Highly Opinionated: An Editor’s Favorite Tuna Sandwiches in Los Angeles

Welcome back to Highly Opinionated, an ongoing series where Eater’s editors delve into one specific, oft-debated food favorite in Los Angeles. Previously, we discussed the city’s best New York-style pizza, Italian deli sandwiches, Korean barbecue, breakfast burritos, beef phở, burritos, bánh mì đặc biệt, and ham steak. This edition takes a closer look at the oft-divisive tuna sandwich.

---

Tuna sandwiches may be one of the sandwich genre’s more divisive dishes, despite only leaning on a few ingredients. For some, a tuna sandwich brings back nostalgic memories of park picnics or summers at the beach; for others, the scent alone is enough to turn their stomachs. But I like to think that a well-made tuna sandwich, or its cousin the tuna melt, is among the best iterations of protein between slices of bread.

The heart of the sandwich is the tuna itself. The filling should taste like tuna but not lean perilously into the territory of being overly fishy. A healthy dose of mayo helps achieve a smooth texture — because there is nothing worse than dry tuna. Other fillings and toppings, like diced celery or briny capers, can vary, as long as there’s consistency and intention behind the flavors. A good tuna sandwich should also be mostly tuna in composition. If it isn’t, then it’s just a fishy chopped vegetable or grilled cheese sandwich.

The right bread is also essential to a great tuna sandwich. Soft breads like challah or pain de mie (a French sandwich bread similar to a Pullman loaf) are great choices, as well as classic Italian sub bread. For tuna melts, a sourdough sandwich loaf can come into the mix, or another bread like a whole grain loaf that can achieve an audible crunch. A rustic loaf is mostly out of the question, unless it’s two perfectly even pieces sliced from the center. The bread shouldn’t be so thick that it becomes difficult to eat the sandwich, or so crunchy that it damages the roof of the mouth. If that bread you have lying around would make a good grilled cheese, it would probably make a good tuna melt.

To put it mildly, the tuna sandwich may seem simple, but it’s astoundingly easy to get wrong. After weeks of research, these are the two best tuna salad sandwiches and two best tuna melts in Los Angeles.

The overall favorite tuna salad sandwich: Open Market

Open Market

Open Market is a neighborhood cafe and market owned by Ralph Hsiao, Andrew Marco, Brian Lee, and Younna Lee. The majority of the cafe menu is made up of Asian-inflected sandwiches — like the banh mi-adjacent Olympic sandwich and the supremely good Beverly, a thick fried chicken sandwich with Kewpie mayo — along with a few excellent breakfast items. On the market side, find home goods including craft makgeolli, wine, snacks, and more. While all the sandwiches on the menu are great in their own right, it’s the Kenmore that stands out.

The Kenmore is a uniquely Los Angeles sandwich that comes from two area natives — general manager Ralph Hsiao and chef Andrew Marco. Hsiao says that their inspiration for the sandwiches at Open Market comes in part from imagining a deli shop in Korea interpreting American sandwiches. “The beauty of it is that we’re not really trying to compete with the Korean spots, and we’re not really trying to compete with sandwich spots,” Marco adds. Instead, they aim to forge their own Los Angeles-influenced cuisine.

The sandwich is a take on tuna kimbap (also romanized as gimbap), a Korean dish consisting of rice, vegetables, radish, and tuna rolled in gim (seaweed). While kimbap in Los Angeles is often found at restaurants or supermarkets, in South Korea it’s found everywhere, like 24-hour convenience stores, street markets, and lunch spots. At first glance, some might find similarities between kimbap and Japanese sushi — but upon closer inspection, those similarities end with the seaweed and rice that house the filling. Instead of the raw fish that is usually found in sushi, diners in South Korea can find kimbap fillings like bulgogi or canned tuna salad, plus pickled radish and burdock root.

To reconfigure those ingredients into a sandwich, Open Market mixes tuna with Kewpie mayo, marinated burdock root, rice vinegar, gim, and pickled radish, before topping it with a fragrant perilla leaf and a slice of cheese. The mix-ins add a balance of gentle sweetness, saltiness, and tangy acid that’s complemented by a green herbaceous note from the perilla and the fattiness of the cheese. The sandwich is assembled on two toasted slices of pain de mie, a light sandwich bread enriched with milk and butter, from bakery Out of Thin Air. It tastes astoundingly like kimbap, and the sandwich form is a welcome, and unexpected, interpretation.

