mission", like acquiring some food, led me to Gambino's small Embarcadero Center location.

I was immediately drawn in by the charm.  It was bustling, or, as bustling as anywhere was during the lockdown days.  Everyone seemed like regulars, or at least, they were treated that way, greeted with kindness.  Orders were prepared quickly, and customers left, looking quite happy.  Clientele ranged from suit wearing folks who presumably were somehow were still working in offices, to construction crews, to random lost souls like myself.  

"Whatever your favorite is, we will deliver it with pride, knowing that it is made with the finest ingredients, made just the way you like it." —Jeannie Gambino

This saying, from the owner, is not lip service.  The staff really, truly seem to want you to enjoy your order, and go out of their way to offer customizations.  They take time to learn names, and, I was shocked, as they remembered mine by my second visit.  My second!  

The owners are a husband and wife team, and many of their family members work in the stores.  The husband makes all the deli salads fresh every day, the wife does much of the baking, and together, they run the business.  It is family run, and feels that way.  It is the sort of place, you WANT to give your business too, which is made even better by the fact that it is delicious.

Gambino's has two locations, both near each other, with similar menus, although one has a bigger kitchen facility, and can offer things like offer french fries, and has seating.  I've been to both, but more often visit the closer, but smaller, Embarcadero Center location.

I'm a repeat customer, and will continue to be, even once I'm back in the office.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

I ordered in advance through AllSet most times, and my orders, including my special requests, were always ready on time.

Feasts

I've had many, many, many fabulous items from Gambino's, and was a customer for months, but I was particularly thrilled when Too Good To Go launched in San Francisco, and Gambino's was a launch partner.

If you are not familiar, Too Good To Go allows restaurants, cafes, bakeries, corner stores, etc to offer up surplus food, at a discount, at the end of the day.  Customers cannot generally select what they get, but rather, order a "mystery bag", with whatever leftovers there are.  Prices range from $2.99 to $6.99, and the value is expected to be 3x that.  It is a great way to prevent food waste, and get a nice deal.  I used it to discover many great new establishments, although, of course, there were some duds (like a corner store in Chinatown that gave me just a bag of onions!).

Anyway, Gambino's bags were offered at $5.99, so valuing ~$18, and were available for pickup during their last 30 minutes of service.  I snagged them twice, and was thrilled with the results.

Too Good To Go Mystery Bag. $5.99:
Roast Beef on Dutch Crunch, Extra Dutch Crunch, Chocolate Cake, Macaroni Salad, 2x drinks, 2x chips.

This was the first Mystery Bag I got from Gambino's, from Too Good To Go, after being a longtime Gamibino's regular customer.  To say I was blown away was an understatement.

The bag contained some clearly surplus items, and, I even got to pick several things myself. Contents:

• Someone's unclaimed roast beef and cheese sandwich, East Coast style. Clearly not freshly made, but still delicious, and SOOO much roast beef. It was kept in a hot box, so still hot. Normally $9.99.
• An extra dutch crunch bun, clearly surplus at end of day, not normally sold.
• "What deli salad would you like?" --> macaroni, duh. A full container of basically all the macaroni left over. Normally $4.25.
• "Go ahead and take some drinks and chips, whatever you want" --> I grabbed a whole milk to go with my cereal/cookies, 7 Up to go with my meal, and 2 bags of chips in a brand I hadn't had before. I'm not sure of the costs of these, like $1-2 each?
• And ... homemade chocolate cake!

Crazy value, and I was beyond pleased.

Too Good To Go Mystery Bag. $5.99.:
Lasagna, caesar salad, Specialty Sub: The Gambino, and a chocolate muffin.

This was another pretty winning mystery bag.

I was offered my choice of muffin, so I went for chocolate since I hadn't tried it before.

They included a random sandwich, which was made fresh to order - the Specialty Gambino, with mortadella, ham, salami, hot coppa, provolone. On soft french roll. West coast style. I would have preferred to pick, since they made it fresh, but, I was quite pleased.

HUGE slice of lasagna, piping hot.

And a caesar salad, premade, so clearly leftover.

The lasagna and caesar salad is usually $10.99, the Gambino sub is $9.99, and a muffin ... $3?

So clearly, >$20, amazing value.

Subs

The namesake item at Gambino's New York Subs is, obviously, the subs.  Nearly every customer I've seen there orders one.

The sub line up is fairly extensive, ranging from warm chicken parm to simple tuna salad.  Proteins and cheeses are all Boar's Head, sliced fresh daily in the morning.

