Yeah I Used to Be A Hater: Jimmy Johns Review

When it comes to food opinions I've never been shy about expressing mine even in my pre-blog days.  If there was one opinion my friends probably know well is that in general I'm a big hater of cold sandwich shops, Jimmy Johns being a member of that list.  The reason for this doesn't really have anything to do with the taste of the food itself.  I know JJ's has good bread, meat and cheese, but when I get a cold sandwich I just never feel like I'm getting bang for my buck.  I don't like a lot of veggies or toppings on my sandwich so I don't get really excited for plain cold cuts I could put on a sandwich myself at home and not have it taste that much worse than the sub shop.  Recently I think I had a sandwich that might have moved the meter a little however.

Jimmy John's would never be my first choice, but since people in the office were ordering it for my boss' boss visit to the office I decided to roll with it and try the Italian Nightclub sans the veggie combo of lettuce, tomato and onion.  What I ended up with was a sizable sandwich with plenty of capicola, salami, ham, provolone, mayo and Italian vinaigrette.  I decided to accompany that with JJ's bbq chips and one of their chocolate chip cookies.  I was happily surprised.  It was good quality ingredients on good bread and the mayo and vinaigrette added a nice zip.  I didn't think either one was over done.  I was prepared to be underwhelmed with the size of my sandwich since I wasn't having the veggies that increase the volume of the sandwich.  I was wrong.  Even without the sides the sandwich itself would have been a better than average lunch portion.  The chips were nicely coated with plenty of bbq flavor and were thick enough to have significant bite and crunch.  I enjoyed the cookie as well since it's large size and soft texture reminded me of my favorite Hardee's Big Cookie of the past.

In conclusion Jimmy John's has won me over.  I will no longer shrug or roll my eyes when people suggest eating there.  Well truthfully in most situations I would still prefer a hot meal, but I'll at least be open to JJ's for lunch.   As far as Subway goes I will continue to hate it with the fire of a thousand suns.  Inferior ingredients, cutting corners, diminishing amounts of meat.  I'll just be more careful to not lump all places into the same pile with Scrubway in the future.

Taste 8/10  Very solid sandwich.  One that was good enough to make me go back to Jimmy John's despite what I feel is its somewhat hipster proclivity.
Value N/A  Can't rate this one considering that I didn't pay for the sandwich myself.  I also have no idea what the normal cost is for the sandwich or the sides.  Feel free to chime in with comments if you know.