Open wide: Nem's banh mi sandwich.

Best Sandwiches

So many sandwiches, so little time. Unable to pick just one, we narrowed it down — to eight.
BY ROB PATRONITE

French Dip
Sandwich Planet
534 Ninth Avenue, near 40th Street
212-273-9768
Before they got uppity, good sandwiches were simple and primordially satisfying — like Planet's French dip: just beef, bread, and luscious pan juices.

Chip Butty
A Salt & Battery
112 Greenwich Avenue
212-691-2713
You can't shove just any old thing lying around the kitchen between two slices of bread and call it a sandwich. Or can you? French fries on white bread sounds like an act of desperation, but admittedly, from time to time, we crave it.

"Pinocchio" Sandwich
Melampo
105 Sullivan Street
212-334-9530
Alessandro Gualandi is a moody maestro, the David Bouley of sandwich-makers. The Pinocchio — soppressata, prosciutto, mozzarella, red-pepper dressing, and tapenade on baguette or focaccia -- is worth enduring the occasional mood swing.

Chicken Sandwich
Javier
70 Greenwich Avenue
212-929-7878
Addictively garlicky, freshly roasted pollo asado on pan de manteca slathered with ajilimojilo sauce and aioli, and deliciously smooshed in the sandwich press.

Bresaola, Rucola, and Grana
'ino
21 Bedford Street
212-989-5769
The prettiest sandwich in town. A seductively simple masterpiece of paper-thin bresaola, pristine lemon-splashed arugula, and grated grana, carefully layered between crustless Pullman-loaf slices. Dainty looks, huge flavor.

Falafel
Alfanoose
150 Fulton Street
212-349-3622
Rainbow’s falafel is a soupçon spicier, but Alfanoose's is a rarity in the falafel trade: a tidy, structurally sound sandwich rolled like a burrito in a pliant pita. Only one or two napkins required.

Banh Mi
Nem
Grand Central Terminal
212-338-6810
Yes, it's a dummied-up, wussified beginner's banh mi, devoid of any unidentifiable Chinatown lunch meats, but the excellent crusty bread it's served on gives it a big textural boost.

Fish Sandwich
Mary's Fish Camp
246 West 4th Street
646-486-2185
Mary Redding's exceedingly fresh pan-fried cod, lavishly spread with homemade tartar sauce on a grill-toasted ciabatta roll, is nearly identical to the one at Pearl Oyster Bar, from which she recently parted company. But Mary must have kept a few secrets to herself -- her tastier tartar wins by a caper.