Seasonal Sandwich no. 5 & 6- Gerard's Deli & Starbucks

The search continues for the best Christmas Sandwich in Dublin.....

Gerard's Deli

After visiting the Warhol exhibition in the Hugh Lane Gallery on Wednesday, we sauntered back through town from the Northside to the Southside making our way to Gerard's Deli on Earlsfort Terrace in order to have their Christmas Sandwich. which we had seen advertised on Instagram. The sandwich was made on a roll and they suggest it be toasted - so that's what we did!

There is no seating to speak of in Gerard's and it is more of a sandwich to go place that probably services all of the offices in the locality. 

However, we did manage to stand at a small counter near the back of the shop where we split a sandwich between us.

Here's the pic of the toasted sandwich with our scores to follow, and as a point of information this sandwich was €7.50.

1. Price.                                     Enid 4/5      Ciaran 4/5
2. Ingredients                            Enid 3/5      Ciaran 3/5
3. Construction / aesthetic.      Enid 3/5      Ciaran 3/5
4. Atmosphere/ Experience       Enid 3/5      Ciaran 2/5
5. Tradition                                Enid 2/5      Ciaran 2/5

Total for Gerard's is 29 out of 50

Starbucks Holiday Sandwich

After stopping in Voila on Baggot Street to see if they had a Christmas Sandwich (they don't) we headed on to Starbucks on Waterloo Road where we ordered one of their Holiday Sandwiches, which again we got toasted.

At a cost of €6.25 it was tasty even though I was picking up a hint of cinnamon from it - perhaps it was in the stuffing? Is this a thing?

Here's our scores for this sandwich

1. Price.                              Enid 4/5      Ciaran 4/5
2. Ingredients                          Enid 3/5      Ciaran 4/5
3. Construction / aesthetic.       Enid 3/5      Ciaran 4/5
4. Atmosphere/ Experience        Enid 3/5      Ciaran 3/5
5. Tradition                                Enid 3/5      Ciaran 2/5

Starbucks sandwich got a total of 33 out of 50

So as you can see neither of these sandwiches are top scorers with Greenville Deli sandwich still at the top. And if you want to read about the last contender, click here to read about the Santy Bagel from Itsa.

Seasonal Sandwich Search no. 4 - Santy Bagel in Itsa

So we got a bonus sandwich added to our search for the best Christmas sandwich in Dublin this year.

We made a quick stop off in the city before Ciaran headed off for Mayo later in the day. Both of us were a little bit hungry so we decided to go for a Christmas sandwich and ended up in Itsa Bagel (in Arnotts) were we each had their "Santy Bagel".

They were very tasty but the cranberry was quite sharp so I asked for some mayonaise and added that to my bagel to tone it down.

I haven't had a bagel in a long while and this one was particularly good but perhaps quite sweet.

Here's the pic of the Santy Bagel, which was made of all the usual Christmas trimmings.

Keenly priced at just under 8 euro, here's how it scored overall.

1. Price.                                     Enid 4/5   Ciaran 4/5
2. Ingredients                            Enid 4/5     Ciaran 4/5
3. Construction / aesthetic.     Enid 3/5     Ciaran 3/5
4. Atmosphere/ Experience      Enid 3/5     Ciaran 2/5
5. Tradition                                 Enid 2/5     Ciaran 2/5

With a score of 31 out of 50 this is a good sandwich but unfortunately not in the top two scoring sandwiches. See here to read about the current top Christmas sandwich from Greenville Deli in Rathmines

And below is the receipt saved for posterity.

The search continues!

Christmas is coming.....

After the terrible events of Thursday evening in Dublin City when the city was overtaken by a rioting mob (truly a dark day) I was happy to sit back and relax and watch the Late Late Toy Show.

I didn't plan to wear my Christmas jumper this early in the season but my sister texted this pic in to our sisters what's app group with a note that she was ready for the toy show.

So after seeing Katie in her jumper, I changed in to mine and then took a pic to send to the group - along with Bones because he was going to watch with me!

I've written about the Late Late Toy Show before on my blog and you can read about it here

This year we had a new presenter with Patrick Kielty taking over the helm. Well he did a great job and I really enjoyed the show. I reckon it was the best show in years!

So once the Toy Show has been on, it is really the start of the Christmas season here in Ireland.

So because of this, Ciaran and I started our Christmas Sandwich Search / Competition. 

We have a thing where we select a few places that serve a Christmas Sandwich and we go visit and taste it and then rate it.  We each get to select 2 places but then go to 5 in total because the winner from last year automatically gets in to the following year's lineup.  

Well KC Peaches was the 2022 winning Christmas Sandwich so we put it first on the list and visited there this afternoon.

Here's the pic of the sandwich (we made a small modification where we removed the spinach which was an ingredient on the sandwich)

Well it was a good start but we hope to have some better sandwiches after this one. Here's our scores for the KC Peaches one

Price: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 4/5

Ingredients: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 2/5

Construction/Aesthetic: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 3/5

Atmosphere/Experience: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 2/5

Tradition: Enid 2/5 Ciaran 2/5

Both our scores were added together and this sandwich got a total of 28 out of 50 (a fairly good score for the first sandwich but I don't think it will be the winner).

For the record, here's the receipt for two sandwiches, 1 prosecco and 1 cup of tea. Watch this space for more Christmas Sandwiches and to see which one is the winner for 2023!