Taylor Gourmet

I've heard so much about Taylor gourmet from my coworkers. We stopped by for lunch and each got our own regular-sized sandwiches. I ordered one of their seasonal ones called "Jackson" and it was phenomenal. They stuffed a ton of herb chicken salad and half an avocado into a 6-inch sandwich. I had a hard time finishing it. I'm going to definitely have to work my way down their menu.

I live in the neighborhood so I've been here a dozen or so times. It has been hit or miss, with various issues like stale bread, too much dressing, or terrible bread-to-meat ratios (see picture for reference, this was my most recent visit). I really keep wanting to give this place a chance, but it's more tempting to walk 15 minutes to the nearest subway for a better experience. I think if these guys want to survive the highly competitive restaurant environment that is Pike and Rose, they really need to start living up to the "gourmet" in their name. Fresh bread and ingredients is a must.

Taylor Gourmet is a Philly-based casual eatery known for it's Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches. The bread is trucked to DC daily. A Must Try are their "Crack Spuds". These wannabe crispy potato chunks are deep fried and served with an addictive "Cherry Pepper Aoli". Hence the word: Crack! The really should bottle that sauce. Its THAT GOOD! For those watching their waistline, they also offer great salads like the Wilson Park. You can add grilled chicken or falafal to any salad. They are also happy to customize and salad based on your dietary needs. TG also offers season specialties like the Porter sandwich with Citrus Braised Pork with charred jalapenos and apple cabbage slaw.

My friend and I got the Large Memphis Raines chicken cutlet for $14. It’s so worth the money. The picture doesn’t do it justice!!

The salads are great but my order tends to get messed up when I try to do customizations. For my order today I asked for no Parmesan crisps in my salad, which it says in my emailed receipt, but when I went to pick up my order the receipt on the bag just says NO Parmesan. Instead of leaving out the crisps and just giving me normal Parmesan, they left out the normal Parmesan and only gave me the crisps which I didn’t want. Not a huge issue but confusing that the online receipt doesn’t completely match the printed receipt from in the store.

I love the sandwiches at this chain of eateries, especially the "Ben Franklin" which is their chicken parm made with a spicy marinara and topped with sharp provolone. Their other creations are tasty and unique the likes of which you will not be able to find elsewhere. Too bad they have very few locations left, and the one at Pike & Rose closes earlier than the other eateries at 8pm.

Ordered online a roasted pork, provolone cheese and rapini sandwich, and asked for extra rapini. I also ordered some aranchini balls. The aranchini were tasty, but the sandwich needed much improvement. The bread was a white bread baguette incredibly hard, the roasted pork over-salted and over-spiced, and there were literally three pieces of rapini (remember I had asked for extra). This was a very bad copy of the heavenly roasted pork and rapini sandwiches you can have at the Reading Market in Philadelphia, but maybe that was not the intention? The sandwich and the aranchini were delivered courtesy of Uber Eats, who added more service fees that the Florida Turnpike (it's a Florida joke). This place is supposed to be really good, but my experience was really not. They are getting two stars, and that's for just for the aranchini, which were decent.

The chicken salad sandwich and the hoagie roll they use for their sandwiches are just -chefs kiss-. Also ordered a side of their arancini with cranberry sauce for dipping. So tasty! Have to be some of the best sandwiches in the area.