Darby Dan's Sandwiches — Restaurant in South San Francisco

Ordered for a party, my brother mentioned this place was known for their Dutch crunch roll, but they sold out at 11am on a Saturday. So we decided to go for sourdough bread on all our sandwiches, which was a huge mistake. The insides of the sandwich were fine (nothing special, but also not bad) but the bread was tough to chew, and the party we got the sandwiches for threw most of the bread away while trying to eat just the insides. I had high hopes for this place, and personally grabbed a sleeper, which was alright except for the bread... The ratio of the sourdough to fixings was 50/50, which is pretty much like one of those sandwiches you could grab from safeway for way cheaper. We literally chose this place over Ike's, but after the quality of bread, we definitely regretted it. I looked it up afterwards and this place is apparently some institution of sandwiches, but specifically for seafood sandwiches. Great, maybe I'll give it another shot, but if you're a sandwich institution and I have to pull the bread away from my face like a piece of jerky, I'm not sure how to enjoy any sandwich from that place. I'm sure this place is good, but if I never looked up any reviews after my first experience, I would never come back here. I'll give it another shot, but after sampling 4 of their sandwiches on the toughest sourdough bread ever, it's hard to say when...

My all time favorite sandwhich. The best in the west so just forget the rest. No rolls for me....gimme that sliced sourdough toasted with turkey and hot salami. Hold that mustard and get garlic mayo on both sides. Or roast beef with swiss oOOh yeee. If I could have one last sandwhich on earth it's gotta be darby with their jalapeño spread too it's the epitome of sandwiches. Little lucca is more like a safeway hoagie style. Nothing special but it's big and you can eat one for breakfast lunch and dinner. Pesto sauce? Man taste like store bought weaksauce. Almost nothing can touch darby, although I like me some roxies or sub station off west portal from time to time. I always find myself at darbys 4 or 5 times a month. That's once or twice a week! They should start giving out some punch...

I have gone here for decades, but to tell you the truth the staff has always come across as grizzled and less friendly towards those they don't recognize as regulars. The friendliness meter is probably 5 out of 10 if you're not from the immediate area. South San Francisco is a smaller town and because their work population lives primarily in other suburbs, maybe that's why there's that disconnect. My dad used to work at SFO and a lot of the maintenance workers patronize this establishment. But as far back as the 1990s, I've encountered less than super friendly service from the counter staff. The current staff that's been there for the last few years seem friendlier than the old guard from two decades ago..But I give them two stars because they cut back their hours and...