Gambino's serves all subs on your choice of bread (soft sub roll, Italian hard roll, wheat roll or Dutch crunch), and one of two styles "East Coast" or "West Coast".  Both styles feature sliced tomatoes, red onion, and shredded iceberg, and East Coast style is rounded with by olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and other herbs.  West Coast style adds pickles, mayo, and mustard.  I think you could probably add just a subset of any of these toppings if you please, but most customers seem to just pick East or West.

Hot Subs

The subs that always call out to me when I visit are the hot subs.  They always look, and smell, amazing when being prepared.  Hot subs all come with Gambino's custom house cheese blend, and you can add hots or pepperoncini with no additional charge.

The hot sub lineup includes several kinds of cheesesteak, sausages, assorted parms (chicken, eggplant, meatball), pulled pork, burgers, and more.

Roast Beef & Swiss. Dutch Crunch. $9.49.
East Coast Style.  Toasted.

The first sub I tried was the roast beef, on dutch crunch, part of a Too Good to Go "Mystery Bag", so it was not something I picked out myself.  I was still pleased to get it.

Dutch crunch is the SF darling, and it held up well here.  Crusty on the outside, soft inside. 

The sub was loaded up with fillings.   The swiss cheese was extremely generous, tons of it, well melted.  And speaking of generous, it felt like a pound of freshly sliced Boar's Head roast beef!  The roast beef was standard Boar's Head quality, medium-well cooked.

Roast Beef, East Coast Style: Inside.

The sub was East Coast Style with shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, onions, olive oil, vinegar, herbs, salt, and pepper.  If I were picking this, I'd certainly go for West Coast Style, but it was nice to try something different.  I appreciated the herbs, but, I do miss my pickles, mayo, and mustard!

The shredded lettuce was a nice touch, it reminded me of old school delis, and the rest of the veggies were well suited.

Overall, a good sub, HUGE and generous, good value at $9.49.  ***.

Traditional Subs

Traditional subs are not heated by default, but can be toasted in their pizza oven upon request.   From here, you can select your choice of deli meats and cheeses, or opt for one of their "Specialty" subs.  I had a Specialty sub.

Specialty Sub: The Gambino.  Soft French Roll.  $9.99.
East Coast Style.

"Ham, Salami, Hot Coppa, Mortadella, Provolone."

A few days later, my Too Good To Go "Mystery Bag" included their namesake sub, The Gambino, again East Coast style.  It came on a soft french roll, not toasted.

It reminded me in some ways of the sub I used to get at Subway when I was growing up (as in, when I was <16 years old, and my family went there regularly for Sunday night family dinner ... ), the Cold Cut Combo, with ham, salami, and bologna.  Except this was a more grown up version.

The bread was quite fresh, so soft.  Clearly baked fresh daily.

Fillings were great, the same shredded romaine, sliced tomatoes, sliced red onions, oil, and herbs as my previous sub, and 2 slices of each meat and cheese, again Boar's Head, sliced fresh that morning. 

I love mortadella, so this was a nice mystery bag win for me.   Yeah, fancy bologna.  I liked the salami, but wouldn't go out of my way to order it.  It was well seasoned.  The coppa was too fatty/greasy for my tastes.  The ham was ... ham.  Overall a nice blend of meats though, and although provolone is rarely my cheese of choice, it went nicely with them too.

***+.

Hot Plates

While subs are the main business, Gambino's offers a few hot plates of Italian specialties: meatballs, eggplant parm, sausage & peppers, and more.  These come with side salads and garlic bread.

Wendy's Homemade Lasagna. $10.99.

"Meat lasagna with marinara sauce, and cheese. Served with Gambino's custom house cheese blend."

Gambino's always has a sign out front advertising the homemade lasagna, yet I've never seen anyone order it.  I love lasagna, so I finally had to try it.  

Let's be clear here though, um, I love some types of lasagna.  Lasagna has a lot of variety to it ... but let's just talk meat lasagna to keep it simple (although I do love a good veggie lasagna too, particularly one with butternut squash puree, swiss chard or other greens ...).  Meat lasagna.  Now, many versions have ricotta.  I do not like ricotta in my meat lasagna.  So, no ricotta please (ricotta in a veggie lasagna, not red sauce based, yes!).  Red sauce, sure, but not too much.  Even better if the meat is incorporated into the sauce, in a rich, deep bolognese.  Bonus points for béchamel in there.  Bonus points for fresh pasta rather than dried, still al dente.  Even more bonus points for crispy edges.  And yes, sure, some cheese melting about.

The Gambinos portion was HUGE, and covered in cheese.  Red sauce.  Very little ricotta.  No veggies.  Sadly no crispy edges.

