Big Tummy Submarine Sandwiches

This restaurant is owned by a very nice Persian guy who provides delicious food at a very reasonable price. Definitely worth checking out if you like subs or Persian food

Great Kabob sandwiches! This is the place if u want something out of the ordinary, beef luleh kabob sandwich is my personal recommendation!

Just had lunch here. Delicious beef kabob sandwich, fresh made, very fast service. Friendly owner. Simple atmosphere, the menu has good options, well priced for the size of the sandwiches. Will be back here for sure soon.

Sorry to give this joint such a low rating, but is it even in business anymore? I’ve come by three times – weekdays, weekends, lunch time, late afternoon and it’s never been open. Also called the phone number several times, but no answer. Harumph.

This is straight up one of the best lunch places in the city. I’ve been here a million times and it never disappoints. Everything is fresh, made to order, and DELICIOUS! I wish more people posted pictures of the food. I just want to look at it. I can’t wait to eat here again. Once you do, you’ll never be able to eat at Subway ever again. Why eat that cardboard when you can go to Big Tummy!!!
Also, the low-​key décor is incredibly charming and the owner is a genuine sweetheart. Eating here is just like eating at your best friend’s house. I would recommend this place to anyone. 10 stars.
P. S. My mouth is watering just thinking about this place.

Much faster service than the nearby subway! Plus the sandwich choices are far more varied. If your not in the mood for a sandwich try a kabob plate.
The owner also the cook self runs the place and has decorated the walls with sports décor. This is one of my favorite sub places in the area.

Warm beef kabob sandwich is super filling & delicious! Made fresh, with beef kabob meat, lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, and tasty goodness!

Great sandwiches, great cook! One of the better sub sandwiches in Los Angeles. Reasonable pricing too!
Pepper steak is the favorite but the cold sandwiches are also good. Good selection of beers/​soda as well.
Don’t forget the throwback sports memorabilia.

A real hole in the wall joint. Only reason I found this place was because I worked a block away back in 95. Been coming here ever since for the pepper steak sandwich. Everyone I have introduced to this place all agree, cannot find a better pepper steak sandwich in Los Angeles.
By the way, this place serves bottled beer.

I’ve been there everyday this week for only one thing: the pepper steak.

We’ve been going here for years. You would never think to stop and eat here, but do! We call it the one man show, because that’s literally what the owner is. He is friendly and always gets the orders right. His cheese steak sandwich is best!!! At first you think oh it won’t be that good here (based on appearance), but then you bite in to your food and it’s like POW!!! So much flavor, the food is clean and crisp. His kabob plates are also phenomenal. Will always recommend to go here. It’s not noisy at all, even being on the main street and super kid friendly.

I literally work walking distance from this place and no, not at the porn shop… lol. Anyways, I’ve tried their chicken kebob plate and it was super bland at a price of almost $ 12. Totally not worth it. But one day, I decided to order the turkey and cheese sandwich and it was pretty good. He loads the sandwich with deli sliced turkey breast, pickles, cheese and lettuce. It’s pretty big for only $ 7 and if you’re a fat ass like me, the foot long is the way to go. I give this place 3 stars because the owner is pretty rude when taking phone orders and the service is pretty lousy. The décor is awesome though. He has posters from the 80’s that look like they’ve been on the walls since then!

Big Tummy is located on San Fernando Road, in an industrial section, between the LAPD Northeast station and the Romantix Boutique (yea, a porn shop). As others have said, the décor is «interesting», the place is huge, and it was pretty empty when we went there, right in the middle of lunch hour.
The «regular» size sandwiches are big enough to share if you’re not a serious eater, and the ingredients are fresh and tasty. I asked the guy how long he’d been there, and he told me «30 years», so he must be doing something right…
Worth checking out if you’re in the area.

have only eaten here once so can’t give five stars, but the pepper steak sandwich was a five star sandwich. like others said service is lax, but what do you expect with only one guy cooking and serving. definitely would recommend.

Places like this give sandwiches a bad name. The food is boring and tastes bland. I usually like little blue collar sandwich shops but this place isn’t good at all.

This is my new favorite sandwich place in Los Angeles. The peppersteak sandwich is so good I can’t get myself to order anything else. The life size Brian Bosworth poster on the Wall (among others) makes it that much better. Big Tummy FTW!

