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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Max Halley

‘The smell of truffle is genuinely glamorous’: the best Christmas sandwiches in 2025

Max tries the Pret Butternut Chestnut Stuffing and Pistachio sandwich. Christmas sandwich test by Max Halley of Max's Sandwich Shop in Crouch Hill, north London. 5 November 2025
Max tries the Pret butternut chestnut stuffing and pistachio sandwich. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

As the owner of a sandwich shop, I was delighted when the Filter asked me to taste and rate the best high-street Christmas sandwiches. I’ve been making sandwiches professionally for 11 years and (of course) at home for much longer. In my shop – Max’s Sandwich Shop in north London – we have a sandwich mantra: hot v cold, sweet v sour, crunchy v soft. The presence of these three core contrasts is, I believe, the key to a great sandwich. Also, I have a liberal attitude to mayonnaise.

To test Christmas sandwiches, I got stuck in – trying each one thoroughly rather than taking just one bite. It would be a tall order to expect a factory-made supermarket sandwich to perfect the contrasts laid out in my sandwich mantra, but I did look for them to be created with contrasts in mind.

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