Interesting Sandwiches at No. 7 Sub – NYC

I love sandwiches, but they can get boring. At my work, people get way too excited about the weekly Hot Carvey, hot turkey sandwiches from the subsidized cafeteria in the building. Sliced generic turkey on stale bread with gloppy gravy? No thanks. That’s where No. 7 Sub comes in to the picture. At No. 7, “not boring” is guaranteed.

I popped by No. 7 a few weeks ago for a quick lunch with my friend Abdul. We split the Braised Lamb and the Eggplant Parm. All the neat compact subs are nine dollars. It’s a bit pricey, especially considering the size, but I’d say it’s worth it.

The Braised Lamb — shredded lamb with peanut butter, mint jelly, and crushed pappadams on the house baked bread — was interesting to say the least. The riff on peanut butter and jelly was cute, but in the end, I don’t think the peanut butter was necessary. If anything, the mouth-drying peanut butter only made me wish the lamb was juicier. Since my last visit, I notice the Braised Lamb has been removed from the menu and replaced with a Lamb Meatloaf sub. Perhaps it wasn’t as popular as they hoped or perhaps they took notice of its not so favorable review on Serious Eats.

I much preferred the Eggplant Parm. Made with yellow squash and fontina cheese, it really should be labeled “Eggplant Parm” with quotation marks, but regardless, it’s delicious (no quotation marks necessary). Fat slices of squash are breaded, fried crunchy, and layered on top of house baked bread with spicy pickled jalapenos and crushed barbecue chips. There’s no meat, but all the other bases — something fried, something crunchy, something spicy, and something cheesy — are covered. You won’t miss it.

As for the bread all the sandwiches are made with, it’s a small hoagie roll — soft but not gummy — that doesn’t steal the show from the fillings.

Coincidentally, today at work I ate a free sandwich from internal catering. (Not the Carvey.) It was pretty awful, but I ate it anyway along with a bad salad made with Parmesan from a can because again, it was free. The whole time I was thinking, there’s a reason why some things are free. I think I deserve another nine dollar sandwich in the future.

UPDATE (5/20/10): Looks like Jake Stavis at Paper loves the Braised Lamb sub and is trying to start an email campaign to bring it back. According to him, No. 7 removed the sandwich from the menu because it’s seasonal.

No. 7 Sub
1188 Broadway (b/n 29th & 28th St; map)
New York, NY 10001
212-532-1680