Review: Subway Hot Honey Italian Sandwich
Bottom Line: The Hot Honey Italian from Subway delivers a fresh and tasty deli sandwich, though it comes up a bit short on the heat.
Subway is doing “swicy” (sweet and spicy) again, bringing back hot honey as a condiment and featuring it on three new menu items: the Hot Honey Italian Sandwich, Hot Honey Turkey Italian Sandwich, and Doritos Hot Honey Nachos. I stopped by recently and gave the first of those three a try, and here is what it comes with:
Spicy pepperoni, salami, provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, jalapeños, and a drizzle of Hot Honey, toasted on freshly baked Jalapeño Cheddar bread.
I also added banana peppers and spinach.
As expected, Subway does a good job with its sandwiches, and the meats deliver a nice savoriness with just a little bit of heat coming from the pepperoni. The hot honey adds some sweetness that is a good counterbalance to the savory flavors, and there is a tiny bit of peppery kick in there. The jalapeños add some tang (boosted by the banana peppers), but not much heat. The provolone delivers some creaminess but is otherwise not very apparent. The veggies are plenty fresh (not always a guarantee these days), and the red onion adds a nice pungent pop. The Jalapeño Cheddar bread is crusty on the outside and pillowy on the inside and kicks things up taste-wise, but I don’t detect much additional heat.
Despite the hot honey, pickled jalapeños, and Jalapeño Cheddar bread, there is still not much heat coming from this sandwich, barely getting to Mild on my scale. But it is a very tasty combination of meats, veggies, and cheese (their regular Hot Italian is one of my favorites), and I would get it again.
They show the total calories for the 6-inch sandwich at 620 (they don’t provide a further nutritional breakdown), which is verging on the high side for a fast-food entrée. If you get the combo with a bag of chips (which I did not, I added my own pickle at ~20 cals) and a non-diet drink, you could quickly find yourself with a non-Jared-friendly meal (but then, not many people want to be friendly with Jared these days). The Hot Honey Turkey Italian is a little better at 550 cals, but you still need to be careful with those sides.
The 6-inch Hot Honey Italian runs $5.89 for just the sandwich in my area, which is a little pricey considering they used to do an entire footlong sub for five bucks. The 12-inch version of this sandwich runs close to ten bucks, but you can save half for the next day. And overall, the prices are not too bad for a decent deli sandwich. I’ve heard people complaining about the quality of Subway these days, but the one close to me that I frequent has continued to do a good job. The Hot Honey Menu is around for the dreaded limited-time-only, so you will need to pay a visit to soon if you want to give one or more of the selections a try.
