The Mortadella Sandwich from La Rosa, a new gelato and sandwich shop from the team behind Mimo, is photographed in Houston, Saturday, April 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
The craze over mortadella — “Italian baloney,” if you will — is one I can get behind.
It’s everywhere. Dressed up on pizzas, stuffed into pastas and most of all, layered in between countless types of bread.
Italian sandwiches bulging with mortadella have been around far longer than anything that goes viral on social media for a hot minute. The pork, finely minced into a paste before it’s steamed, is speckled with fat and often with pistachios. The best versions I’ve tasted have a pleasing, silky texture and just enough saltiness.
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In 2026, the allure of mortadella in Italian sandwiches is at its peak. Maybe it’s the Millennial pink hue of the ham. Or that we love sandwiches even more in this economy. The artfully layered sandwiches, from hoagies to grinders, also seem tailored for TikTok or Instagram stardom.
For this review, I visited three different restaurants: a darling of social media with lines out the door, a sandwich and gelato shop from the owners of an Italian restaurant in the East End, and a restaurant by a chef with a fine-dining background.
I considered the bread, cheese, garnishes and price point, but in the end, it’s how the sandwiches showed off the mortadella that mattered most.
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Cotto e Crudo
No stars | 4340 Westheimer (#150) | cottoecrudoenoteca.com
The Nonna, a mortadella sandwich, from Cotto e Crudo.
Bao Ong / Houston Chronicle
This casual River Oaks-area restaurant opened about a year ago, but social media buzz keeps the dining room packed with new and repeat customers, especially during lunch hours.
On TikTok alone, you can scroll through pages garnering hundreds of thousands of views. Even when there’s a long line, often with someone filming their own content, the service has always been efficient and friendly. On both of my visits, our food arrived about five minutes after we placed our order.
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The menu features 10 sandwiches, all made in the panuozzo style. It’s the same dough used for the pizzas (or the smaller, oblong-shaped pies called pinsas) at Cotto e Crudo, which means “cooked and cured,” according to the restaurant’s website.
While I tasted a variety of sandwiches, the mortadella-filled Nonna was the only one I sampled more than once. It also happens to be one of the top-selling sandwiches at the restaurant.
On my first visit, I thought the sandwich was a calzone. There was more bread than filling. Hidden inside was thinly shaved mortadella, stracciatella cheese, pistachio cream and grilled zucchini. The baby gem lettuce listed on the menu was missing (it was included on a second visit).
A missing ingredient isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for me, but at $18 per sandwich, I expected more. The sandwich looked like what a high school student working a summer job slopped together.
The Nonna isn’t overflowing with mortadella like the other two restaurants I visited, but this would’ve been fine if the bread had been at least crisp on the outside. I imagine the athleisure-clad influencers tapping their manicured nails on the panuozzo worked extra hard for that soothing ASMR.
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I asked the restaurant’s marketing person about the chef behind the sandwiches and was told over email that “we do not wish to disclose the names of our ownership team or culinary director.”
La Rosa
★★ | 724 Telephone | larosahtx.com
The mortadella panino at La Rosa, including the rosetta (left) and telera versions restaurant critic Bao Ong sampled.
Bao Ong / Houston Chronicle
Mike Sammons, a wine pro and co-owner of Italian restaurant Mimo with chef Fernando Rios, described this charming East End sandwich-and-gelato shop in the Tlaquepaque Market as the fulfillment of a dream that began nearly two decades ago.
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He visited Italy as a college student shortly after a car accident. Sammons had only planned to stay a few months, but quickly became an Italophile and ended up living and working throughout Italy for a few years.
It was at I Fratellini, a closet-sized shop open since 1875, that Sammons discovered the allure of a simple sandwich made with just a few quality ingredients.
La Rosa, which opened in April, is located in Houston’s East End.
Raquel Natalicchio / Houston Chronicle
La Rosa, which opened in late April, feels like a love letter to those memories. The painted pink roses on the lipstick red walls serve as the backdrop for the menu, artwork and mirrors in a space that’s not much larger than I Fratellini.
The menu is smaller, however, with only three sandwiches and a selection of gelato from Sweet Cup. There’s a rotating special highlighted alongside the mortadella and formaggio, a vegetarian-friendly sandwich which swaps out the meat for a corn-and-zucchini fritter.
This mortadella sandwich stood out among the three restaurants I visited because of the intention behind the sourcing of each ingredient and its role in the dish.
