Subway Sandwiches has a long and checkered history here in Korea. The first time I ever went to a Subway in Ulsan was over 15 years ago. At that time it was very rare to see one in the city.
I still remember the worker at this Subway branch taking 15 minutes to make one sandwich. She even cut the pepperoni pieces for my sandwich in half, and laid them end to end to make sure I got EXACTLY the specified amount. While it was fascinating to watch someone be so meticulous, it was annoying that something I had eaten in America and took 3 minutes to make took five times as long!
Fast forward to today, and Subway has become not only much more prevalent, but also much more efficient.
I think it was about 5 to 6 years ago that Subway aggressively expanded into the Korean market, and according to their website there are now 10 branches in Ulsan alone!
Generally I think Subway does a pretty good job in making their sandwiches, and so I was very interested when they announced some new menu items. The one I was most interested in trying was the new Altermeat, which is a vegetarian meat substitute. Sadly, they had run out of this, so I’ll have to write about it later.
Instead, I decided to try the new Cheese Garlic Meatball sub. It is advertised as being part of Subway’s winter collection.
After ordering and choosing the bread that I like (Parmesan Oregano in this instance) I went with mozzarella cheese. In addition, I decided to get it toasted and add some peppers and onions to it.
I find that the marinara sauce that they add to the meatballs is fine, while the meat quality is acceptable.
When they went to make the sandwich, they actually had to go to the back to get the garlic butter that they put on the Cheese Garlic Meatball sub. The butter had been in the refrigerator, so they had to scoop it out with an ice-cream scoop. The garlic butter was hard as a result of it being in the fridge, and so it tore the bread somewhat when they were trying to spread it out.
Further, they put on FOUR scoops of the garlic butter. A quick look at the Subway Korea website says that they are only supposed to put on one scoop for a 15 centimetre (6 inch) sandwich. That means on the 30 centimeter sandwich, there should be only 2 scoops. Also, the cheese was just the regular cheese that subway has. You would imagine that with Cheese in the name of the sub that it would be something more special.
After sitting down and unwrapping the package, the extra garlic butter was evident. The toasting had at least made it warm, but also caused it to be very soggy almost immediately.
After a few bites, I realized that the sandwich would be a challenge to finish.
We did manage to get through it, but the richness of the mistaken butter, as well as the sogginess of the bread, made it a real challenge.
I was quite disappointed with the new addition to Subway’s sandwich line-up. In the past many of the new ones, like Chicken Bacon Ranch, or Pulled Pork, have been quite good.
I think that if the workers had not made a mistake and instead put on only one scoop of the garlic butter it would have been better. Otherwise, only if you are a fan of greasy, buttery, sandwiches, should you try Subway’s Cheese Garlic Meatball Sub.