I was in the area last weekend, and found myself to be quite hungry for a sandwich. This little place looked quick enough.
The first thing I noticed was that they used a schizophrenic from the late 70’s to decorate and furnish the place.
The second thing I noticed is that the man behind the counter was a dead ringer for Doc Brown from Back To The Future, complete with the long, wild, gray hair. I half expected the solitary customer to turn around and be Marty McFly, but alas it was not.
I looked at sandwich board, and aside from the slightly high prices and humorous spelling issues nothing caught my interest much, but then I noticed the «specials» on the side, including Persian Koobideh sandwiches. I ordered one of these, and grabbed a Persian salted Mint Yogurt drink from the haphazard drink cooler. The sandwich was 7 – 8 dollars, the drink just under 2, I escaped for a few pennies over $ 10.
After I placed my order and looked around a bit, I noticed a few things which made me wonder if this was a good idea:
— Everything looked smudged and dirty
— Loaves of bread were sitting uncovered in plastic baskets on the dirty floor behind the counter
— They have a B rating, with an additional warning about food-​born illnesses. You really have to work at getting that.
So now, I am waiting for the food to be ready, my stomach in knots with the anticipation of possible destruction after eating this meal. Doc was friendly and conversational, cracking a few jokes, asking me if I wanted my sandwich wet or dry («whatever you think is best»).
When the sandwich was ready, I took it back to my truck, hoping that if I did get revenged upon by some distant Persian cousin of Montezuma that it would wait until I had completed my 60 mile drive home. I opened up the bag and unwrapped what had to be a 2 pound sandwich. It was huge. I took the first bite tentatively. The bread was perfect — lightly toasted on the outside, lightly chewy on the inside, with a great flavor. The veggies were all clearly fresh and crisp. The koobideh was flavorful, tender, and juicy. Dressing kept everything moist and tangy. All-​in-​all — it was great! I ended up eating the whole thing. The only stomach issues I got from it was that I was extremely full from all that food for the rest of the day.
I am almost never up in this area, so I doubt I will return, but if I do I am coming back. Great service, great food, and you get what is essentially double portions for about 10% more than you would expect for a single portion meal of the same quality. If you live nearby, check it out. Bring your DeLorean. Doc might be able to look at your Flux Capacitor.
Service: 5 Stars
Prices: 2.5 Stars
Food (Flavor): 4.5 stars
Food (Portions): 5 stars
Décor: 5 stars if you have a sense of humor, 1 if you don’t
Overall: 10.2 jigastars
I would give this place 5 stars, but that B rating scares me too much, even if I was lucky enough to be spared.

WOW… this place is celebrating their 28^th Year Anniversary, how come it’s only been reviewed a couple of times… www.yelp.com/biz_photos/O1­RLWg3BQV21O56EX0XaQQ?select=_eRDsPd2xUprAShB1qGhBA
Located in an industrial strip complex on San Fernando rd where Los Angeles meets Glendale, you know in between the 24 hour Porn Shop and the Police station ha, ha, ha No lie…
I’ll admit I’ve driven by this place for years but have never stopped to eat, Hmmm you think others are doing the same and that’s why nobody’s Unilocaling this place?, well today I did…
I stopped in a little before Lunch time and was the only one there, so I’m looking at the menu and trying to figure this place out, they have a good variety of Hot and Cold subs with your traditional deli meats but they also have Armenian or what ever La La La Laaaaaa it is… www​.youtube​.com/​w​a​t​c​h​?​v​=​z​n​f​_​n​q​W8IZ8, so I choose the Beef Lula Kabob Sub Sandwich
This is a dark old funky decorated place and while waiting for my sandwich to me made
I laughed and smiled at all the old outdated and funky posters posted all over the walls
, it does not bother me I’m looking for 5-​Star food not ambiance!
The Beef Lula Kabob Sub was WONDERFUL… enough said!
5-​Stars and in between my Tacos I’ll be back… and you guys should give it a try!