The Kenmore is the closest I’ve gotten to the tuna mayo kimbap and onigiri I ate almost every day while visiting Seoul last fall, but this version of it only makes sense in Los Angeles, and especially in Koreatown. Over the years, the neighborhood has become a popular place to find old-school Korean food and newer interpretations by younger generations. While Hsiao and Marco aren’t Korean, the Kenmore is a combination of culture and place that results in something entirely unique to Los Angeles. 3339 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90010.

A classic deli-style option: Bub and Grandma’s

Wonho Frank Lee

Bub & Grandma’s full-service restaurant was one of the most exciting openings of 2022. Finally, some of LA’s best bread would be consistently available out of a storefront instead of having to find it at a farmers market or stocked at other shops around town. While the bread is still outstanding, it would be remiss to not talk about the sandwich menu.

Bub & Grandma’s tuna sandwich may look identical to one that would be found at a Jewish deli, or a really good bar mitzvah luncheon, but don’t be fooled. This sandwich is in a league of its own. It starts with Bub & Grandma’s challah, which is some of the best in town right now. The challah is somehow rich and light at the same time, and devastatingly only available for sandwiches. The tuna sandwich is mostly tuna salad (as it should be) topped with a thick slice of crisp iceberg lettuce, bread and butter pickles, and red onion. The technical expertise of the sandwich is hidden in the tuna salad, which is made with homemade mayo that gives the sandwich a rich and tangy profile without making it too heavy.

The sandwich plays into the general diner-meets-deli vibes of the Glassell Park restaurant, which features booths throughout and a line of stools at the counter. Just be forewarned that waits can get long, and that, sometimes, conceding to takeout is self-preservation when standing in a line that can feel eternal. 3507 Eagle Rock Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90065.

The overall favorite tuna melt: Cassell’s Hamburgers

Cassell’s just doesn’t miss when it comes to diner-style sandwiches. Its burger and patty melt are among the best in LA. But for those really in the know, it’s all about the tuna melt. The tuna is poached in-house, which already puts it a cut above the canned pack. Order it on sourdough bread with cheddar cheese and a side of fries for the ideal experience. The sandwich cooks on the griddle until it reaches a deep golden brown and the cheese melts around the side of the tuna salad. At the edge of the sandwich, the cheese extends past the bread and comes to a point in a crispy cheddar chip.

Each ingredient by itself is a triumph, but the magic happens when they all come together. It’s easy to underestimate the combination of tuna, cheddar, and sourdough, but it’s a blend of star-crossed flavors that creates something more than the sum of its parts. The tuna and the cheese are salty but never overly so, while the bread retains its texture and crunch from the first bite to the last. It’s a no-fuss tuna melt that tastes like pure nostalgia.

Cassell’s tuna melt comes in on the pricier side at $18, but the portion is generous and the service makes you feel like you’re a regular, even if it’s your first time there. It’s a sandwich that is best enjoyed dining in, under the collection of vintage signs that decorate the walls of the restaurant, paired with some good old people watching out of the wall of windows that face Sixth Street. 3600 West Sixth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90020.

An old-school melt: Apple Pan

Meghan Reardon

One of the Apple Pan’s best dishes, the tuna melt, isn’t even officially on the menu. The restaurant serves a hefty tuna salad sandwich that’s already outstanding, but if you ask nicely, it can be turned into a tuna melt. Starting with the same base as the tuna salad sandwich, the tuna melt uses a mayo-forward tuna mix that is generously piled onto bread before being grilled and sliced diagonally. The Apple Pan doesn’t hold back on richness in its tuna melt: the tuna salad itself tastes like the ratio of mayo to tuna may be pretty close to one-to-one. For an upgraded melt, order it with grilled onions and make sure to save room for a slice of pie after.

While the food itself is great on its own, I specifically go to the Apple Pan to be architecturally whisked into another century. Open since 1947, it has cemented itself as one of Los Angeles’s iconic diners over the years. The preservation of the restaurant has been so good that it could be considered a case study house. Not much has changed in the design of the space since those early days except for some immaculate upkeep, and hopefully, nothing ever will. 10801 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90064.

Foursquare

Cassell's Hamburgers

3600 West 6th Street, , CA 90020 (213) 387-5502 Visit Website

Foursquare

The Apple Pan

10801 West Pico Boulevard, , CA 90064 (310) 475-3585 Visit Website

Foursquare

Bub and Grandma's Restaurant

3507 Eagle Rock Boulevard, , CA 90065 Visit Website

Open Market

3339 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010 Visit Website