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| - Whenever a new lunch joint opens in the Entertainment District, you expect there to be much hype and long lines. There was definitely all that when I visited Belly Buster Submarines for the first time today. But you also expect it to live up to the hype, and for that I can honestly say that this place is a tragic missed opportunity.
-The food-
I waited 20 minutes in line, which went back to the door. I was excited when I saw the menu and photographs of the sandwiches (which I Googled prior), which showed a sandwich featuring what looked like smokey bacon, tender meat, and fresh bread. As I got further in line, I saw that they were microwaving the bacon. Huh? Yep, that's right. Bacon in the microwave. If I wanted to go to Mr. Sub, I would have gone to find a food court in the suburbs. I ended up ordering the "Bacon Turkey Combo," which features bacon, turkey and ham on your choice of white or whole wheat (12") bread, plus your traditional sub toppings like lettuce, tomato. pickle, hot pepper, sub sauce, etc. Again, nothing special here. Standard, mall-variety cold cuts, and again, microwaved bacon. I must say though that the veggies were super fresh, especially the shredded lettuce. As for the bread, it came out of a bag. Fresh, yes, but not baked on-site as I was led to believe. All in all, $7.95 is not bad for a 12" sandwich in 2013 (and it was definitely loaded and filled me up), but absolutely nothing about the sandwich will make me remember it as anything different from Mr. Sub. I would love to see options like pulled pork, back bacon, maybe some in-house relish, and most of all I would love to see the microwaves replaced with a proper flat top. I would even pay a few bucks more for the sandwich if all that were to happen...
-The staff-
Expectation of good, friendly staff is very high in this neighbourhood, and the staff could definitely be happier. They were also slow, exhibiting no rhythm and it looked like they had little experience in preparing sandwiches. Go to any Subway and you can tell those people read a training manual. At Belly Buster, there is much fumbling and lack of confidence in piling bacon on top of turkey. You can argue that all that matters is the food, but I don't know anyone who doesn't like service with a smile. With better staff I know my line time would have been cut in half.
-The restaurant-
Clean, simple, a little retro, the perfect look for sub sandwiches. Photos all over of customers smiling (and some retro photos) exhibiting the "face of the satisfied" tagline. I dig it. I'm not sure why, but they only take cash. There is an ATM on-site. Maybe the "retro" theme extends to bill payment, but in 2013 it's just annoying. Hopefully this is just temporary. It's a bit of a tacky move given they use an iPad for a cash register.
-Conclusion-
Belly Buster is a bit of a mystery. It's attracting a lot of hype in the neighbourhood, and maybe that's a sign that it's finally time for submarine sandwiches to go trendy. Unfortunately, I think this is a missed opportunity. People at King & Spadina expect a lot, and this gives them very little. But maybe that's the point--Maybe Belly Buster is supposed to be a trip back to simplicity, and for that I applaud it. I just wish that something, anything, would set it apart from the Mr. Sub taste.
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