Best Sandwiches Readers’ Choice: 5 off-the-hook seafood sandwiches from food service chefs

Through FM’s Best Sandwiches competition, we strive to recognize the kind of ingenuity that leads to an iconic sandwich. When it comes to seafood sandwiches, we look to a lesson in fast food history.

It turns out we can thank the Catholic people of Cincinnati for McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich, easily one of the world’s most iconic seafood sandwiches. In 1962 McDonald’s franchise owner Lou Groen noticed he was losing hamburger sales on Fridays in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood. In those days, Roman Catholics abstained from meat on Fridays throughout the year.
After inventing the Filet-O-Fish, Groen faced off with none other than McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, who challenged the Filet-O-Fish to beat Kroc’s own “Hula Burger” (grilled pineapple with cheese on a bun). Whichever sold the most would be added to McDonald’s permanent menu. The rest is seafood sandwich history!

In this year’s Best Sandwiches competition, we found some very interesting takes on combining cool coastal flavors from all over the globe into some sassy seafood sandwiches. Here are five that shake up the status quo.

Contact Tara at [email protected]

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