It is a meat lasagna, with ground beef, and the same marinara sauce and "custom house cheese blend" used in their eggplant, meatball, and chicken parm subs and plates.  The marinara sauce was quite flavorful, well seasoned.   Far above average.  And that custom cheese blend?  Fabulous, and wowzer, tons of cheese on here.  I'm not sure what the blend is, clearly mozzarella, but there was much more to it.  Great cheese element.

The noodles were average, softer than I liked.  Meat was minimal, ground beef in a layer with the sauce on top, not throughout.  So, fantastic sauce and cheese blend, ok beef and ricotta, eh noodles.  Overall, slightly above average.

The lasagna meal is served with a side Caesar salad and garlic bread, an incredible value at $10.99 for massive portion.

***+.

Sides

Perhaps an often overlooked part of a menu, but the deli salad sides section is not to be missed at Gambino's.  All are made fresh daily, and are far, far above average.  From here you can pick from the classics like macaroni or potato salad, or the top selling pesto pasta salad, a traditional caprese with mozzarella and tomatoes, one with roasted greek veggies, and more.  All are available in two sizes.

Spoiler: I'm obsessed, really, with their macaroni salad.  I think at this point I dub it the best I've ever had.  Anywhere. 

Macaroni Salad. Small.  $4.25.

Simple enough looking macaroni salad.  Sure.

But this was good macaroni salad.  Just classic macaroni salad, with bits of bell pepper inside, and classic mayo dressing, heavily dressed, but not gross.  The macaroni is well cooked, slightly al dente, and the dressing had a slight bite to it that I like.

***+.

Macaroni Salad. Small.  $4.25.

My next visit, I had to get it again.  This version was slightly different, with large chunks of celery instead of bits of bell peppers.

It was still quite good.  I really liked the decent sized chunks of celery, and how crisp they were, adding a slight crunch.

****.

Macaroni Salad. Small. $4.25.

Another day, another version.  No celery.  No bell pepper.  Instead, herbs this time.  It did not have much extra flavor, and as always was really heavily dressed, but I still love it. ***+.

My perfect lunch I make is adding a scoop of it, plus seaweed salad, pickles + pickle juice, soy sauce, and furikake, and served over salad base (kale, bibb lettuce, sprouts), and topped with Chex mix crumble.  That creation is ***** all the way, and the macaroni salad is a key component.

Half Macaroni Salad / Half Potato Salad. Small.  $4.25.

My next visit, I decided I wanted to try the potato salad, since I adored the macaroni salad.  But ... I had FOMO, so I asked if I could get half and half, since they were the same price.  This was easily accomodated.

The potato salad unfortunately was ... eh.  It was "fine", but had sundried tomatoes which I don't really care for, and didn't have any hard boiled egg, which I do like in my potato salad.  It was fine, I finished it, but I haven't gotten it again.  ***.

The macaroni was great again though, this time with bell peppers again.  ****.

Half Macaroni Salad / Half Fruit Salad. Small.  $4.25.

Another day, and I decided to try another salad, again getting half and half, so I didn't miss out on my macaroni salad.  I opted to try the fruit salad, and it was glorious.  It has since become a repeat order, more on that soon.

**** for both (this was actually a large container, as they were out of small containers, hence why it was not full.  They did give me a full portion!).

Again, I love the macaroni mixed with kale, iceberg, pickle juice, soy sauce, and seaweed salad, and this time crumbled tempura seaweed and bbq chips on top.  It was insanely delicious. ****+.

Side Salad (sub romaine). $3.99.

Eventually, I moved on to the "side salad".  I didn't know what it would be, but the menu did say it came with mixed greens.  I asked for romaine, wanting something crisp.

It was a decent version of a garden salad, with 4 large ripe tomatoes, 4 slices of cucumber sliced to order, red onion, pepperoncini, and marinated artichoke hearts (meh).  The cucumbers were standout, really, really good.  Super juicy, quite fresh.  

It came with balsamic vinaigrette, which I didn't care for, but I used my own dressing at home anyway.

This was a great value for $3.99.  ***+.

Side Salad. $3.99.
Sub romaine, no artichoke, ranch.

Craving greens, I got it again, again asking for romaine, and no artichokes, since I don't like them.

Just like last time, it was crazy fresh ingredients, juicy cukes, thin sliced onion, tons of pepperonici, juicy tomatoes (sliced this time instead of cherry), and this time, it also had some roasted red peppers.

I tried ranch this time for dressing, and it was pretty generic.

***+, again, great value for freshness in particular.

Side Salad. $3.99.
Sub romaine, no artichoke, add mushrooms.

Another day, another side salad.

This time I was asked if I wanted something in place of the artichokes, and was offered mushrooms, so I went for it. They were marinated, not fresh mushrooms.

Again, solid, although the slimy marinated mushrooms I didn't get again.

