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| - Last night, upon taking off work, I was super-hungry and was craving a (hot) sandwich, so I decided to head over to Uncle Sam's. Since most of the menu options appeared to be variations on cheesesteaks, I decided to go with a basic chicken cheesesteak ($8.13 w/ tax), given that I don't eat beef. From reading other Yelp reviews, I knew the sandwich came with free fries for dine in, so I mentioned that I wanted to do this.
When my sandwich and fries came out after about 10 min., they looked very fresh and tempting, so I was excited to dig in. When I did so, I was underwhelmed, however. The bread was light and fluffy, rather than substantial, as I prefer, the tomatoes were pretty white, and the chicken was on the tough side. The flavors were so muted and bland that I sequestered all of the condiments (hot sauce, cajun spice, brown mustard) and put them to use, which significantly improved the sandwich. As for the fries, they were of the previously frozen shoestring variety (I saw the box)--similar to McD's fries, but not as crisp--and were utterly forgettable sans condiments.
Interestingly, this place seems to be a haven for single male grad students during the dinner hour. In the 30 min. or so I was there, I was the only female who ate in--all of the other diners were solo men in their mid-twenties with textbooks in front of them. In contrast, there were plenty of women, couples, groups, etc. dining at Noodles and Co. a block away. Maybe cheesesteaks for dinner are a dude thing?
At the time of my visit, I found the dining area acceptably clean, and the service friendly and fairly efficient. This is likely due to the time of my visit (5:30pm), however, since Uncle Sam's is probably much more popular at lunch time. Thus, YMMV.
Given that I'm from DE, where Capriotti's originated, I have exacting sandwich standards, and I have yet to find a place in PGH that satisfies them. While Uncle Sam's is a cut above Subway, it isn't quite as good as Peppi's, which I also found underwhelming, despite its good reputation. Thus, my search for a satiating sandwich continues...
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