Philippe The Original in LA

Near Union Station in LA, this 100+ year old deli has a limited menu and sawdust sprinkled on the floor. It's full of locals, especially FiDi workers on their lunch. Who needs food trucks when you can walk around the corner or catch the DASH to this eatery. Quick service and reasonable prices make it that much more welcoming. We popped in here to get some eats to go for the road trip back home to SF.

The menu looks big, but there are only 6 kinds of sandwiches.

To Go! Ready Set Choose! Prepared foods mean fast lines.

Counter workers wear a nice blue waitressing outfit.

Fun for the family or fuel to get through the day.

Quiet and unassuming, this corner space looks deceivingly small.

For our to go meal, we both chose the lamb sandwich. (We love those little sheep!) It was delish and had weathered the trip fairly well once we got the chance to sit down and eat. The bread on one end was soft and had absorbed much of the juices, but the taste was great. The portion of lamb was quite generous and well worth the price of $8 for a sandwich alone.

On the side we got pickled beets (but no one beats Angela's Mom at making pickled beets, though perhaps it was the way she grew them, Then pickled them...) which were good, but could have had a bit more sweet/savory contrast. The potato salad was very basic, not outstanding, but decent. The brownie had good chocolate chunks, but was a bit dry. Minus points for styrofoam containers. Surely LA has passed laws against that by now? However, overall this was a fun experience and if we were near Union Station again in the future we would happily take time to run our feet through the sawdust and munch down a lamb sandwich for our meal.