Which Wich Superior Sandwiches in Lake Mary, FL

I stopped into Which Wich in Lake Mary one afternoon for lunch. This chain once had a location in the Altamonte Mall that was very short lived, and now they have reopened here. According to the Traveler Foodie blog, there's also a Which Wich in the Dr. Phillips area. Other than that, I'm not familiar with any other locations in the area. I found Wich Which had a slightly confusing ordering system until you figure out how it works. They have numbered paper bags hanging on the wall, with each number referring to a different type of meat. Once you pick your bag, you then take a sharpie and check off all the toppings you want on the sandwich. Problems occur if you change your mind and want to uncheck something. Hand the bag over to the cashier, pay, and your bag is passed to the sandwich maker who assembles what your bag says.

I had a turkey sandwich with buffalo sauce, mayonnaise, spinach, tomato, onions, peppers, pickles, and whatever else sounded good. The sandwich did end up being tasty, but I like sandwiches with lots of toppings and I picked out everything I wanted on it. There really wasn't anything exceptional about the sandwich though, and when I'm picking out my sandwich toppings, I think I'd prefer to actually see what I'm choosing. I would choose the Subway model of fast food sandwich making over Which Wich's paper bag model of sandwich making...

Viet-House in Altamonte Springs, FL

Orlando has a really nice selection of Vietnamese restaurants in the Mills 50 District. That's good since Vietnamese food is generally really tasty. Once outside Mills 50, Vietnamese food gets a bit harder to find. I can only think of a couple Vietnamese restaurants in Seminole county, so I was happy when I saw that a new restaurant had opened in Altamonte Springs called Viet-House.

The tiny restaurant is located in a building behind a gas station at the intersection of 436 and 427. You order at the window and eat at some nearby picnic tables. There isn't an inside here. Viet-House seems to specialize in banh mi but also offer soups and appetizers. I found out the hard way on my first visit that they close at 4:30. When I returned on another day to give them a try, I had their combination banh mi.

The sandwich consisted of various types of sliced pork products (I'm going to hide my ignorance of Vietnamese meats by leaving it at that), pate, pickled vegetables, lettuce, tomato, and cilantro on a French baguette. The banh mi was good and was very filling for under $5.

I also shared these summer rolls, filled with shrimp, pork, noodles, bean sprouts, cucumber, and basil. They were somewhat messy to eat, but tasty.

Eating Vietnamese food in a gas station parking lot is definitely a different experience than eating in one of the nicer Vietnamese restaurants in Orlando, but the food was good regardless. A banh mi sandwich does seem like a perfect type of street food, so perhaps this is actually an ideal location for the food!

Cerrato's Italian Market & Deli in Melbourne, FL

Cerrato's Italian Market & Deli is a small store on 192 in Melbourne. They may be small, but they have all sorts of delicious foods. They sell foods like homemade pastas, fresh mozzarella cheese, Italian desserts, olives, and all sorts of other Italian goodies. They also have a deli that makes some very tasty sandwiches, which is the main focus of this post.

I've stopped into Cerrato's for their sandwiches a few times now. On one of my visits to Cerrato's, I had a caprese sandwich. It was served on a bread with a really nice crust, filled with lots of their homemade mozzarella, tomatoes, onions, and basil. The caprese sandwich was one of their daily specials when I tried it, so this huge sandwich was only $5 and change.

On another visit to Cerrato's, I had a prosciutto and cheese sandwich. Served on the same wonderful bread, I had this sandwich with all the toppings, including lettuce, tomato, onions, mustard, salt & pepper, and oil & vinegar.

When there are places like Cerrato's serving these sandwiches, why would anyone go to the big chains like Subway?

Firehouse Subs in Lake Mary, FL

Somehow I ended up on Firehouse Subs' birthday list, so I received a coupon for a free medium sub in the mail for my most recent birthday.
I went to the Firehouse Subs in Lake Mary, FL and ordered a turkey sandwich. Perhaps this picture was taken at a bad angle because it looks like the pickle was just as big as the sandwich. The sandwich was definitely bigger...

It was a pretty good sandwich, with turkey, cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, and onions on wheat bread. My only complaint was that the sandwich could have been toasted more. Interestingly enough, on my last visit to Firehouse Subs, they toasted the sandwich to the point of having burnt bread. Either way, I liked it!

Jimmy John's in the UCF Arena

I have heard good things about Jimmy John's sandwiches. I finally had the opportunity to try Jimmy John's at the location inside of the UCF area, and I can't say I was very impressed. The bread was mushy, white, squished, and soggy all at once. The tuna in the sandwich tasted okay, but there wasn't too much of it on the sandwich and the amount of lettuce and sprouts was just sad. After eating this sandwich, I now know the reason why the nearby Subway is always busy and Jimmy John's is always empty.

Lollicup in Orlando, FL

I stopped in Little Vietnam in Orlando, FL. The plan was to eat lunch, probably at Viet Garden, but I got distracted by the sign in Lollicup's window. I've had boba tea from Lollicup several times in the past, and when I noticed this location now served food I decided to give it a try.

I started with the obligatory overpriced boba drink. I had a Papaya Avocado smoothie with boba. It was good, although I think they may have added lots of extra sweetener to the drink. There were huge jugs of fructose under the counter, so I'm assuming those go into the drinks. A fruit smoothie is sweet enough as it is and the boba makes it sweeter. There's no need to add additional sweetener on top of that. It was almost $5 for a small drink, but a dessert elsewhere would most likely also be about the same price. I've found that smoothies are definitely the way to go at Lollicup. All of the tea drinks remind me of a bottle of Orbitz with way too much ice (although I did love that stuff).

Moving on the the food, a Summer Roll was ordered. Sort of like the healthier Vietnamese version of a Chinese egg roll, the summer roll consisted of shrimp, pork, cilantro, cucumbers, and vermicelli, all wrapped in rice paper. Peanut sauce was served on the side. I love how the rice paper is somewhat translucent so you can see the brightly colored contents of the roll.

I have heard of Vietnamese Subs, or Bánh mì, but have never tried one. The sandwich consisted French bread stuffed with sliced pork, cucumbers, onions, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, assorted pickled vegetables, and possibly more toppings that I'm overlooking. I was really impressed with the sandwich. It reminded me somewhat of a Cuban sandwich with the pork and pickles, only improved with the rest of the toppings. This good sized sandwich was only $2.50. That's less than a Boba drink!


For a bit of an update, Lollicup no longer serves food and are back to only serving beverages. It's unfortunate, especially since I haven't found a better summer roll elsewhere in Orlando!

Jersey Mike's Giant Subs...

People seem to love Jersey Mike's Subs. I tried the chain for the first time today at the Lake Mary, FL location. I had a coupon for giant sized subs, so that's what I ordered. I had a turkey sub with provolone, lettuce, onions, pickles, banana peppers, oil & vinegar, and oregano. It was automatically put on a horrible white bread. It wasn't until after the sandwich was made that I noticed there were other types of bread on a shelf behind the counter. It would have been nice if they asked rather than automatically making white bread sandwiches. Besides from the bread, the sandwich itself was okay, except maybe the sandwich's size. Nobody should be eating a sandwich as huge as what was served in one sitting. This giant sub could have been split into four separate meals (and it was cut into four pieces), but yet I'm sure most people eat the whole thing, all at once. I truthfully think the size of the sandwiches is what gets Jersey Mike's it's fans, because the actual sandwich itself wasn't all that...