Friends Of Carmela

L Leah Krafft 4 reviews 21 July 2026

Great spot! Sandwiches were amazing and the staff were super friendly. Wasn’t super crowded which was surprising. Grabbed a sandwich and ate it across the street over looking the water - perfect lunch!

I Iamthat1 10 reviews 16 July 2026

Friends of Carmela is the hidden gem of Pikes Place. If you're looking for old school Italian cooking, look no further. The Arancini are to die for and tased like my mother use to make them. Let's not forget the Ragu sauce. Soon as I opened the lid and smelt it, I knew it was old school like my dad's and tated just like it. They were so great that I was thinking about them during my whole walk through Pike's Place. I went back and picked up another half dozen. The whipped ricotta on the cold cut and the chicken cutlet sandwiches was that extra touch to already phenomenal sandwiches. Even though I lived about an hour and a half away, I will definitely be making a trip up there just to get the Arancini's and Ragu sauce. It would be definitely worth the trip. Don't listen to the negative reviews, they truly don't know East Coast sandwiches.

E Ella 12 reviews · Local Guide 11 July 2026

The sandwiches were good, I got a #5 and unfortunately the bread was rock solid and hard to chew, probably because they do not make the sandwiches fresh and they sit in a case for a while. Other than that it’s a very cute restaurant and they have tons of options for salads and other food items beyond sandwiches.

G Greg Alger 9 reviews · Local Guide 22 June 2026

Edited to add: the owner Kika responded right away and addressed my concern. I appreciate a business owner being responsive versus just brushing this aside, which could have been easily done with us just passing through for the day. I've learned the bread is made fresh and may not be to everyone's liking, so just a matter of personal taste. Meh, just okay, unfortunately really wanted to love it but disappointed. We're in town for one day and were looking for a sandwich shop to pick up dinner to bring back to the hotel to eat later so we could rest after a long travel day. We checked reviews and this place was well reviewed and we were already at the market so popped across the street to get sandwiches. The variety is very good and the components of the sandwiches are creative and unique, however, there's a huge but to this, the bread is absolutely atrocious. We got four different sandwiches so there were a variety of breads, all of which were hard, stale, very chewy and really ruined the sandwiches. I'm not sure if all of the breads were just very old and we picked the wrong day to visit or if this is by choice, but it really detracted from the overall anticipation of experiencing a great deli sandwich. Luckily we had eaten lunch at another well reviewed restaurant a few doors down so all was not lost. Had we been local I definitely would have returned and asked for a refund to get something else for our dinner.

D Dennis “Fabe” Faber 409 reviews · Local Guide 4 June 2026

My wife's favorite changed names with help from some Pike Place vendors we was able to find you guys!! And how we were pleased that not much had changed!! We will be back Friends!!!