***+.

Side Salad. $3.99.
Sub romaine, no artichoke.

I get this side salad regularly, always the same modifications.  This one had a comical amount of pepperoncini.

Side Salad. $3.99.
No artichoke.

For once, I got the mixed greens instead of romaine. They were fine, standard mixed greens, but I prefer the crunch from romaine. This version also had really thinly sliced red onion, which I quite liked, and TONS of super fresh cucumber.

***+.

Caesar Salad - Side.

"Romaine, croutons, parmesan cheese, and Caesar dressing."

One day, I finally broke from my mold, and got the Caesar instead.

The base is the same romaine I always get in my side salad, fresh, nice sized chunks.

Rounded out with shredded parmesan, flavorful crisp good sized croutons, and the same Caesar dressing that I'm not quite into, very generic.

Good enough standard salad.  ***.

A full Caesar is $7.49, this was the side size included with lasagna meal.

Desserts / Baked Goods / Sweets

Gambino's isn't really a dessert destination, but they always has a small pastry case with some muffins, danishes, cookies, and cakes, most of which come from Costco, but from time to time, homemade items appear.  They also have fresh fruit and yogurt parfaits, for those who want something healthier.

Fruit Salad. Small. $4.25.

The Gambino's fruit salad may be my favorite item.  It is a close tie with the macaroni salad.  I get it nearly every visit.

The fruit mix always contains cut strawberries, and an assortment of berries, usually raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, although every once in a while one type of berry is absent.  The fruit salad never contains fillers like melons nor pineapple, no grapes, nothing else, just, berries.

The fruit has always been fresh, flavorful, ripe, and just very, very good.  The price is great for quality fruit, and I get it over and over again.

****+.

Fruit Parfait. $6.49.

"Our delicious and light yogurt topped with granola and blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries."

Eh.

The yogurt was just generic vanilla-ish yogurt, not thick, rich, Greek yogurt.  It had a slightly fake sweet taste to it.  The granola was equally generic, I think the same Kellogg's granola that airport lounges and hotel buffets have.

The fruit though was fantastic, the same berry mix that I get as a side often.

So, overall, generic hotel/airline lounge quality yogurt and granola, enjoyable fruit.  Large size, but $6.49 felt a bit pricey for not using local yogurt or housemade granola.

**+.

Homemade Chocolate Cake.

The owner's wife makes many of their baked goods, and this was the first that I was able to try.

Moist chocolate loaf cake.  Loved the sweet white chocolate, dulce, and dark chocolate drizzled on top.

Clearly freshly made, but loaf cakes aren't really my thing (where is the frosting!).  I brought it home, heated it up, and added a scoop of salted caramel nib ice cream, and it was quite satisfying.

***+.

Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The cookies looked far above average.  Large size, and were soooo soft.

But, um, they tasted kinda like a large soft baked Chips Ahoy cookie. Not fresh, but not stale, if that makes sense.  Tasted, um, processed?

I wanted to love them, as I loved how soft they were, and they did have nice large hunks of chocolate, but they just tasted too fake and generic.

I would not be surprised to learn that these are just Costco cookies ... 

**+.

Almond Poppyseed Muffin.

Gambino's always has a variety of muffins, wrapped up individually in the case.  I'm quite certain these are Costco muffins, and if you've read my review before, you know how much I love the almond poppyseed Costco muffins, so, one day, I just had to get one.

It has been years since I had a Costco muffin, but I remembered the poppyseed always being my favorite.  Unlike nearly every poppyseed muffin on the market, this one is not lemon poppyseed.  No, it is *almond* poppyseed.

It lived up to my memories.  Mind you, this is not a homemade tasting muffin, you can tell it is a mass produced generic muffin.  So bad for you, really, yet so good.

I loved the crunch of poppy seeds, the strong almond marzipan-like flavor.  

****.

Double Chocoate Muffin.

The next time I visited Gambinos, I was craving chocolate.  Chocolate cake.  But alas, the homemade chocolate cake was not available.  I settled for a chocolate muffin, which, yup, was from Costco too.

MEH.  

While I adore the almond poppyseed muffin, the same cannot be said about the double chocolate.

This was such a boring muffin.  Light chocolate flavor, not deep and rich, and certainly nothing like a chocolate cake.  It wasn't stale, but was fairly dry.  Not moist.

The "double" chocolate came in the form of 2-3 chocolate chunks in my muffin.  Bo-ring.

Highly underwhelming, and I'd like to know what they put in it to make it 680 calories and yet ... not even tasty!

I salvaged it by soaking it in milk, warming it up, and serving a la mode, more like a cake, and that was ok, but I clearly wouldn't get another.

**.