Each loaf of bread is toasted before the top half is drizzled with a smidge of olive oil. The bottom half is dusted with crushed pistachio. Four ounces of mortadella — I tried counting the layers but lost track after 20 — anchors the sandwich before fior di latte (a silky mozzarella), pesto and arugula top it off. There’s a dusting of blood orange zest as well.
Sammons and Rios have been tinkering with the bread. I preferred the heartier rosetta, which was used during my first visit, over the current telera from El Bolillo because I felt like the former provided more structure and contrasting texture to the sandwich.
The telera at times barely holds everything together after a few bites. But Sammons said the Mexican bread is more similar in simplicity and texture to the ones he ate in Italy.
Regardless, you can taste the quality ingredients: the mortadella is sliced almost as thin as tissue paper, allowing just enough saltiness and fat to shine. The pistachio isn’t overpowering and fior di latte is served at the right room temperature so it oozes just so in each bite. Pepperiness from fresh arugula with the bright pesto and citrus zest rounds it out.
Your best bet is to go early because La Rosa only sells about 100 sandwiches total during weekdays and 150 on weekends.
“This was an opportunity to do it the way I wanted to do it,” Sammons said.
MORE FROM BAO ONG: Wondering where to eat in Houston? Text our restaurant critic Bao Ong for recommendations
★★ | 107 S. Third; Richmond | 281-762-0192
The Pig, a mortadella sandwich, from Truffle & Rye in Richmond.
Bao Ong / Houston Chronicle
If La Rosa is the laid-back European teenager taking a gap year traveling the world, Truffle & Rye in downtown Richmond is the ambitious hospitality graduate with a copy of iconic restaurateur Danny Meyer’s seminal “Setting the Table.”
This is no surprise, given Joey Chavez’s background, who led the kitchen at Brennan’s before leaving for the private-chef world during the pandemic. He comes from a fine-dining background and has staged at some of New York City’s leading Michelin-starred restaurants.
I’m certain the royal blue door adorned in flowers is a nod to the iconic French Laundry in Napa Valley, where Chavez trained for a year in the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group. The cans of lemonade and iced tea, and even the wrapping paper — which is held together with the ubiquitous blue tape many chefs prefer — for each sandwich is branded with the restaurant’s logo. Chavez’s wife, Kaitlyn, runs a tight ship, checking on customers, clearing tables and confirming orders with young staffers working the register.
Bagel sandwiches, avocado toast, smoothies and salads dot the menu, but I visited twice for one sandwich: the Pig, which also includes mortadella with a stracciatella cheese, and pistachio pesto.
All seven sandwiches at Truffle & Rye are served on schiacciata, a Tuscan flatbread similar to focaccia, custom-made from local bakery Artisan Bread Gallery. While a tad sweet for me, the airy texture of the cushion-like bread didn’t get soggy and still provided a crispness to each bite.
Like La Rosa, the Pig also includes four ounces of mortadella, Chavez said, but the combo of meat and cheese didn’t appear as generous. It’s still a hefty sandwich, however, which you can enjoy indoors or outdoors, surrounded by fig and peach trees.
If Richmond is too far for you, Chavez said he has plans to open along Post Oak.
Cotto e Crudo, 4340 Westheimer (#150), cottoecrudoenoteca.com
No stars
Hours: 7 a.m.-9 p.m. daily
Prices: $18 for the Nonna; other sandwiches are $15-$19
Reservations: None
Noise level: Moderate to loud, depending on time of day
Parking: Free garage parking and limited street parking
La Rosa, 724 Telephone, larosahtx.com
2 stars
Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday (until sold out for sandwiches and gelato is served until 8 p.m.)
Prices: $18
Reservations: None
What to order: Mortadella
Noise level: Quiet to moderate
Parking: Free parking in lot
Truffle & Rye, 107 S. Third (Richmond), 281-762-0192, truffleandrye.com
2 stars
Hours: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, closed Sundays
Prices: $19
Reservations: None
What to order: The Pig
Noise level: Quiet to moderate
Parking: Free parking on street
STAR RATINGS
Four stars: Superlative; can hold its own on a national stage.
Three stars: Excellent; one of the best restaurants in the city.
Two stars: Very good; one of the best restaurants of its kind.
One star: A good restaurant that we recommend.
No stars: Restaurant cannot be recommended at this time.