Quiznos Chicken Carbonara Sub: Consumer Product Review

In my quest to try as many fast- food items that my limited budget will allow, I have discovered that some of the foods that I eat at various fast- food restaurants are actually quite good, although not necessarily healthy, while others are unmistakeably terrible. Then, there is a third category, reserved for the fast- food items that are not among the best things I’ve eaten, yet they are not entirely without merit, either. After purchasing and eating one of the much- advertised Chicken Carbonara Subs from my local Quiznos (R) Sub Shop, I would have to state that this toasted sandwich, in my humble opinion, firmly belongs in the “pretty good, but not great” category.

Quite often, my motivation for trying certain menu items at fast- food restaurants is determined by television commercials. Proving that television advertising certainly is effective, after viewing commercials for the Quiznos (R) Chicken Carbonara Sub well over a dozen times, the name and image was etched into my conciousness. I found myself thinking about this appealingly- named submarine sandwich far too many times recently. It was time to act upon my hungry desires. Yesterday, I went to the Quiznos (R) shop located at a nearby shopping center and ordered a “regular”- sized Chicken Carbonara Sub, with nothing extra on it. I wanted to try this sandwich un- adorned, in its natural state. While I was waiting in line, I overheard one of the three teenage girls standing next to me, remarking on how much she enjoyed the Chicken Carbonara Sub that she ate the day before. I thought to myself, if she enjoyed the sandwich enough to eat another one the following day, it must be pretty excellent. After I received my toasted sub and a small bag of potato chips, I headed for a table, with my mouth watering. The Chicken Carbonara Sub felt warm and fairly heavy in my hand, I could just imagine the host of hot, tasty ingredients inside, waiting for me to eagerly consume them. When I was ready to begin eating, the first thing I noticed was the nice,seeded roll that held all of the warm ingredients. The roll itself was lightly- toasted, which Quiznos (R) is famous for and offered a pleasant flavor. I pulled back the top half of the roll, in order to get a look at the ingredients nestled inside. A sizeable amount of golden- brown chicken strips were topped with several strips of well- cooked bacon, a few pieces of mushrooms and a fairly- large amount of melted mozzarella cheese. Accompanying these items was a decent amount of what Quiznos (R) calls a “Creamy Bacon Alfredo Sauce”. I must say, to me, many versions of Alfredo Sauce that I encounter in various restaurants are way too cheesy and tend to overwhelm all of the other ingredients in whatever dish the sauce is utilized in. The Creamy Bacon Alfredo Sauce that complements the Quiznos (R) Chicken Carbonara Sub contains an unusually- flavored blend of what appears to be bacon flavor and a fairly- strong, yet not overpowering cheese taste.

Upon first bite of my sub, the first thing I tasted was the Alfredo Sauce, followed by the bacon and mozzarella cheese. The seasoned chicken strips delivered a solid dose of flavor that married well with the mozzarella cheese, bacon and sauce. It was very hard for me to taste the mushrooms, however. The toasted roll held the sandwich together well enough, but truth be told, I think i would have preferred a softer roll. While the Quiznos (R) Chicken Carbonara Sub tasted pretty good to me, I think that some lettuce, onion and tomato might have helped it out. Of course, with all of the ingredients already in this sub, it would have been hard to fit any more ingredients. Perhaps the roll that I was served was a tad over- toasted, but it seemed to me that the Quiznos (R) Chicken Carbonara Sub could have benefited from a bit of cool, fresh, un- cooked ingredients. The overall taste of this sub is actually quite nice, although the predominant flavor that I tasted was that of the Creamy Bacon Alfredo Sauce. Would I purchase another one of these subs ? Probably. Would I recommend the Quiznos (R) Chicken Carbonara Sub to other people ? Definitely. Is this sub, to me, worth the price that was charged ? Absolutely. I just wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase another. Nutritionally, the regular- sized Quiznos (R) Chicken Carbonara Sub contains 1,030 calories, with 500 calories from fat, is very low in trans fat and is a good source of protein.