The Heat Is/Is Not On –A Review of Subway’s Buffalo Chicken Sub
By Jesse | October 15, 2009
By guest reviewer Michael from EstateSaleStories.blogspot.com
It’s hard to hate Subway. Of all fast-food franchises, Subway is probably the healthiest, able to satisfy your lunchtime Jones in a way that won’t give a cardiologist a heart attack.
And yet, that doesn’t make Subway easy to love. Despite all their different breads and fillings and sauces, there’s a disappointing sameness to their product. In the end, you didn’t eat something particularly bad, but you didn’t eat something particularly delicious or memorable, either.
The ad for their new Buffalo Chicken sub made me wonder if Subway was breaking out of their same-old same-old mold. The chicken strips were slathered in a potent-looking orange sauce, piled high on a crisp bed of lettuce and tomato, and dressed with a layer of creamy light ranch dressing that literally made my mouth water. Plus, the 6-inch Buffalo Chicken was under seven grams of fat, and a foot-long was part of their $5 menu. It seemed worth a try.
The heart of the sub is two little cardboard boats of pre-sauced chicken strips and four slices of jalapeno jack cheese on their wheat roll. Then it’s a quick trip through the toaster.
Next, the veggies fall into line. Despite telling the sandwich maker to fix my Buffalo Chicken just the way it was in the photo, she still asked me if I wanted pickles, and cucumbers, and green peppers, and what-have-you. After saying, “Just like it is in the picture” four times, she finally got the picture.
Subway has never been much for packaging, and I’m no fan of their clear bags. If you’re giving in to gluttonous impulses – adding chips and maybe even a cookie, like I sometimes do – it’s on display for everyone who passes you by.
Here’s the finished product, unpacked, unwrapped, and allowed to breath free.
The real thing is always a disappointment when compared to the idealized version, but then, what isn’t?
On a spiciness scale of 1-10, I was hoping the Subway Buffalo Chicken would be somewhere around a seven or eight – not for the timid or heartburn-prone. Unfortunately, it only hit a three or four. Fair warning: Something isn’t spicy enough for me unless I’m breaking out in a sweat. Your mileage may vary.
On the plus side, the vegetables were crispy (the sub comes with cucumbers and green peppers, though they’re difficult to spot in the photo) and the chicken was tender and moist. On the minus, the low-fat ranch dressing added very little flavor but did a fine job of running down my hand, and the bread would have profited from a few more minutes in the oven.
On the whole, not that different from any other Subway sandwich, really.
About the poster: Michael is one of the authors of EstateSalesStories.blogspot.com, A chronicle of estate sales in the city and suburbs of Chicago, and like most Americans, eats his fair share of fast food. Fastfoodreviewed.com recommends all our readers to check out EstateSalesStories.blogspot.com.
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October 19th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
LOL! The juxtaposition of “the picture” next to the actual sandwich you were served speaks for itself. Great review!