A sandwich to settle for

Midtown Manhattan is littered with pseudo-gourmet sandwich joints happy to dish out pre-made panini and wraps for $6.95. Finding a really good sandwich for less than that is…well, so far I haven’t done it. But today I found a sandwich that was at least as good for $4.

Mike’s Coffee and Deli (44 East 32nd St., Manhattan–map) doesn’t look like much. It’s just a window, opening into one room where all the sandwiches are prepared. What is impressive is that the average price of a cold sandwich is $3, a cheeseburger deluxe platter costs $4.50, and the average hot sandwich goes for $4. That includes roast beef, pastrami, chicken cutlets, sausage, and my choice today: pepper steak.

The steak was a bit over-cooked and tough, but at least it was cooked up fresh and topped with tasty peppers and onions. Wrapped up in a perfectly mediocre baguette, the sandwich was nothing to sing about. But for my money, it sure beat the cold-in-the-middle panini I got for $6.95  at Susie’s Kitchen around the corner. For the cheapest decent-sized sandwich I’ve found in mid-town, Mike’s is the spot.