Gambino's New York Subs in San Francisco, California: A Restaurant Review

I guess Subway is the clear choice if you want a large, decent sub at a budget price, and there's certainly plenty of Subway locations nearby wherever you happen to be at in San Francisco. Subway just can't give you what you want when you crave a huge, meaty, greasy, dripping, behemoth of a sub. That sort of thing is much harder to find in wussy San Francisco, especially at a reasonable price.

Gambino's New York Subs doesn't make the absolute best of these kinds of subs, but bless their hearts for just being here and getting close enough to fulfill the cravings. And they even do it at an OK price point despite being in one of the costliest areas of the city.

On the menu, the main point of interest here is the cheese steaks and hot subs. They've got a regular cheese steak, a chicken cheese steak, a veggie cheese steak (composed of portabello mushroom and eggplant), sausage with onions and peppers, the Ultimate Cheeseburger (burger with Worcestershire sauce), meatball parmesan, baked eggplant parmesan, Sicilia roasted chicken, chicken teriyaki, pastrami and swiss, and La Vedura (basically the veggie with marinara sauce added at no extra charge.) The price range on all these hot subs is $7 to $7.25, but they are huge and good enough to justify it, especially when you are in the throes of a "big nasty sub" craving. Those of you who know what I mean, know what I mean. For those who don't, sorry, there's plenty of tofu and yogurt around at other places. Gambino's also has three hot dinner plates on the menu served at a similar price ($7.25), but with the bonus of a Side Mista Salad to replace the bread you are losing. These are the meatballs with marinara and cheese, baked eggplant parmesan and sausage with onions and peppers.

Cold subs can be had with either a soft sub roll or an Italian hard roll, in either East or West Coast style. Both varieties have lettuce, onions and tomato, but they differ from there. East Coast means you get olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, while West Coast gets you mayo, mustard and pickles. The cold subs range from $6 to $7, with the $7 ones being combinations of meats. You can get ham, turkey, roast beef, mortadella, salami, cappicola, coppa, prosciutto and pepperoni, all standard with cheese and fired through the toaster oven for free if you like.

There's also a limited selection of breakfast - sandwiches or bagels can be made with egg, cheese, sausage and ham, or just butter and cream cheese on a bagel. There's also a generic selection of coffees.

Over on the East Coast or in a city with more unhealthy culinary sensibilities, this would probably be more of a generic joint. Here, though, it's like a godsend. This is about the only restaurant I can think of off of the top of my head that I will make a special trip into the Financial District or Embarcadero area for. Thanks for filling the big sammich need, Gambino's.