Sub'r Bowl Review: Boston Subworks

The naysayers of our group didn't think it would last 2 weeks, but this week marks the beginning of round 2 of the Sub'r Bowl, bringing us back to Division C, local sandwich shops. We decided on Boston Subworks, my favorite place in town for a cheese steak sandwich.

Due to a high pressure deadline at work, we didn't get to the restaurant until after 3:30pm, which we found out is near closing at 4pm. At one point I know there they were open later on week days, but apparently they decided it wasn't worth extending past the lunch crowd. Luckily for us they were still open, because we were all really hungry after having worked through lunch.

Kelley had arrived ahead of us, and his cheese steak was coming out just as we arrived. Though I really love the cheese steak sandwiches at Boston Subworks, I decided to try something from the Specialty Subs portion of the menu since this is, after all, the Sub'r Bowl. Greg and I combined our order to get a large portion of The Supreme Italian, which we spit in half. We ordered it all the way, except for cherry peppers, which I put on my half alone. We also ordered a couple of sides, Mozzarella Cheese Sticks (which is technically an appetizer) and Seasoned French Fries.

Predictably, Kelley enjoyed his cheese steak. Though I don't remember what Dave ordered, he seemed unimpressed with his sandwich. Greg declared the sandwich to be tasteless, complaining that there wasn't enough meat, while envying that of Kelley's cheese steak sandwich (insert off-color joke about meat envy here — we did). Though I had the exact same sandwich as Greg, albeit with the addition of cherry peppers, I couldn't disagree more with him on the taste of the sandwich.

The bread was by far the best bread we've had. It was a delicious baked white roll, nice and crusty on the outside while perfectly soft and slightly chewy on the inside. The insides were a perfect balance between meat, veggies and dressing. Maybe it's because I'm a supertaster, but I felt that because no single ingredient dominated, the sandwich had great depth of flavor. Every other sandwich I've had so far had some dominant flavor that pushed the others to the background; to me, this sandwich had just the right amount of each ingredient so that the flavors all played off each other to create a nearly perfect overall taste. My only criticism is that the quality of the meat was a mixed bag. Some cuts like the roast beef were really good, while others were fairly run of the mill.

Everyone agreed that the sides we ordered were top notch. The Mozzarella Cheese Sticks had a nicely flavored breading and plenty of gooey cheese inside. The dipping sauce was a very tasty marinara sauce, clearly not from a jar. The Seasoned French Fries were obviously cut and fried from non-frozen potatoes, and they had the perfect deep fry: golden brown and crispy on the outside, steamy and fluffy on the inside. The seasoning was excellent, so no ketchup was desired. To drink I had some iced tea, which was not notable in any way other than it tasted like tea.

I rated the following categories:

• Bread: 7
• Sandwich Stuff: 6
• Price/Value: 3
• Non-sandwich Stuff: 6
• Bonus points: 0
• Total: 22 points

If I had bought my meal separately instead of splitting a sandwich with Greg, I figure it would have cost me $10-11. While the food was really good, that's a lot to spend regularly on lunch. Aside from that, I feel that the sandwich from Boston Subworks is easily the best I've had so far. The others in the group accused me of using hyperbole and artificially inflating my ratings. I respect that they didn't enjoy their sandwiches, but for me Boston Subworks was a real winner.

See Also:
Greg's Review