London’s best Christmas sandwiches 2023

£5.50

Gail’s never fails. This sweet-savoury mash-up takes all the best bits from Christmas lunch (and also pudding and then also the cheese course) to create a thrillingly creative vegetarian Christmas croissant. Leeks, cranberries and a surprising amount of red cabbage are nestled deep within its flaky folds, but it doesn’t stop there, with a hunk of pneumatic Baron Bigod brie popped on the top. Let us not forget the a sizable smattering of toasted pecans and an artfully painted sweep of honey along the croissant’s crust. So good that I honestly want to eat one every day until my stomach explodes in the Highgate branch of Gail’s on Christmas Eve.  

£12, plus £2 for gravy 

These Borough Market-based sandwich slingers have outdone themselves with a slow roasted pork-packed behemoth. Alongside the perfect pork there’s smoked turkey, crunchy pecan, sage and shallot crumble, cranberry sauce, confit leek mayonnaise, and a sidecar of roast chicken gravy for dipping purposes. The best bit? Ribbons of braised red cabbage dank with the honking, festive musk of cloves. Nothing less than an utter beast.

£4.95

Bacon? Come in. Sausages? Sit down, me casa es tu casa. We're all friends here. And with this, the festive effort from coffee shop also-rans Caffe Nero, we have a real bolt from the blue. Is it the most Christmassy thing in the world? No. But Tom Davies doesn't look like a defensive midfielder, yet he made 155 appearances for Everton and became an integral part of their defensive play. It tastes a bit of Christmas, but it's mainly just a good, meaty sandwich. A hangover buster that does not throttle, but instead tickles your festive feelers.

£6.49

We all know KFC chicken is good, but what about its Christmas sandwich? Picture a KFC fillet burger, with a hunk of their signature crispy chicken, topped with mayo, cheese, and a tangy cranberry sauce. What’s festive about that? Well, aside from the cranberry, duh, it also comes with a disc of deep-fried stuffing. The stuffing was a little stodgy, mainly tasting of non-descript herbs, but it was pretty exciting to have something different from a boring dry turkey sandwich. I’d call that a treat!

£16

Let’s get one thing straight: this pricey Chrimbo sando is literally bread filled with potatoes. There’s not an ounce of protein to be seen (unless blobs of salmon roe count), and the whole thing is covered with a monster scoop of sour cream, and some spring onions. That’s it. But If you put delicious things together, it will be delicious. Pillowy soft pita is the vehicle for something delightfully salty, buttery and comforting, which tastes a bit like a Christmas Day blini, but probably more like Boxing Day bubble & squeak. Apparently it’s meant to be paired with a glass of champagne, which would have cut through it perfectly. But some of us have work to do.

£5.99

Turkey isn’t the moistest of meats, which means Christmas sarnies tend to be so crammed with lubricating sauces that they turn horrifyingly limp, or are so desperately dry that they constitute a choking hazard. Pret has managed to avoid these festive pitfalls by opting for a crusty white baguette that’s sturdy enough to maintain structural integrity despite a generous lick of mayonnaise and a decent drizzle of cranberry goo. Can I detect any hint of booze in the advertised ‘port and cranberry’ sauce? No. Could there be a slightly better filling-to-bread ratio? Without a doubt. But with a nicely-balanced hint of sage from the stuffing and some welcome textural variety from the crispy onions, this is still a very decent effort from London’s go-to lunch-wranglers.

£6.95

Everyone is hopping on the Christmas sandwich train – even bagels. The guys at B Bagel are having a pretty good go at it, with this tasty interpretation of a classic Christmas dinner. The bagel itself is perfect: shiny, chewy and showing no sign of sogginess. Generous slices of turkey (the good kind) are laid over stodgy stuffing with a splodge of treacle-like cranberry sauce and the occasional piece of squash. It’s almost there, but it’s definitely missing something sharp and pickle-y to cut through all that meat and sweet.

£3.95

As I bite through the ultra-processed-looking (and feeling) rye bread, it doesn't immediately evoke festive thoughts. But when I go back and read the packet I realise it's actually a German Christmas Market I can taste! Then it all makes sense. Sausage? No, that's currywurst. Those wet onions? Actually sauerkraut. It's tangy, it's creamy and most of all, it’s soft. Your gran will have no trouble gnashing her way through this.

£7.99

A decent wrap is all about balance: something crunchy, something sweet, a good bit of chew and a generous amount of whatever the yummy ingredient is stuffed down the middle. So, how does Leon’s Festive Feast stack up? The stuffing balls and bacon make an immediate impression, backed up by just the right amount of crispy onion crunch. But I needed more cranberry sauce to cut through the heavy slick of gravy and give the whole thing a lift. Is it worth £7.99? Not quite, but it’s still a satisfying bite.

£6.25

This sandwich was a gooey pairing of melted brie and sticky fig chutney generously oozing out of some chewy ciabatta. The brie’s earthy tang comes through brilliantly yet still allows the caramelly relish to shine — the ratio is nigh-on perfect. But this sarnie’s downfall was its super gloopy mono-texture. It could really use a bit of extra oomph from some kind of (plant-based) salty crunch. There are a few soggy, wrinkled spinach leaves thrown in, but they add absolutely nothing.

£2.69

The classic 1970s prawn cocktail seems to have made a festive resurgence, but I don’t think I’m here for it. Don’t get me wrong, this sandwich was decent – there were a fair few prawns, the bloomer was soft, and the Marie Rose dressing was thick enough not to completely saturate it. But, a cold filling and lightweight bread? I can’t say hand on heart that Aldi has satisfied my craving for a seasonal sarnie. Sadly, this one just wasn’t giving Christmas.

£3

There’s a strong ‘Boxing Day leftovers’ vibe to this one. I know Christmas food isn’t supposed to be healthy, but this feels particularly sweat-inducing: there are literally no vegetables, just meat, fruit and white bread. The gravy mayo works surprisingly well, possibly because it’s not actually that gravy-like, but the chutney could definitely use an extra hit of acid. To be totally fair, I didn’t hate eating it. But much like Christmas dinner itself, I don’t need more than one of these a year.

£3.50

First things first. Why are all of the major supermarkets pushing butternut squash at the moment? It’s infiltrated every vegan Christmas sandwich on the market. The problem with this is when it’s cold, it just becomes wet and mushy. What the Waitrose sarnie does well is attempt to offset this with pickled red cabbage and fried onions. However, it really could use another dollop of chilli relish to stop it from feeling too stodgy (the potato, savoy cabbage and parsnip pieces don't help). I can see it being a decent, if a little dense, stomach filler after a night of too many mulled wines.

£7.99

Almost no Christmas Vibe whatsoever. Assortments of mystery meat melded together with claggy, wet brie and slimy onion. Perfect if it were served out of a burger van outside of a football stadium on Boxing Day. That said, I've scoffed it down in two minutes flat and gone back for seconds. But hey, that's Subway for you!

£4.95

If you're a vegan at Christmas, the UK's sandwich-mongers have collectively decided that the roasted root vegetable is your own personal (baby) Jesus. So Costa's toastie is a welcome break from all the butternut squash. But did it leave me singing hallelujahs? Christ no. Flabby white bread with imitation grill marks, a skimpy layer of mystery fake meat within, and only the merest dab of cranberry sauce to relieve the salty blandness. The wait for sandwich salvation continues.