The Italian Sub. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

A summary of my adventures eating Italian subs from around the area. I'm not a sandwich guy since I grew up in another country. Reubens and Italians are just about the only sandwiches that I like. Feel free to recommend other places with excellent Italians٭.

This is a half Italian from, of all places, Market Basket ($4.99 for a whole Italian on sale). "Mortadella, ham, capicola, genoa salami, provolone." All high-quality meats. With everything except tomatoes and olives. Never seen olives anywhere else. Is that common? Flatten it out and rearrange the toppings. This is the only way to eat it and the only way that makes sense. Now I get a bit of everything in every bite. Don't tell anybody, but I put mayo on the bread and Gray Poupon on the meats. This is my favorite, especially for the price, despite that the bread could be improved. The other half is for dinner. The onions now are sliced and not chopped. Now I can get the ham and cheese when it's on sale. Chopped onions don't make the cut. It's fine on an Italian, but not on a ham and cheese. 08/15/21

Sub roll +1 Size +0 Premium meats +1 Provolone +1 Toppings +1 Price +2= +6

They will also wrap each half separately and package both. 25 seconds in the microwave will improve the whole thing immensely.

LaCascia's Bakery & Deli in Burlington is famous for a lot of things, great subs, steak tips, and Scali bread. Their PRIMO ITALIAN (10.50 large) is much talked about. "With mortadella, prosciutto, sopressata, dry capicola, pepperoni and provolone." A generous amount of the prime cured meats were sliced paper-thin. The braided roll was only available for small subs? It was a plentiful amount of toppings, including hots, but no banana peppers or lettuce. I did skip the mustard due to the high-quality meats. This was an excellent Italian and might relegate the one from MB to second place. Next time I'll ask them for only a few pepperoni slices since that dominated the flavors. 08/28/21

Bread +1 Size +1 Cold Cuts +2 Cheese +1 Toppings -1 Price +0 = +4

I removed half the pepperoni and added mustard when I consumed the other half. It went from really good to excellent.

Lucci's Market in Wilmington has an excellent deli that gets praised whenever subs are discussed. No choice of bread for the large Italian ($6.99). Everything except tomatoes, including hots. Mayo on the bread, please. Sound engineering when constructing the sub, so I didn't have to do much to be able to eat it flat. The toppings were good even if there were no banana peppers and the onions were a bit sparse. The cold cut was nothing fancy, but the amount was very generous. Way more than MB, but I like their cold cuts better. 10/04/21

Bread +1 Size +1 Cold Cuts +2 Cheese +1 Toppings +1 Price +2 = +8

Jersey Mike's Subs in Bedford opened recently. I was intrigued about their subs since they have been saturating the airwaves with ads. They also seem to be on an expansion streak in NE, with locations popping up all over the place. They are located in a small strip mall just before Whole Food.

This is a #13 Regular Italian ($9.50). "Provolone, ham, prosciuttini, cappacuolo, salami, and pepperoni." Hold the tomatoes, hold the vinegar, add mayo. For size, compare it to the half Italian above. It was 90% ham, as you can see. Decent amount of provolone. The hots was mainly absent. A few banana peppers and one gigantic slice of banana pepper. The requested pickles were sliced pickles and not the usual chopped ones. The onions were sliced thinly, but the mayo was only present on the top slice. Not impressed by the bread. I did eat the whole thing. I usually get two meals out of an Italian sub. Not at all impressed, even if they promise you a complimentary submarine on your birthday. 12/28/21

Bread -1 Size -2 Cold Cuts -2 Cheese +1 Toppings -2 Price -2 = -8

Sammy's Deli in Burlington. As far as I'm concerned, they are in Woburn 😀. Large Italian on Braided (9 10) with everything except tomatoes. Tomatoes lost all taste a long time ago. Braided is always good. A good amount of toppings including hots. However, the meats leave a lot to be desired. No premium meats were included. I had to ask for oil and seasoning on top. 01/28/22

Bread +1 Size +1 Cold Cuts -2 Cheese +1 Toppings -1 Price -0 = +0

I was going to get a cup of their Clam Chowder that I remembered as being very good, but it was a very thin potato soup, so I passed. Instead, I got the Jambalaya that was fantastic. Loaded with the good stuff and just a smidgen of rice and really well seasoned with a little kick. I'll be back for more of the Jambalaya.

Café Sicilia in Tewksbury. Everyone is raving about them, and despite being quite far away for me, I had to give them a try. This is half of the large Italian ($12) on braided. Look at the size of that braided! Comparing this to the ones above that are also on the same size plate. A good amount of very thinly sliced premium cold cuts. Plenty of hots, and I really like the sliced onions. There was just a minuscule amount of cheese. There was an abundance of pickles, and I have already removed about half of them. I removed a few more before starting in on this gigantic sandwich. I usually rearrange everything to be able to eat it flat, but this was soo big that I just put the bottom layer on top of the right side and had at it. This is a serious contender for best Italian. 02/08/22

Bread +2 Size +2 Cold Cuts +2 Cheese -1 Toppings -3 Price -2 = +0

Special mention goes to New Deal Fruit for their Top Shelf Italian ($14.99). "3 Slices of Everything Italian on Top Shelf." Worth trying at least once. I personally thought it was too many flavors mixed together.

Some that didn't make the cut.
Brodies Pub had an Italian on Special. Dry, stale bread and only two slices of meat. No, not two slices of each cold cut, just two slices, period.

Anthonys in Stoneham serves up a gigantic Italian loaded with meats. But, unfortunately, there were no prime cured meats, just the cheap cuts.

Bob's in Medford left out all the advertised prime meats. Not a good way to get repeat customers.

This is getting too long! I'm starting Part II.

٭The next writeup will include D'Agostino's, Borrelli's, New fruit Revere, Carls steak and Subs, butcher Boy.

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