As I walked past the Quizno's sub shop on the Capitol Square several times over the past few days, the big sign in the window advertising the chain's $2 "Sammie" special caught my eye. The color photo of the "Sammie" didn't really look that inviting, but, at $2, I figured it definitely fell under my purview of "cheap eats."
The "Sammie" is a small round of flatbread, decorated with some sort of spread, marginally filled with a food-like substance, and folded. To give you an idea of how small it is, I have photographed it with a standard Scotch tape dispenser in the background. Note that the Sammie is dwarfed by the tape dispenser.
The Balsamic Chicken Sammie tastes mostly like the balsamic vinegar dressing, although that doesn't taste much like balsamic vinegar -- it tastes like a horribly sweet low-fat raspberry dressing. There are cubes of purported chicken that don't taste like actual chicken, but do have a kind of faux-grilled flavoring. The flatbread has a greasy, spongy quality.
The calorie count on this -- 190 calories -- is displayed prominently as part of the marketing. All I can say is, these are 190 calories you don't want to consume.
Slightly more acceptable is the Italiano Sammie, which is stuffed with Italian cold cuts and a less sweet dressing (a basil pesto) but also has a less-trumpeted calorie count of 325.
Angus beef, Alpine chicken, Sonoma turkey and Bistro Steak Melt round out the "Sammie" menu. I have always liked Quizno's open pickle bar, where customers can stock up on pickles, jalapenos, and pepperoncini, and in this case, the pickle bar is handy -- it wouldn't hurt to doctor up the sammie with jalapenos.
The lure here is two-fold. #1: Item is under $2. #2: Item is under 200 calories. However, it's not really what you would call a fulfilling meal. You'd be better off ordering a whole sandwich somewhere -- even at Quizno's, choosing ingredients with some thoughtfulness -- and eating only half of it.
