The Sentinel

The Place: The Sentinel
37 NEW MONTGOMERY ST (AT STEVENSON ALLEY)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94105
http://www.thesentinelsf.com/

The Order: CORNED BEEF with cabbage, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese

The Review: Another Financial district trip leads me to The Sentinel. Rave reviews online, and on the 100 things to try in San Francisco by 7x7 magazine http://www.7x7.com/eat-drink/2010-big-eat-sf-100-things-try-you-die. I was looking forward to this on my walk over.
For the first time in a few days we got some dry weather (even though it is JUNE!) So I took the stroll over to New Montgomery. As I approached The Sentinel I was surprised to see how small it was. It looked like just the corner of The House of Shields. As I got to the front door I realized that it was just the corner, but has a great look. This is a sandwich counter. Very cool, very fun to order from.

 I asked the young lady if I wanted to spicy pork, or the corned beef. She said if it was my first time, I should get the corned beef, another worker there quickly agreed. At the time I did not know that this was on the 7x7 list, but the staffs confidence had me excited! I ordered and was quickly called to pick up my sandwich.
When I got back to work to eat I opened the box and was hopeful. A good amount of corned beef, tucked between nice fresh foccacia with cole slaw and russian dressing. It was like a Ruben with cole slaw instead of sauerkraut. With my first bite I was pleased with the foccacia. Very fresh, I would say made in house and nice. Then the cole slaw with a nice crunch, and Russian dressing kicked in...and then....then....nothing. The corned beef was dry and bland, the Swiss almost nonexistent! I took another bite, same thing! I was very disappointed. A vegetarian may want to go here for a cole slaw sandwich on some good foccacia, but I was not impressed! Apparently the owner is a fairly famous chef, but this sandwich did nothing for me...in fact it angered me because I paid $9 for it! I do have to give points for my favorite part of the meal though:

It came with an Andes mint...and I love me some Andes mints! So for finish, this place has a great look, and is owned by a famous Chef, but give me a good sandwich from a liquor store and give me chips and a drink for my $9!