I know Edwin over at Monster Munching has been waiting for my pictures and review of Which Wich in Santa Ana, ever since I said I was going there after his review (oh and I completely agree with him about the TV show Big Bang Theory, it’s the best!). I had intended to post this a week and a half ago, but well this isn’t my full time gig so reviews have to wait till I’m ready to post them.
First I want to make a statement regarding my interest in this business, I found out during my second visit that the owner of this Which Wich was actually my wife’s old boss, just figured I’d throw that out there to share all the info I can. I had already made my mind up about how good the sandwiches were well before this little bit of information was discovered. Those of you that have been following me know I’m a huge sandwich fan, and love to visit sandwich shops, so much so that Mrs. DanGarion actually never wants to go to them. I had been planning to go to Which Wich immediately after they had opened but I had read some initial poor reviews that deterred me from making my first trip till someone I trusted gave them their seal of approval, I’m very happy that Edwin did that, because now I can share with the rest of the world my joy in the “Wicked” sandwich that is Which Wich.
Let me first mention the ordering process, Which Wich isn’t your traditional sandwich shop where you tell the person behind the counter what you want. No, Which Wich has a whole staging area (check out Edwin’s picture here, it’s halfway down his review) with bags for each meat type of sandwich and then the customer checks the boxes of all the items they want on the wich. The order process reminded me of those from Slater’s 50/50 and The Counter. There is a percentage of the general public that doesn’t want to think for themselves, one of these types of people came in right after me and sort of complained about the process, I guess it was too confusing for him!
I ordered the “Wicked” ($6.25) which strangely isn’t on the corporate website menu, so I’m assuming it’s a special sandwich to this shop, regardless the 5 meats and 3 cheeses of the wicked are just plain awesome. In the sandwich you get just enough of each of the 5 meats, granted it’s not piled high and overflowing with meat, but that would detract from the rest of the wich. The meats are turkey, ham, roast beef pepperoni, and bacon, along with 3 cheese of your choice (I choose just cheddar and swiss). One thing that stood out about the meat was the bacon, it’s not strips of bacon it’s actually more like fresh cubes of bacon bits. Included on the sandwich is your usual mixture of produce, as well as some interesting items; 4 mustards, 4 mayos, crispy onion strings, coleslaw, etc. I went with deli mustard, regular mayo, crispy onion strips, lettuce, tomato, peppercinis, pepper, and garlic. The flavors all melded together to make what was possibly one of the best sandwiches not named Reuben I’ve ever purchased from a sandwich shop. Then there is the bread, with it’s perfect crunch from the toasting they do as they prepare the sandwich for it’s inevitable demise.
Along with the wich I also got a bag of their chips, which share a striking resemblance to the salt and pepper variety of Kettle Chips you can get at the store (which is NOT a bad thing). I liked everything so much that the next weekend I convinced Mrs. DanGarion to go there and she also enjoyed it. On my second visit I ordered a Turkey Club without the ham, and it was just as good as the previous wich of which I ordered at Which Wich. We also had some of the cookies which were toasted as well!
Service was fine both times I’ve gone, the sandwiches take more perpetration time then a Subway or Togo’s since they toast the bread, but we aren’t talking about soft chewy bread this is crunchy baguette style stuff! Both visits the sandwiches took less then 10 minutes to prepare but they also weren’t busy either time, your miles may vary if it’s during the rush of the lunch hour.
There are a couple challenges they are going to run into. Unfortunately the location is bad, it’s too far off the street and in a medical condo complex that has no medical tenants. The Chipotle that is next to it always seems empty when I pass by. Second from my observations of people ordering, people don’t want choice, they want to be told what to order and the order staging area with it’s paper bags you fill out, may be confusing to the general public…
Visit on 8/17/2009 for dinner and 8/23/2009 for lunch
[xrr rating=4.5/5]
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