I was feeling kind of blah the other day while tootling around in my car running errands. I was super hungry having skipped breakfast in leu of espresso, so I set my trusty navi system to seek out the closest restaurants.
I began to scroll through a long list of predictable names interspersed with places that just didn’t sound exciting, BUT THEN — «Big Tummy Subway Sandwiches» comes up and it’s less than two miles away. Huzzah! I had been wanting to try this place ever since first passing by their cartoonish red lettered sign years ago. I could feel the smile widening across my face. This place sounded like an adventure, and it did not disappoint.
You’ll find Big Tummy exactly where it’s been for the last twenty eight years; on a stretch of San Fernando road between a 24 hour sex shop and the LAPD NE Division station, nestled inside of a battered stucco building on an undersized asphalt lot in a small industrial business complex.
I pulled my car into the lot, got out and walked over to the entrance a bit trepidatiously. At first I wondered if there was only a sign and no sandwich shop at all. The Big Tummy marque hangs askew of the double swung glass entry doors, tricking you into walkiing towards the window. Once you get to the entry you’ll see a large 25^th anniversary banner spread across the wall behind the doors. I thought I was about to enter an Elks lodge or a Legionnaires hall but as I continued past the sign, the place opened up into a large brightly sunlit room.
A 15 foot ceiling traversed overhead resplendent with wagon wheel chandeliers holding hour glass shaped lanterns — these architectural thrift store «gems» draped from chains and hovered sanctimoniously over several dark formica tables. Monolithic refrigerated coolers filled with soda and five types of beer stalked both sides of the red and white checkered floor — the constant humming and buzzing of their compressors vibrated the bottles rapidly against each other forming a high pitched note subtly audible over the talking television resting on a dusty cabinet in the corner.
«This place is cool!» I thought, and ran back to my car to grab the laptop and the camera.
When I returned there were a couple of people ahead of me, both of whom ordered the large peppersteak sub. Taking the hint I approached the counter letting my eyes glance off the crowded rack of various cookies and snacks, the 1970’s cash register, the scrabbly menu board and the cluttered food preparation area. I waited and waited and was promptly ignored by one of the two employees who’s apparent job it was to clean up the tables, take out the trash, float around the kitchen, and ignore the people waiting at the counter.
Quite a character was this gentleman who was giving me active glares. I would describe him as an Asian version of famed hollywood mogul Swifty Lazar, replete with a bald head and a set of thick rimmed glasses. He walked with a limp and emanated a creepy Peter Lorrey vibe. I wasn’t sure what I did to earn his blatant suspicion. Could it be my laptop and camera? I certainly looked like a lost tourist in the wrong part of town. But luckily to my rescue came the grey mustachioed Armenian owner galloping up from the back of the long kitchen with his cowboy hat and neck bandana. He kindly took my order and I had a seat.
Not long after I sat down, the cowboy and Swifty began a loud war of words from the back of the kitchen about what I paranoidly assumed was an argument over ME. Swifty was getting chewed out for not taking my order! I immediately pulled out my notepad and camera and started to document. The argument simmered down and I continued to wait.
As I waited, a large Magic Johnson poster surely hanging there since the 80’s Lakers glory days kept me good company. Magic was scooping in a sure two pointer, face concentrating intently on the basket laying just outside the frame of the poster. As I recalled watching his final shot as a player back in the day, my order was called.
I decided to talk to The Cowboy.
Me: Man, that sandwich looks great!
Cowboy: Yeah, yeah.
Me: How long have you been here? I’ve passed by here dozens of times.
Cowboy: Why didn’t you come in then?
Pause (me trying to think of a good answer)
Cowboy: Why did you come in TODAY? See all the trouble you caused me?!
Then we both started laughing.
I picked up the sandwich and sat down.
At this point, the universe and the sandwich became one. The steak was chopped and warm and tender. The flavor was robust and suggestive of middle eastern spices. The plain white bun was toasted to crispy perfection. On top of the meat was a blanket of shredded lettuce, chopped onion, chopped tomato, and a few chopped pieces of sweet spicy pickle. Finally, a perfect rustic mustard anchored the whole thing together.
Afterwards, I thoroughly cleaned up my mess in hopes of earning the good graces of Mr. Lazar. After all, I will be back.
See pics!

a menu made on mac paint. no, really.
one window to light the whole restaurant.
lighting fixtures that look stolen from a shaky’s pizzeria circa 1977.
‘creative’ spellings like ‘venigar’ and ‘prepard in advance.‘
a whole wall of beer promo posters mixed in with sports posters and ‘uplifting’ posters straight out of the school nurse’s office with messages like ‘a true friend is always there’ over stock photos of a few track runners walking arm in arm.
homemade signs, one of which looked to be made on a piece of torn up formica counter, specifying ‘what’s on your sandwich’.
i could go on forever, but maybe you should go try this place. you probably won’t go back, but you’ll also never be able to say that the sandwich you got was bad.
i got the kebab sandwich and it took the guy 7 minutes of dedicated work to put it together. it came with two kinds of mustard and a pickled chili. they have other weird sandwiches too, but seriously this place must be experienced to be, um, experienced. and they have beer.