London’s best Christmas sandwiches

Where do I begin? This sandwich has it all. Texture. Girth. Sustenance. Flavour. A perfect balance of wet and dry. Succulent slices of roast beef rump are slathered with chunky cauliflower cheese, scrumpiously savoury slops of gravy and just-sharp-enough horseradish mayo to cut through all of the clag. The bread is lightly toasted to prevent sogginess, of course, and on top sits a majestic cavolo nero leaf (because health) and a generous sprinkling of sweet sage and shallot crumble, with added parsnip crisps. This is a roast dinner in sandwich form – but not in a shit, mass-produced way. In a way that has clearly been meticulously thought out, calculated, curated. This is art.

£14.50

There is so much going on with this beast of a Chrismukka sarnie that it might take us until December 25 to work through it. There’s hefty but seductively soft challah bread, then an impressively honking four-G relish (a potent, pickley mix of guindilla, gorgonzola, gherkin and gruyère). Next, a sturdy, crispy, root veg latke cooked in schmaltz aka the good stuff aka chicken fat. You want more? Try a smear of fragrant caraway bread sauce, lashings of pulled pastrami turkey and mulled wine chutney. Absolutely audacious.

£15

A delicious toasted ciabatta breezeblock stuffed with slow roast pork shoulder, smoked turkey and a whole lot more, this is one of those sarnies that looks like it needs a foot-long stick planted in the middle to hold it together. Yes, the thing will lose all structural integrity after one bite, but it actually tastes way lighter than it looks. That’s thanks to tangy red cabbage slaw and cranberry sauce, which are balanced by the deeper flavours of the gravy mayo and cheesy leek béchamel. The pecan sage & onion crumble gives the whole shebang a satisfying crunch. No notes.

£13

Quite the item. Bangers' festive handful is accompanied by a pot of gravy. This is handy as, without the sauce, this intensely flavourful sandwich might be a bit one note. However, the meatiness of its sausage and turkey layers are cut through marvellously by both the gravy and fist-pumpingly zingy pickled spout and onion slaw. A spenny sarnie? Sure. But this is a substantial meal, made by Shoreditch sandwich slingers very much at the top of their game.

£12.50 (+ £2.50 gravy dipping pot)

There's no denying that the sausage and bacon roll is a classic, and this is a pretty great rendition of the humble S+B. There's a generous portion of bacony 'blanket' atop the sausages, which are herby, girthy, and have a satisfying snap to them, like all good bangers must. If we were offered one of these in a hungover post-Christmas party fugue, we would gratefully accept, no questions asked. But there isn't really enough festive pizazz here for it to qualify as a proper Christmas sandwich. Sure, the cranberry sauce strikes just the right balance between zingy and sweet, but the 'honey and mustard aioli' isn't really giving 'honey' or 'mustard', while the sprinkling of limp rocket does little besides making this look vaguely more healthy than it is.

£4.95

This spin on a Japanese sando certainly looks cute, but do its flavours live up to the aesthetic? It’s pleasingly tall, and structurally sound, with an extra slice of soft, pillowy milk bread in the middle. The sandwich has just the right amount of tangy ranch mayo, meaning it is moist but not sloppy. Shredded duck in a sweet peanut sauce isn’t particularly festive, but it surely is delicious. Unfortunately though, the whole thing is overpowered by too many sharp pickles.

£15

Flavours! This sammie is absolutely stuffed with them. Every bite of the substantial sub offers something else; you’ve got crunchy pickles, juicy mock duck and slap-you-round-the-face fresh chilli (so not one for those who are spice-sensitive). The most exciting thing about it is the peanut butter mince pie sauce, which perfectly compliments the seitan duck and gives you enjoyable bursts of Christmas-ness. I did find it really quite filling and had to hit pause halfway through, but I guess that means you’re getting your money’s worth, eh?

£10

Featuring the seasonal trifecta of turkey, bacon and cranberry, this toastie isn’t rewriting any rulebooks. But don’t lump it in with bog-standard Christmas sandwiches – this is a stand-out; not dry, nor bready, nor overly sweet. It’s a well-crafted, comforting toastie with bubbly focaccia and melty cheddar cheese. The chilli jam doesn’t quite make it through, but there’s a whole lot of crunchy, creamy sprout slaw, balanced against chunks of seriously sweet cranberry. The bread? Beautifully soft, with a satisfying chew. The turkey? Moist, somehow. You’ll savour every bite of this squishy, rich sando.

£8.95

The ultimate Proustian rush sandwich for people who like using the phrase 'Proustian rush', the jambon beurre is a time capsule to lazy afternoons by the Seine or summery strolls down Parisian boulevards. Messing with it could have you thrown into the Bastille. Bon chance, then, to Shoreditch wine bar Oranj for risking the guillotine with this festive redux – and for sneaking buttery slabs of brie into the hammy mix. If I had a grumble, the mildness of the chutney lingers too far in the background, like a boulevardier sneaking in a doorway Gauloise. Still, it's a fresh and filling skew on a classic. Vive la différence!

£9

A concoction of brie, cranberry sauce and some inconspicuous bits of rocket is an easy bet for veggie Christmas sandwiches. Orée’s take is only a slight stray from its year-round brie and onion chutney baguette, just in a sourdough bun and with a festive smatter of dried cranberries and pink cranberry mayo. It’s pretty tasty for what it is – the brie is satisfyingly gooey and buttery, the onion chutney brings a nice sticky, sweet tang  – but the cranberry flavour (the key Christmassy element!) doesn’t really come through. Ultimately, they’ve played it safe, but it’s minus points for creativity.

£6.40 take out/£7.60 eat in

I really, really rate this. It's the kind of generous leftover sandwich that I would aspire to make on Boxing Day – if I had access to some extremely fresh and delicious sourdough bread, and didn't have a red wine hangover. It's all Christmas classics, no filler: thick-sliced turkey, sage stuffing and cranberry sauce, with crispy bacon bits and mayo-spiked bread sauce (heavy on the cloves) adding character. This festive doorstop puts sad supermarket Christmas sandwiches to shame.

£10 (only available at the Islington branch)

Like something a stoned teen came up with, the main belly of this sandwich beast is a camembert cauli cheese, encased in Rogue Sarnies’s signature bread (basically a Neapolitan pizza base). There’s a so-called ‘cranberry hot sauce’ which is not hot, but is nice and tart, a welcome change from uber-sweet Christmas cranberry. There’s cabbage, which is nice, if a little soggy, and there’s (a bit of) green apple slaw. But I can’t claim these flavours cut through the stodge; rather they are engulfed, swallowed whole by the cheesy mass. So look: it’s a little one-dimensional. It’s cheesy sauce and bread, but if this sando has haters, I ain’t one of them.

£10